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| (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) |
THE PREAMBLE
16 October 2012
The Big East media conducts its worthless
pre-season poll. Villanova is picked
to finish 12th with only Providence,
Seton Hall, and DePaul picked to finish worse.
Frankly, I can’t find too much fault looking back on it; well maybe a
little. In any event, the message was: “Everyone
was so disappointed in Wayns and Cheek that we all collectively forgot that Jay
is one of only 4 coaches in this conference with a Final Four. And now we don’t think he can coach or
recruit anymore, so we are going to pick you to finish behind Rutgers.”
27 October 2012
HOOPS MANIA! I only have memories of 2 Hoops Mania’s from my
time at school, my sophomore (’04) and senior (’06) years. Maybe I went to the other two and don’t
remember them, a strong possibility. All I do
remember was that the event was largely set up to introduce the incoming big
recruits to the Villanova fans. And
Dylan Ennis did not
disappoint. Wait, he’s not playing
this year? Crap maybe we will finish 12th.
8 November 2012
I bet most of you don’t remember this. Ty Johnson decides to transfer after only 1
season. If you are counting at home we
now have lost 4 players from last year’s team.
Wayns and Cheek left early, while Kennedy transferred to go play at SMU
under Larry Brown, who probably won't be there next judging by his track record. Ty Johnson’s one year
included 23% shooting from 3, 65 assists, and 58 turnovers. We call this addition by subtraction.
INTRODUCTIONS
Marshall (W)
In our first real game of the season, Villanova threw up an
80 spot with freshman Ryan Arcidiacono going 4-9 from deep and 9-10 from the
line in route to a game high 25 points.
For reference, Ochefu only played 6 minutes, and JVP had only 6 points
after going 6-14 from the free throw line.
What? But in retrospect this game
highlighted our season long, and continuing, fight with our opponents 3 point
shooting. Marshall was 12-27 from 3 on the day (44%).
Purdue (W)
Villanova traveled to the Garden to take on Purdue in the 2K
Sports Classic. After being up 35-29 at
half, Purdue took control mid-way through the second stanza. With under a minute to play they were up 4
(75-71) with :43 seconds left. Then this happened: Flagrant
I, 2 shots and the ball. We end up tying
it up and went on to score 14 points in OT to take the win. Crazy.
Hilliard led all scorers with 22, and no one is sure if Yarou is even
alive at this point, as he put up a measly 4 points. All in all things aren’t going too bad so
far.
Alabama (L),
Columbia (L), @La Salle (L)
And just like that 12th place in Big East seems
awfully generous of the media members.
Our next game in the 2K Sports Classic saw Alabama just kick the shit out of us. They shot over 50% from 2 and over 60% from 3. That would have been fine, if it wasn’t for
the fact that just four days later Columbia
came into the Pavilion and beat us by 18.
Hilliard and Arcidiacono were a combined 5-21 from the field. Columbia
would go on to finish just 4-10 in the Ivy League this year. Five days later, we lost in OT to La Salle (who is a bubble team). Arcidiacono threw up only 6 points in 41
minutes, and looked like he had just run a marathon as he was playing 92% of
the minutes on the season thus far.
Hilliard had only 7 points in 34 minutes, but JVP put up 19 and Yarou
had 20.
At this point, I’ll paraphrase an actual conversation.
Me: “So how many games do you think we are going to win in
the Big East this year?”
Friend: “Go look at that schedule and tell me who we are going
to beat.”
Me: “Alright, I think we can get to 5 wins.”
Friend: “Don’t do this to me. We aren’t going to win a game.”
Me: “Seriously? Do
you think Jay should be fired?”
Friend: “We just lost to Columbia by 18 f*&&^^%( points at
home!”
Me: “I’ll take that as a maybe.”
THE GAMES THAT QUIETLY DECIDED OUR SEASON
@Vanderbilt (W)
With a week off, Villanova then traveled to Vanderbilt. It’s not that Vandy was or is any good, but
getting a true road win at this point was a huge get. Yarou and JVP led the way
with 16 and 13 respectively, showing the inside game that would lead us the
rest of the year. Arcidiacono was still
looking tired and went only 1-5 from 3, and there were some serious questions
about his ability to defend more athletic guards come Big East play.
Temple
(L)
Although we ended up losing this game, there were some signs
that things weren’t all bad. However, at
the time it was hard to see any silver lining.
Temple
would go on to win by 16, but we actually had the lead at half 36-32. Bell
finally had somewhat of a break out game with 15 points, and we got to see a
little Chennault action as he was our 2nd leading scorer with 10.
@Penn (W)
Villanova led wire to wire in this game. We had an 8 point lead at half, and
eventually won by 13. Yacoubou finally
got some extended minutes (I am an unabashed Yacoubou supporter, as he is an
absolute monster on the defensive glass for a guard) and led the team with 13
points. This was a game we should have
won and did. Not too much to say other than
after the Columbia
game anything seemed possible.
St. Joe’s (W)
At this point in the season St. Joe’s was 5-2, but one of
those wins had come against Notre Dame. Bell and JVP led the way
with 12 points a pop, but the key was offensive rebounding. For the second straight game we rounded more
than 35% of our misses on the offensive end.
Oh, and this little late game inbounds defense by Sutton
didn’t hurt either (go to the 4:38 mark).
Going 3-1 during this stretch definitely gets lost in the
narrative of the season. But it showed a
couple of things: a) unlike last year, this team had fight and was actually
interested in improving and winning and b) Jay was slowly making some
adjustments (like playing a big line-up for extended minutes) that was going to
lead the way for a change later in the season.
THE GAMES NO ONE WATCHED
Delaware
(W), @Monmouth (W), NJ Institute of Technology (W)
There really isn’t much to report about these games, as all
of the opponents were terrible, but there are a couple of things that stand
out. Against Delaware we rebounded over 50% of our
misses. Against Monmouth we shot 15-22
from 3, and against NJIT we played like crap but held them to just 37% shooting
from 2. We still hadn’t put anything
together at this point, but these 3 stats have been the key to our season. We are an above average rebounding team, we
are a GREAT 2 point FG% defensive team, and our outside shooting comes and goes
with the wind.
Check back tomorrow for Part II: The Final Big East Regular Season.
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