Hoyas @ Villanova In-Game Discussion

[DanMcQ]

still February...

[strongsilenthoya]

Now, there are plenty of reasons to be pessimistic about Saturday's game. Sure Villanova is playing pretty darn good right now. Sure our Hoyas are playing pretty darn not good right now. Sure this is a huge rivalry game for them, and not for us. And sure we will be facing a loud packed house on the road.

On the plus side, technically this is a 12-5 matchup. The hex is on....

[GIGAFAN99]

We need a win obviously. Oddly, if we do get a win here, I can actually see us beating St. Johns, Depaul, South Florida, and facing WVU for a chance at the dance where their defense will show up promptly at 7pm and ours will get stuck on the FDR until 7:40 or so and we lose by a dozen.

But I can also see us just getting smacked Saturday. The good news is, we might see a Wright, Sapp, Clark, Wattad, Herve Villechaiz lineup in our continued pursuit to out-small our opponents.

[KHoyaNYC]

Nothing makes me think we'll even stay within single digits this game, but I still hope. As stated in the lineup thread, I hope JTIII gets his substitutions/lineup issues straightened out at least.

[tashoya]

Paging Tonya Harding.....

[Deleted]

I was excited for this roadtrip when I bought tickets right after the Memphis game.

Now, I'm mostly looking forward to a cheesesteak.

[HoyasAreHungry]

Let's go hoyas! let's tame the kittys

[hoyaheaven]

When does the player exodus from the static offense begin??

[CAHoya07]

After Louisville, I am simply looking for a competitive game. A win would be fantastic, but not the most realistic considering the way this team has been playing. I just hope we look looser and try to have some fun out there. There's plenty left this season to play for, and it ain't over til the fat lady sings.

Villanova doesn't particularly impress me, but they are a solid team, and have beaten some good teams this year (Pitt, Marquette, Syracuse twice).

[Boz]

Keep in mind, there is no overestimating the stupidity of Scottie Reynolds.

That alone might be enough to keep this a close game.

[HoyaFanNY]

i like nova as a team and think they are a matchup nightmare (like marquette) for anyone in the ncaa tournament. i have a feeling this is going to get ugly early. other than the BET last year, they have given us fits the last few years when we had good teams.

[RockawayHoya]

I think Nova's always the one team that bothers us with their backcourt pressure defense. Luckily, we just played against a similar defensive style against L'ville, so our guys should at least be familiar with what they're going to go up against.

I think this will be very similar to the Marquette game, except for a couple of minor things. We all know they've got several guards who can score in bunches, and their preference is to play fast and outscore you at all costs. However, I also think they're not as strong defensively as Marquette is this year (partly due to scheme, partly due to personnel).

We're going to have to knock down open shots when they present themselves to have a shot to win this game, because they'll be available. They have been for the last several games now, and we haven't consistently capitalized on them.

Defensively, this will be a rough game for us. We haven't really shown any ability to contest 3 point shooters on a consistent basis. With 5 days to rest, this team should have the energy to at least buckle down and chase after their shooters as best they can. I thought Freeman's closeouts on shooters on Monday was particularly poor, and I hope he can get somehow get that corrected.

What I'm hoping for: Wright continuing to attack the rim aggressively but making the right decisions while doing so, at least 70% and 20 attempts from the FT line for the team, and keeping turnovers under 15. Not missing layups or dunks would also be a nice bonus.

[GUJook97]

Feb 25, 2009 7:48:36 GMT -5 GIGAFAN99 said:

We need a win obviously. Oddly, if we do get a win here, I can actually see us beating St. Johns, Depaul, South Florida, and facing WVU for a chance at the dance where their defense will show up promptly at 7pm and ours will get stuck on the FDR until 7:40 or so and we lose by a dozen.

Sadly, I am not sure that is even going to do it anymore. I think we pretty much need to win 6 more games to make the NCAA tournament. Too many teams are taking care of business right now- e.g., Providence.

[guru]

NCAA hopes are over - not really worth discussing anymore. The team had three chances over the past 2 weeks to get a win that would keep them in the mix, and they failed every time.

Only sliver of hope is a startling run in the BET. But we'd have to win the thing, and can anyone see this team winning 5 games in 5 days? It's the same group that has only won 2 games in the last 42 days, remember.

Sorry to be a downer, but this year it's NIT or bust.

[RockawayHoya]

I disagree with guru and agree with Jook. I had wanted to start another thread about this, but felt it didn't warrant its own thread (take note, new-ish posters!)

Let's say we win our next 6 games, as Jook says, by winning the following: at Nova, at SJU, Depaul, USF/SJU, Nova/WVU, Pitt/Marquette (hypothetical first 3 games of the BET given our projected seeding of either 11 or 12). After a BET semis loss against a team that won't hurt the resume, that would put us at 20-13 (8-10 BE) with an RPI of around 30-35 and a 5-5 record in our last 10, with wins over 3 solid locks for the tourney during the stretch. There's no way we wouldn't at least be in the discussion if we pulled that off. Now, I don't think there's a chance in hell of this actually happening, but if it did, I'd have to think that with our likely #1 strength of schedule, we'd get the nod over a lot of other bubble teams.

So, I don't believe we need to win the BET to get into the dance just yet. But this is really looking ahead, and really besides the improvement in effort during recent games the team hasn't really provided us with any signs that they are about to go on a serious winning streak against top-flight competition.

Let's concern ourselves with stealing one on the road on Saturday first. Win on Saturday, and then we can start talking about taking care of the 3 gimmes we should get between March 3rd and March 10th.

[guru]

OK, I guess if we win the next 6 games in a row, there is still a possibility we could get a bid. I just don't see that as anywhere near a realistic scenario from the evidence of the past 6 weeks.

[GUJook97]

Yeah, i think i agree with guru more than myself

But, yeah, we don't have to win the Big East, yet. We do have to win our next 6 games, tho. I dont see any other way, short of, obviously, winning the big east, which means we have to win at least 5 games in a row, too....

[Grandpa]

3rd consecutive game for us on ESPN - hopefully we can win this one and avoid the Mike Patrick-Len Elmore broadcast pairing. Elmore's done our last 3 losses, 2 of which Patrick was PBP. IIRC, we had the pleasure of listening to MP during the WVU home fiasco which started the Hoyas slide.

[OldHoyafan]

I look forward to this game for no other reason than to watch the matchup of Chris Wright vs Scotty Reynolds. I remember reading a lot on this board how the Hoyas passed on recruiting Reynolds in order to hold the scholarship open for Wright. I know that Reynolds knows this and will come ready to prove a point. Wright knows this too and should come ready to justify why he got the scholarship and Reynolds did not.

[njhoya06]

Hopefully Nova doesn't lose to DePaul tonight. We don't need anything like that to fire them up even more for Saturday, and also to take the luster off the start of our miracle run to the NCAAs.