I Bleed Blue and White

Not only did Villanova have to deal with mother nature over the weekend, but they also faced two of the best teams in the country on the road in a matter of 60 hours.  Like I said prior to the Georgetown game, I would have signed up for 1-1 over this stretch.  The Wildcats obliged with the win at West Virginia, and they get a solid 4 days off before a nice pair of home games against Providence and Connecticut.  Before we start focusing on the upcoming contests, let’s wrap up the game from last night.

-Postgame Quotes

-Villanova rallies from Georgetown loss, beats West Virginia

-Villanova beats West Virginia on the road

-Reynolds leads rebound victory for Villanova

-Andy Katz: Quick hitters from around the country

-Jay Wright’s interview with Mike Francesa

WFAN is my favorite sports radio station by far, and Mike Francesa is the best of the best.  One of the things Francesa touches on with Wright is the possibility of expanding the NCAA Tournament to include more teams.  Wright is in favor of a 96 team tourney, but Francesa brings up some good points to not expand the field; he mentions that regular season games will be less exciting, because in theory, it will be easier to make the big dance, so the regular season contests won’t mean as much.  I, for one, agree with Francesa and do not believe the tourney should be expanded.  There are only a few teams at most every year that get snubbed, which is part of the excitement of Selection Sunday.  Even some very mediocre teams get in the field, so there’s no reason to let 32 more average teams get in.  Anyone have any thoughts on this topic?

Game just ended at 9:18 p.m. ET. Villanova went into hostile territory and defeated West Virginia 82-75 and in the process shook off their first conference loss on Saturday and snapped the Mountaineers 6-game win streak. I only got to see the 2nd half (yes, I do have DVR and will eventually watch it), but I have to say I was thoroughly impressed with our play after the break.

We carried an 11-point lead into the 2nd half, and despite our shooting cooling off and some terrible, terrible officiating (yes, this time they were directly responsible for an unheard-of 6-point swing), we remained calm and carried out our plan en route to victory in one of the toughest venues in the country (helped out by the coin-throwers being banished, of course).

As I tweeted with a Syracuse blogger, the BIG EAST regular season title clearly runs through Villanova and Syracuse. They are undoubtedly the best two in the conference (the Hoyas are good too, but too many losses so far to compete). That matchup in a few weeks should be nuts.

Some random thoughts on the game:

• Scottie Reynolds does it again. 21 points and 5 assists and 19 of those came in the 2nd half. He was a perfect 10-10 at the line too. As Raf said, the kid is literally a dagger walking around the court (LOL).
• Great first half out of Dominic Cheek. Then we barely saw him in the 2nd. Weird, and even though we played great and went with the experience, he deserved to be out there until proven wrong.
• Corey Fisher has 17 points and I think I only saw him hit a couple of free throws. I heard he had an intentional foul too. I missed all the fun.
• Reggie Redding was phenomenal down the stretch. THAT is the player we all expected this season. That was Reggie in 2009-Final-Four-Run Mode.
• Taylor King had 8 rebounds, but not much else. Oh yeah, two brutal fouls. But was phenomenal on the glass, even if his shooting was awful. He was a big reason why we somehow out-rebounded WV.
• 10 and 9 for Antonio Pena. Raf said he was vital to this machine, and is this year’s Dante Cunningham. Bilas quickly agreed. So do I.
• Don’t think I remember Maalik Wayns at all. Also weird. He’s usually in the middle of things, one way or the other.
• Isaiah Armwood was really active. I think I have a mancrush on him. He’s gonna be something special in a couple of years.
• Unreal defense by the whole team on Da’Sean Butler, but particularly Corey Stokes. He had Butler whining like a friggan baby. Stokes also hit a huge runner late in the game.
• Good to see Mo Sutton get some good run.
• I have no idea why Mouphtaou Yarou didn’t play, and it doesn’t make me feel good.

HUGE win on the road. Could be season-defining. That is typical of ‘Nova teams under Jay Wright, to take one on the chin and then 2 days later bounce back and make a statement. It’s why I love this program.

Villanova is off until Saturday when they host Providence downtown. I’m a maybe for the game. Hoping to make it. And also, we’ll have our inaugural guest-post from IBBW’s good friend Andrew Trask. He’s very fired up, to say the least.

Let’s just forget about that game on Saturday. Good value here tonight if you are actually a betting man. I have a feeling we’ll have a near-unanimous crowd.

• On Game Day, I will post the official line we will be using for the game.
• In that thread, post your pick against-the-spread for the game that night.
• Make sure you use the same username for every pick (I know some of you are registered, if you aren’t this is a good reason to do so to make it easier). Also, make sure you provide your email so that I can contact the winner at the end of the year.
• Anonymous entries will not count.
• Entries posted after the game starts will not count.
• If you do not provide a pick for the game, it will be marked as a loss in the standings.
• If you are away and can’t make a pick in the thread, you can email me your pick. Email me at clane2787@gmail.com and I will try to email you back ASAP with the line (again, it must be emailed before the start of the game).
• The winner at the end of the year will win a prize (TBD) and I promise it will be something good. I’m not going to be lame like that. I’m searching eBay for cool Villanova stuff as we speak.
• In the event of a tie, the poster with the best BIG EAST record (regular season) wins. If still tied, the best Big 5 record wins. If still tied, the best OOC record wins. If still tied, we may have to do multiple prizes.

The line is Villanova +4.5. Have at it.

