January 12, 2010 –
by Brendon
Those viewers who slogged through Monday night’s two-hour, 40-minute game between Villanova and Louisville are owed a debt of gratitude by both teams and the three officials. It was not a propitious start to the first true Big Monday of the season.
Villanova defeated the Cardinals at Freedom Hall, 92-84, in what was an intensely competitive game, but no one will wish to see it in full again. Forty-four turnovers, 67 fouls (plus a technical on Jay Wright), 94 free-throw attempts — this game had all the flow of a Los Angeles freeway interchange. Highlights only, please.
| Team |
Poss |
PPP |
eFG |
Turn |
Reb |
FTR |
| Villanova |
80 |
1.15 |
0.582 |
0.276 |
0.441 |
0.714 |
| Louisville |
80 |
1.05 |
0.375 |
0.276 |
0.523 |
0.650 |
It’s impossible to get a full grasp of how the game was played from the final score — or even the Four Factors above — but the one thing that is easy to see is that this game was foul-marred. Ten players on each team played at least five minutes, and all but one — Louisville’s Reginald Delk — committed at least two fouls. Nine players committed at least four fouls. Read More »
Posted in Big East, Game of the Night
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Tagged Big East, Connecticut, Corey Fisher, Edgar Sosa, Georgetown, Jay Wright, Jerry Smith, John Cahill, Karl Hess, Ken Pomeroy, Louisville, Maalik Wayns, Michael Stephens, Mike Marra, Pittsburgh, Preston Knowles, Reginald Delk, Samardo Samuels, Scottie Reynolds, Seton Hall, Taylor King, Villanova
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November 19, 2009 –
by Brendon
The Big East is still undefeated — now 35-0 — but the team picked to win the league nearly became the first to lose on Thursday afternoon. Nearly everything went wrong in the first 38 minutes for Villanova, but the final two were all right in the Wildcats’ 69-68 victory over George Mason in the Puerto Rico Tip-off.
Two freshmen, Maalik Wayns and Isaiah Armwood, hit 3-pointers in the last two possessions to bring Villanova back from a late five-point deficit with 1:42 to play. The basket was Armwood’s first of his career, and it came after he was forced into action thanks to severe foul trouble for Villanova’s frontcourt.
The fouls were the main thing that made this game a strange one.
|
Poss |
PPP |
eFG |
Turn |
Reb |
FTR |
| George Mason |
70 |
0.97 |
0.436 |
0.200 |
0.242 |
0.574 |
| Villanova |
70 |
0.99 |
0.434 |
0.243 |
0.452 |
0.434 |
Those free-throw rates are borderline absurd. The two teams combined for 54 fouls committed. Nine players accumulated at least four fouls, including the four Villanova Wildcats who fouled out. Among those four were Antonio Pena, Taylor King and Maurice Sutton or, in other words, all the height in Villanova’s rotation since freshman Mouphtaou Yarou was sent back to Philly with a viral infection. Read More »
Posted in Big East, Game of the Night, Mid-Majors
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Tagged Antonio Pena, Big East, Chris Wright, Colonial, Corey Fisher, Dante Cunningham, Dayton, Duke, Dwayne Anderson, George Mason, Isaiah Armwood, Jay Wright, Maalik Wayns, Maurice Sutton, Mid-Majors, Mike Morrison, Mouphtaou Yarou, Reggie Redding, Ryan Pearson, Shane Clark, Taylor King, Villanova
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April 3, 2009 –
by Brendon
The last time North Carolina won the national championship, the Tar Heels defeated two teams from the same conference at the Final Four in St. Louis in 2005. Starting Saturday in Detroit, UNC may have the chance to it again. Villanova is the first opponent for Roy Williams team in the national semifinal with another Big East team, Connecticut, favored to win the first semifinal. Just like with the Michigan State-Connecticut semifinal, I’m going to analyze Villanova-UNC based on team matchups.
