I Bleed Blue and White

One of my favorite things to do is read the quotes from the postgame press conferences following each game.  The script was not available for last night’s postgame press conference at the Palestra, but the following articles provide some reactions from both teams. 

• “Villanova outlasts Saint Joseph’s in Big 5 rivalry” by Mike Kern
• “Against Villanova, Saint Joseph’s hangs around, for 40 minutes” by Dick Jerardi
• “Reynolds, Villanova turn back Saint Joe’s” by Terry Toohey

By the way, there are 16 undefeated teams in Division I basketball currently.  Not surprisingly, 5 of these teams are from the Big East, including Villanova (9-0), Syracuse (8-0)-who is playing Florida right now, Seton Hall (7-0), Georgetown (7-0), and West Virginia (6-0).   

Whenever a team loses upperclassmen to graduation, someone else has to step up.  For Villanova, that someone is Scottie Reynolds.  This may seem obvious, but with the suspension of Reggie Redding, Reynolds has everyone looking up to him for guidance, which Terry Toohey of the Delco Times points out.

Jay Wright on Scottie’s leadership thus far:

He’s a tremendous leader.  He’s like an NBA veteran.  That’s how much respect he has.  Everyone on the team looks up to him and Scottie takes that responsibility serious.  I was away one day in September and I called him up to see what was going on.  He was in the video room with our freshmen going over our defensive concepts.

Reynolds, discussing that specific day:

That was just something I felt I had to do.  We were doing all these things on the court that they had never seen before so I decided to take them up and show they what we were trying to do.  I showed them the Duke game (from the NCAA Tournament).  We weren’t perfect in that game.  We made mistakes, but we worked hard and we did it together.  That’s what made that group so special.  We knew we were going to work hard and work together.

Reynolds will certainly be a focal point for both teams tomorrow night, as the young Wildcats will be looking to feed off Scottie’s experience, while the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights will definitely try to prevent a big scoring outburst from the senior guard.  Scottie will be a key in just about every game this season, and ESPN’s Andy Katz can’t wait to see Reynolds against Maryland, as this is one of his “25 games you’ll want to see” this year.  Katz also looks forward to the big showdown with the Mountaineers in early March at the Wachovia Center. 

Dec. 6: Villanova vs. Maryland, BB&T Classic (FSN): Villanova is probably overrated, while Maryland isn’t getting enough publicity.  This game in Washington D.C., matches Scottie Reynolds against Greivis Vasquez in one of the better playmaker games.

March 6: West Virginia at Villanova (CBS): The top two teams meet for, perhaps, the Big East title in the last game of the season.  The Big East schedule makers got this one right, just like Pitt and Connecticut last season. 

Overrated according to Katz?  To each their own.  We’ll just have to wait and see.