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Villanova Sheds a Guard, Gets a Forward

Posted Apr 16th 2008 8:01AM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Duke Basketball, Villanova Basketball, ACC Basketball, Big East Basketball

Usually a team has a player transfer out or transfer in. Rarely do you see one team do both.

In January, after freshman guard Malcolm Grant came off the bench and poured in 22 points to lead Villanova to a 64-63 win over Pitt, Coach Jay Wright called Grant, "the heart and soul of this team." By February, his minutes started to really dwindle as he could not get into the rotation behind Scottie Reynolds and Corey Stokes. In the final 14 games (including the postseason tournaments), Grant never even got to play a single minute. This, despite shooting 46.6% on 3s.

No surprise, that the talented but underutilized Grant, requested and received permission to transfer. He left the guard heavy Wildcats for the Miami Hurricanes.

At nearly the same time, Villanova got a transfer coming their way. Forward Taylor King left Duke after his freshman season. He chose Duke over Villanova last year. Now, he is getting a do-over.

This could not have worked out better for Villanova and Jay Wright. The Wildcats were crowded in their backcourt with Reynolds, Stokes and Fisher. King has to sit out a season as a transfer. Villanova has 3 forwards -- Shane Clark, Dante Cunningham and Dwayne Anderson -- who will all be seniors this season. When King becomes eligible he will be positioned to step right in as a starter

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Ho-Hum, Kansas Pounds Villanova

Posted Mar 29th 2008 12:42AM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Kansas Basketball, Villanova Basketball, Big 12 Basketball, Big East Basketball, March Madness, Midwest

Villanova getting to the Sweet 16 after being one of the last at-large teams to make the NCAA Tournament was a surprise. Getting beaten soundly by Kansas, 72-57, really wasn't.

The Jayhawks took control of the game on both ends early and cruised to the easy win. Villanova was just overmatched. There was never even a threat of a comeback by the Wildcats.

Kansas shot over 50% from the field while holding Villanova to just over 36%. Villanova's quick, but smaller guards, could not get clean looks on the perimeter and Kansas had the athleticism to keep them from penetrating.

Kansas now gets to play Davidson on Sunday.

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Villanova, Last Team In, Shows It Belongs

Posted Mar 23rd 2008 2:23PM by Michael David Smith
Filed under: Villanova Basketball, March Madness, Midwest

One week ago, the Villanova Wildcats were sitting around wondering whether they were going to make it into the NCAA Tournament. Depending on which bracketologist you trusted, they were either one of the last teams in or one of the last teams out.

As it turned out, they were the last team in, getting a 12 seed in the Midwest that made them the lowest-seeded of the at-large teams, earning the enmity of the teams they edged out, including Arizona State, Virginia Tech, Dayton and Illinois State.

But now the Wildcats have shown that they belong, beating 5 seed Clemson on Friday, beating 13 seed Siena today and advancing to the Sweet 16.

It might be an oversimplification to say that the mere fact that Villanova wins two games proves that Villanova was the right choice for the last spot: After all, we can't say for sure that Arizona State or Virginia Tech or Dayton or Illinois State wouldn't have won two games.

But for the Wildcats, the team that was cited in some quarters Monday morning as the example of the Selection Committee's biggest mistake, it feels like vindication.

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The Tampa Trap

Posted Mar 22nd 2008 12:42AM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Connecticut Basketball, Villanova Basketball, ACC Basketball, Big East Basketball, SEC Basketball, Mid-Majors Basketball, March Madness, Clemson Basketball, Vanderbilt Basketball, West, Midwest

Round 1 in Tampa was brutal for the higher seed teams. Epic, record-setting even. Two 4-13 games and two 5-12 games. In all four, the double digit seeds won. That has never happened before in the NCAA Tournament.

On Sunday, Tampa will have two 12-13 matchups. UConn, Drake, Vandy and Clemson all tumble to San Diego, Western Kentucky, Siena and Villanova. In fact, there hasn't been a 12-13 game in the second round since 2001 -- Indiana State-Gonzaga. Now there are two at one site.

It just screams statistical anomaly, but everyone is still waiting for that 1-16 upset.

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Villanova Topples Clemson

Posted Mar 21st 2008 11:29PM by Sportz Assassin
Filed under: Villanova Basketball, ACC Basketball, Big East Basketball, March Madness, Clemson Basketball, Midwest

If you have never seen a Clemson Tigers game over the last ... say ... three years, then you captured everything about them in this one game against Villanova.

The Tigers pressed and punched their way to a 36-18 lead with five minutes left in the first half. Then, as it always seems to happen for Clemson, it all fell apart. Nova went on a 46-21 run that spanned both halves and built up a seven point lead with under four minutes remaining.

Clemson helped facilitate this by making bad shot decisions, turning the ball over, not feeding the big dogs down low and playing poor defense. There was the fantastic fouling of a three point shooter as the shot clock expired (by the way, the shot banked in). There was James Mays and Trevor Booker shooting a combined five shots on the day ... and both fouling out. Terrence Oglesby, Cliff Hammonds and KC Rivers went a combined 4-of-25 from three point land.

Continue Reading Villanova Topples Clemson

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NCAA Previews: Recognize the Villanova Wildcats

Posted Mar 17th 2008 3:06AM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Villanova Basketball, Big East Basketball, March Madness, Midwest

Conference: Big East
Record: 20-12, 9-9 in conference
RPI: 51
How They Got In: At-large
Seed/Bracket: 12 / Midwest

Mascot: Wildcats. There is no connection to the Philly area, as the Villanova Wildcat is a feral feline with an appearance based on a bobcat found in the Southwest US. 'Nova's anthropomorphic mascot is called Will D. Cat. The name was chosen by a campus-wide contest in 1926.

