As Bowling for Soup Says, "....Still Preoccupied, with 1985"

Villanova won the National Championship way back in 1985 when they pulled off on of the biggest upsets in NCAA Basketball history.

This morning's post can only be devoted to the great effort by Villanova at the Wachovia Center last night. I may post again later today, if not tomorrow at the latest, with some additional thoughts and observations, but for now, let's stick to the 'Cats. My obeservations from last night's game are first, followed by a Ritterbusch take on the state of the Cats coming into last night's contest....

The Nova/UConn game was so good and entertaining last night that I had to TiVo the beginning of '24' so I did not miss the end of the game. What an exciting game, and a huge win for 'Nova (a 5 point win as predicted on this blog yesterday). Some observations from last night's game:

• We are watching the birth of a superstar in Kyle Lowry over the past few games. This kid is so tough, and combines great hustle with good shooting, tenacious defense, good rebounding for a little guy, and amazing quicklness. How can you not like this kid's game?
• If Villanova gets anywhere close to the kind of performance from Will Sheridan for the rest of the year that they got last night, they could make a run at the National Championship. (I still like the chances of the guys in Durham, however!!!)
• This team should not be followed by any people with heart conditions. Due to their style of play, there will be a lot of ups and downs (for example, they won last night despite giving up separate 11-0 and 15-0 runs). They will make nervous wrecks of their fans and their opponent's fans in the tournament.
• In addition to DeMarcus Nelson of Duke, Villanova has some of the best rebounding guards since Bruce Dalrymple patrolled the courts for the Yellow Jackets in the '80's. This enables them to go small and not get killed on the glass.
• It is kind of tough to watch Jason Fraser play. The kid, who from all accounts is a good kid (maybe we should put him in the Hall of Fame like Jerome Bettis), has just been decimated by injuries, and is playing on sheer fumes at this point. He seems to give his team, however, an emotional lift when he is in there. How can you not root for a guy like this?
• Overall, these guys are very likeable. They play an exciting style of basketball, seem like good kids, and despite their immense skills, somehow take on a role of underdog due to their overall lack of size. Their coach is doing a good job of getting the most of their skills and expoiting advantages, while hiding their deficiencies.

Now, for more things Villanova, here is a take by Ritterbusch on the "state of the team" coming out of the St. Joe/DePaul games and heading into the UConn game last night (note: I have removed his analysis of last night's game since that is now irrelevant, but it should be noted that he did pick Villanova to lose to UConn last night due to size and overall match-up mismatches....

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With the big game but a few hours away I thought it was a good time to offer up some thoughts surrounding our recent efforts as well as some pre-game analysis of tonight’s match-up. I was able to see both the St. Joe’s and DePaul games and I have started TIVO-ing the Jay Wright Show and thus feel more than adequately armed and capable of providing observations on the state of the Cats.

St. Joe & DePaul games:
On the St Joe’s game, I have to start by saying that I loved the atmosphere in the Palestra. Tight, hot/sweaty environment, fans on top of the court, Big 5 schools playing for Philly bragging rights – good stuff. As far as the action, what a horrific first half of basketball. It was hard to watch. Both teams played horribly; the Hawks were just less horrible than the Cats. Thankfully they play two halves. If I was speaking to somebody who missed the game and I had to describe what occurred in one phrase, I would simply say it was another virtuoso performance by the toughest pound-for-pound man in college hoops. Lowry was everywhere in those 20 minutes. He started the half with a steal of their initial in-bound play and he virtually went on to emphatically impose his will on this game. When all is said and done, when Lowry sits back and reflects on his college career, that 2nd half performance in his hometown, against his neighborhood boys and ex-high school rivals will stand up amongst his top handful of memories.

Moving to the DePaul game, this was another pretty sloppy and ugly performance, punctuated by a putrid 2 – 14 from the floor for Allen Ray. The mid-afternoon start, the cavernous arena, the subdued crowd – all of it contributed to a flat performance. Thankfully, Foye and Lowry both had solid games and they essentially saved the day for us. Really, our depth saves us – it is such a luxury to have. Unlike a Louisville (Dean) or a West VA (Pittsnogle), we are able to overcome a dreadful performance by our star (star 1B to Foye’s 1A) because we have others who can shoulder the load. As a sidebar, it should be noted that game announcer Len Elmore (the mild manner, statesmanlike, former U of Maryland star) a man not given to hyperbole, cited that Lowry’s second half performance ranked amongst the most impressive he has seen all year. Lastly, it was good to see some of the lesser known guys (Clark and Benn) get to make a contribution in a tightly contested nationally televised game – this can only help us as you never know when one of these guys might be called upon down the road. Interesting to hear that both of these guys played with Lowery in high school – quite a change from the Rollie Mass days when we couldn’t keep any of the local talent home.

Overall Feel:
My feeling is that Mike Nardi was missed more than expected and/or perhaps even more than people realize. It should be noted that Nardi is the third leading scorer on this team even though he generally get fourth tenor status from fans (including me). Because he is a true point guard he brings a calming influence to the offense. He rarely, if ever, takes a bad shot. This is a very critical component to our ultimate success. Nardi’s heady play and more discerning shot selection should not be underappreciated because it enables us to avoid streaks with too many consecutive possessions that result in a poor shot. He shoots at the right time, and he swings the ball through at the right times (often bypassing his own shot so as to ensure somebody else can catch a rhythm).

I am hoping Nardi’s absence was a big contributor to these recent poor shooting percentage games. We will not be able to beat a top 10-ish team with these increasingly often seen prolonged scoring droughts. I looked at some stats and saw that Allen Ray has only shot 50% or better in two games all year. Foye has shot under 50% in 11 of our past 12 games. I don’t expect our guards to shoot over 50% - that is not realistic for a shooting guard/small forward. Further, I understand that a true scorer has to forget about the last shot and be supremely confident that the next one is going in (as Reggie Miller says – “if you want to be a hero you have to take hero shots”; I recommend saving that one for the trash talk Rolodex – obviously only effective in circumstance where you drop the game winning shot so some of you may never have the right circumstance as those days are long gone). Back to my point - I am just saying that we need to start seeing some more 9 for 19 and 8 for 15 type games instead of the more recently seen 5 – 18 type of performances. It is a must if we expect to get to the Final Four.