The Game: #2 Villanova (20-2, 9-1) at #6 West Virginia (19-3, 8-2)

Location: The WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, WV

Time: 7:00 p.m. ET

Broadcast: Big Monday on ESPN

Brief Rundown: Villanova had the brakes beat off them by Georgetown in a blizzard just two days ago in Washington D.C. Villanova gave up 100 points for the first time in who knows how long, and acted as if the ball was covered in a rare disease, turning it over again and again. And despite all that, they continued to battle and made that game closer than it should have been. No time to think about that though, as they play their second Top-10 opponent on the road, in a place where they’ve struggled.

West Virginia has been winning a lot since losing to Notre Dame and Syracuse earlier this year. Both were by a combined 3 points though, so even when they went down they were there until the end. Da’Sean Butler and Devin Ebanks are the stars for the Mountaineers, and will test Villanova’s front line. While they may be lacking in quality guards (an area we can exploit) they are certainly not lacking in frontcourt talent, so this will be an interesting battle.

What I Want To See: I want to see the young guys rebound from an embarrassing outing on Saturday. We’ll see what they’re made of tonight in what should be as hostile an environment that they’ll see until Syracuse. I also want to see us go on the attack with lots of guards instead of trying to conform to WV’s size. Isaiah Armwood vs. Ebanks could be a fun matchup to watch though.

…Lets Go Nova!…time to put Saturday behind us and rebound with a BIG win tonight…I’ll be tweeting during the 2nd half for the first time in a long time…

Before we talk about the road ahead, let’s put a bow on the Seton Hall game.  Unfortunately, I did not get to see the game last night, as I had a basketball game of my own, although I did listen to the second half on the radio.  Since I missed the Cats in action, I resorted to a bevy of internet sites to get me caught up on Nova hoops.  Below are some of the things I delved into. 

-Villanova vs. Seton Hall AP Recap

-Villanova vs. Seton Hall Box Score

-Villanova vs. Seton Hall Postgame Quotes

-Reynolds Scores 2,000th Point in Win

-Jay Wright and Adam Zagoria’s Bet

-Villanova Has Championship Feel

-CSN Philly Quick Villanova Basketball Clips  (this link takes you to the CSN Philly video page…click on the SPORTSNITE tab and there is 1 clip from January 31st discussing a possible #1 ranking and 1 clip from February 2nd relaying Scottie reaching 2,000 points)

9 Big East regular season games down, 9 to go.  A perfect start in conference has everyone salivating about what this team could accomplish, but as we all know by now, the second half of the schedule is much tougher than the first.  I never like to look too far ahead, much like the Cats always seem to focus on the “next game,” so I’ll only take a quick glance at a very important game in a few weeks.  The showdown with Syracuse should be a doozy, and the hype is already starting, as the Carrier Dome is sold out and an attendance record will be broken in the process.  But… 

Again, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, because over a 2 and a half day span this weekend into next week, Villanova will play road games against #7 Georgetown and #6 West Virginia.  As I ask in the title, is a loss on the horizon?  In my opinion (and I think I may take some heat about this from you Cat fans), I would be very content to come out of these next 2 games at 1-1.  Could the Cats win both?  Sure.  Could they lose both?  Easily.  In the end, coming out of this 2 game stretch with a win and a loss would be solid.  I want to hear what you think, though; would you be ok with 1-1 come Tuesday morning or is 2-0 the only option?

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. 

The NCAA just handed out a punishment to West Virginia freshman Deniz Kilicli for the first 20 games of the season. Apparently Kilicli played on a Turkish team that included a professional player. So for now it appears that although Truck Bryant and Joe Mazzulla got away Scot-free, at least one Mountaineer finds himself suspended.

Bob Huggins declined to comment.

…Of course he did…pretty much the only thing he could say is “I screwed up”…

Oh, and by the way. The game that Kilicli is eligible to come back: February 8th vs. Villanova. I have no idea if they even expected this kid to make an impact, but if that adds to the storyline, so be it.

It’s BIG EAST Media Day (I’m so pumped that the season is almost here) and this is the time when coaches get together and vote on the various pre-season lists.

Villanova was picked to finish 1st in the conference this year, narrowly edging out West Virginia, who finished just 3 points behind them in voting.  UConn and Louisville round out the Top 4. Villanova was last picked 1st in 2005-2006.

Scottie Reynolds was selected as a 1st-Team All-BIG EAST member, but he was the only Wildcat to garner such honors. Luke Harangody was picked as the Player of the Year (no problem there, he’ll have the stats but not the team) and Lance Stephenson was picked as the freshman of the year.

…Good for the team, now you’ve just got to go out and actually earn it…congrats to Scottie as well who I feel has never gotten the respect he deserves with these types of things…

…A little shocked Redding didn’t make the 2nd-team or Honorable Mention…he may be out for the fall semester but he’ll be back for the conference slate…I’d be shocked if he wasn’t on one of those teams at the end of the year…

Adam Zagoria, creator of ZagsBlog, reported a few Big East occurrences today.  First, Daryl “Truck” Bryant, a very good sophomore from West Virginia, has been reinstated by head coach Bob Huggins.  Bryant was suspended this past July due to a traffic incident.  According to Huggins,

Darryl has done everything that has been asked of him on all fronts.  I believe he has earned the opportunity to be reinstated to our team.

No one should be surprised about this move.  We all know Huggins would get one of his top studs back before the season started. 

Second, Marquette has lost freshman Junior Cadougan to a torn ACL he suffered during conditioning drills.  This may not seem all that important, but for a team that lost a bunch of really good seniors, any significant injury definitely impacts the team in a negative way.