Big Wins: Pitt, UConn and West Virginia.

Notable Loss: Rutgers (ouch).

Player You Should Know: The Villanova guards are the stars and the best athletes. The issue for Villanova is whether their forwards play well or just use up fouls. The main player inside is Dante Cunningham. The junior forward is their leading rebounder and has the highest field goal percentage -- if he can stay out of foul trouble,

Outlook: The Wildcats are best against other teams that like to play perimeter games. Against teams with strong frontcourts, they generally struggle. Villanova is likely one and done.

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Virginia Tech Deserved a Bid Over Villanova

Posted Mar 17th 2008 2:00AM by Sportz Assassin
Filed under: Villanova Basketball, ACC Basketball, Big East Basketball, Virginia Tech Basketball

I understand why Virginia Tech wasn't one of the 34 at-large teams ... but how where they dumped for Villanova?

Tech finished fourth in the RPI's top conference, the ACC, with a 9-7 record. Villanova ended up 9-9 in the Big East (RPI #5), good for eighth place. Speaking of RPI's, there were similar as Nova finished 51 to Tech's 52.

Maybe it was the strength of schedule. Oh, wait. The Hokies' SOS ranked higher (39 to 47).

Nova lost to NC State (the ACC's worst team) in Orlando earlier this year. Virginia Tech won at St. John's, who finished 14th in the 16-team Big East. Tech didn't lose to Rutgers, either, who were ranked 211 in the RPI.

Conference tournaments? Villanova was beaten by Georgetown by 19 in the Big East quarterfinals. Virginia Tech lost by two points to North Carolina, the tournament's top overall seed, in the ACC semis (oh, and Tech had to beat tourney bound Miami to get there).

Maybe there were other schools that deserved to be there instead of Virginia Tech. But Villanova wasn't one of them.

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Villanova Is the Prettiest Ugly Girl

Posted Mar 16th 2008 9:18PM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Villanova Basketball, Big East Basketball, March Madness, Midwest

As the 12 seed in the Midwest Bracket, Villanova is the lowest seeded at-large team in the NCAA Tournament. That makes them the last team in the NCAA. It means they earn the enmity of teams like Arizona St., Virginia Tech, Dayton and Illinois State.

Villanova was only 1 spot higher than Virginia Tech in the RPI (51 vs. 52). Villanova finished 9-9 in the Big East. The difference is that Villanova proved that they could beat good teams. They beat teams like UConn and Pitt.

While Arizona State beat 4 teams that made the NCAA Tournament, the Wildcats beat 5 teams. They beat three within their own conference and in their non-con, they beat 2 more NCAA Tournament teams -- Temple and George Mason.

The final factor that probably tipped in favor of Villanova is that they were the victim of two questionable calls at the end of games. A phantom call that sent NC State to the free throw line with under a second remaining, and a questionable blocking foul at the end of the game at Georgetown. In both cases, the free throws won the game for the other team. That seemed to offset an ugly loss in the quarterfinals to Georgetown.

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Big East Quarterfinals Review: Georgetown Sitting Pretty

Posted Mar 14th 2008 1:44AM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Georgetown Basketball, Pittsburgh Basketball, Connecticut Basketball, Marquette Basketball, Louisville Basketball, Villanova Basketball, West Virginia Basketball, Notre Dame Basketball, Big East Basketball

Going into the Big East Tournament, there were two historical themes. Georgetown has never lost a single game -- ever -- in the Big East Tournament as the #1 seed. The other being that only once in the 27 years of the Big East Tournament has a team won the BET playing 4 games in 4 days.

After Thursday's action, Georgetown looks like it is in great shape based on those two trends. The Hoyas are the #1 seed in the BET. They are also the only team that didn't play on Wednesday that will play on Friday. The 2, 3 and 4 seeds all lost on Thursday.

Georgetown actually blew an 11 point halftime lead against Villanova, before exploding late to crush Villanova 82-63. Villanova falls back on the bubble with a bad, ugly loss. Georgetown won going away despite Roy Hibbert finishing with 0 points and only 4 rebounds. Hibbert was saddled with foul troubles the whole game, and only played 14 minutes. Georgetown won big because they were unstoppable on the perimeter. They shot 17-28 on 3 point shots. Mind-boggling to watch.

Continue Reading Big East Quarterfinals Review: Georgetown Sitting Pretty

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NIT or NCAA: Syracuse Orange

Posted Mar 12th 2008 11:16PM by Charles Rich
Filed under: Villanova Basketball, Syracuse Basketball, Big East Basketball

Syracuse folded. They fell apart. Collapsed. Gave up. Whatever you want to call it. Syracuse was in a position to punch its own ticket to the NCAA Tournament against Villanova and fell apart. They ended up being blown out 82-63.

The Orange raced out to a strong start, but Villanova finished the half strong -- pulling to within 1 point before the half ended. It was tight for part of the second half, but Villanova began hitting more shots -- especially Stokes and Reynolds from outside. Rather than tighten up the defense, the Syracuse players began to hang their heads. They just began rushing shots, only trying to score.

Syracuse will miss the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive year. It is only the second time under Jim Boeheim that they have missed the NCAA in consecutive years.

Villanova is close to getting in the NCAA Tournament. They aren't a lock. They don't necessarily need to beat Georgetown on Thursday, but they have to look competitive. A blowout loss, like the one they handed Syracuse would hurt their perception.