No. 3 Villanova vs. No. 1 North Carolina (8:47 p.m. ET)
Where Villanova can hurt North Carolina: On the offensive glass. Villanova is a balanced team, one that doesn’t excel at any one thing — except perhaps free-throw shooting — and isn’t awful at anything, though the Cats do send their opponents to the line a bit too much. Therefore, pinpointing a distinct Nova stylistic edge isn’t simple, but it may surprise you that it’s on the offensive glass where the Cats should be able to do some damage to North Carolina. Read More »
Posted in ACC, Big East, National Perspective, Reviews/Previews
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Tagged ACC, Antonio Pena, Big East, Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes, Danny Green, Dante Cunnigham, Deon Thompson, Duke, Dwayne Anderson, Ed Davis, Final Four, Jay Wright, North Carolina, Reggie Redding, Roy Williams, Scottie Reynolds, Shane Clark, Tyler Hansbrough, Tywon Lawson, Villanova, Wayne Ellington
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March 14, 2009 –
by Brendon
NEW YORK — Fans and members of the media like to construct a basketball team’s character around its ability to play defense. Good defensive teams “try harder,” have “more heart” and “want it more” than their opponents. That may be true in hackneyed leads and on messageboard threads, but, on a basketball floor, defense is built on talent and coaching just as much if not more than offense is.
There isn’t a team more talented or coached better defensively than Louisville, and the Cards proved it again in a 69-55 win over Villanova in Friday’s first Big East Tournament semifinal at Madison Square Garden. Read More »
Posted in Big East, Game of the Night
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Tagged Andre McGee, Big East, Big East Tournament, Corey Fisher, Dante Cunningham, Earl Clark, Jay Wright, Jerry Smith, Louisville, Preston Knowles, Rick Pitino, Scottie Reynolds, Terrence Jennings, Terrence Williams, Villanova
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February 6, 2009 –
by Brendon
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Bracketing challenges: The most difficult team to place in this bracket was Purdue. On Tuesday, the Boilermakers lost at Ohio State in overtime without their best player — Robbie Hummel. It’s the second time Purdue has lost a close game on the road without the sophomore star. Usually those losses would be discounted slightly with the expectation that Purdue will have a full-strength Hummel by the time March comes around. The problem with that assumption is that Hummel is suffering from a stress fracture in his back, an injury that won’t fully heal until the offseason. Hummel is expected to be day-to-day from here until Purdue’s final game of the season. Because of the chronic nature of the injury, I’m treating those losses as if they were full-strength losses — with a slight discount for the Penn State loss, because Purdue was without Chris Kramer for that game. Losing close road games to Penn State and Ohio State is not particularly egregious — certainly better than Michigan State’s home losses to Penn State and Northwestern — but Purdue would probably be listed as a No. 4 seed if doctors expected Hummel to be fully healthy by March. Instead, the Boilermakers are the top No. 5 seed on my board.
Note: San Diego State is in the field as an automatic bid from the Mountain West after winning at UNLV on Tuesday. The Aztecs would be right between Baylor and Southern Cal in the “Last In” list if they were considered an at-large.
The Bubble: The bubble was a little awkward this week because of several results in conference play. Even with San Diego State’s inclusion as an automatic, the standard for inclusion in the field on Friday feels less stringent than it did on Monday thanks to many losses by teams around the bubble. In the end, I’m very comfortable with the top 32 at-large teams. It’s the last two — Baylor and Michigan — that I could take or leave.
Michigan’s impressive win over Penn State put both teams right around the cut mark. Because of the Wolverines’ win Thursday and their more impressive play out of conference — wins over Duke and UCLA — they’re in and the Nittany Lions are out, not that it was necessarily and either/or proposition. Baylor is running out of reprieves. Scott Drew’s team has now lost four straight games, all against teams seeded No. 7 or better in this projection. Baylor now enters a stretch of five games — at Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, at Oklahoma State, at Iowa State — where the Bears will need to win at least three to stay in the field. Read More »
Posted in Bracket Junkie, National Perspective
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Tagged ACC, Arizona, Arizona State, Atlantic-10, Baylor, Ben Howland, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Bo Ryan, Boston College, Brigham Young, Bruce Pearl, Butler, Chase Budinger, Chris Kramer, Cincinnati, Clemson, Connecticut, Davidson, Dayton, Derek Glasser, Florida, Florida State, Georgetown, Gonzaga, Illinois, Iowa, Iowa State, James Harden, Jay Wright, Jerome Randle, Kansas, Kansas State, La Salle, Louisville, LSU, Miami (Fla.), Michigan, Michigan State, Mike Montgomery, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Missouri, Mountain West, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Northern Iowa, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Pac-10, Patty Mills, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Providence, Purdue, Rhode Island, Robbie Hummel, Rutgers, Saint Joseph's, Saint Mary's, San Diego State, SEC, Siena, South Carolina, Southern Cal, Syracuse, Temple, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Tom Izzo, Tywon Lawson, UNLV, Utah, Utah State, Villanova, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Xavier
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