Nova unable to pull the upset Friday night.


Kind of a weird game in that it was a three-possession or less game throughout most of it, but it also never really felt like Villanova was threatening outside of one second-half sequence that ended in a backbreaking twist for the Cats. Barring a miraculous 9-1 finish to the season, any hope to an at-large bid is pretty much gone. Just an unbelievable 180 after six weeks of really good basketball culminated with the win over UConn.

I don't even know what to say about that one.


A few things: the similarities to the Xavier game, the St. John's game and to a lesser extent the Providence game are stunning and wildly frustrating. The lack of late-game execution and the frequency of these kinds of losses is maddening. Then there's the similarity between the two end-of-game near steals on the baseline by Perkins (Providence and tonight), which is wild. Both times he made a great play that would essentially seal the game, and both times he just allowed himself to fall out of bounds. I understand the nature of those plays has his momentum carrying him out, and I understand it's not necessarily the easiest play to make. But between it happening in nearly identical ways, and the fact that neither time did he either A) simply throw the ball high into the air toward the other end of the court or B) at least attempt to throw the ball off an opponent...it's enough to drive you crazy. Anyway, they've managed to completely destroy the goodwill and momentum gained from the UConn win and the previous six weeks of solid play and once again find themselves already with zero margin for error in mid-January.

That was something.


Have you ever seen an ending like that? How you feeling going forward? Did this game help at all?

Another injury for Nnanna Njoku.

It was an ugly, but winnable, game for Nova against Xavier Tuesday night. The Cats let it slip away late.


It feels silly to speak in certainties regarding college basketball in mid January, but it's hard not to feel like this wasn't close to the final blow on Nova's tournament hopes, which feels shocking to say a week removed from beating UConn. But opportunities for top of the line wins are running out, as is Nova's margin for error. And if you're more of a numbers person, the math backs up the feeling of doom. I don't have the exact numbers right in front of me at the moment, but there was something like a 40-point swing in tournament probability stemming from tonight's outcome. Even if this wasn't the death blow, at the very least Nova went from "fairly likely to be in" to "more than likely out" with this result. It's incredibly disappointing, not only because of how the last two games have gone after a huge win, but also because of the way this one in particular played out.

I had to attend a funeral today, and as a result I missed the first half. As a result, won't be doing a full write-up, as obviously I wouldn't be able to do so intelligently. Instead, we'll just highlight a few key points and I'll pass along some quotes from coach Neptune.

The biggest takeaway is that Nova was really hurt by rebounding Saturday night. St. John's pounded Villanova on the glass 44-28, with 17 of those 44 coming on the offensive end. St. John's pulled down an astonishing 51.5% of its offensive rebound opportunities (entered the game grabbing 38%). That's just way too high, and against good teams you simply can't give away that many extra opportunities or squander good defensive possessions. It also played a role in the next point.

The free-throw disparity was insane. Now, I'll preface this with a couple things...one, the officiating was pretty poor at both ends and two, a fair amount of the calls against Nova came after the Cats had allowed one (or more) offensive rebounds, so you could argue that if Nova had done a better job on the glass it could have cut into this disparity a little bit. But none of that changes the fact that there was an astonishing disparity in the calls made against each team. Villanova was called for 29 fouls to 16 on St. John's. St. John's took 39(!!!) free throws to Villanova's 17. RJ Luis Jr. attempted more free throws (20) than the entire Villanova team. I can't remember the last time a single player got more FTA than an entire opponent. I know people like to say they don't like to blame officiating, but sometimes it's impossible to ignore. Yes, the officials were atrocious both ways, and no, officiating is not the sole reason Villanova lost this game, but St. John's clearly go the better of a poor whistle...to a near remarkable degree.

Villanova did reasonably well taking care of the ball against a team that is known for forcing turnovers, committing just 10 and actually having an 11-10 lead in points off turnovers. The Cats also continued to shoot the three well, hitting 38.5% and earning a nine-point advantage from beyond the arc.

Nova didn't get enough help from its secondary players. Only three Cats (Dixon, Poplar, Brickus) scored in double figures and the other five who played combined for just 15 points. That's simply not enough support, especially as opponents begin to increase the focus on taking away Dixon, and to a lesser extent Poplar. At least one of Longino and Parker is going to have to more consistently pick up the slack, and the rest of the rotation has to do more than it did on Saturday.

Finally, Brickus' important was highlighted today. While he got off to a hot start offensively, hitting his first four shots for 11 points, he finished with 13 points on 4-9 shooting. More importantly, he had just three assists and an uncharacteristic three turnovers. His ability to take care of the ball, orchestrate the offense and get the ball to his teammates in prime positions has been a major factor in Nova's recent run of strong play, and it's not a coincidence the Cats struggled with Brickus not performing the way we have grown accustomed to him doing.

Villanova will look to get back on track Tuesday when it travels to Xavier.

Here are some postgame quotes from Neptune:

“Give St. John’s a lot of credit. They came in, set the tone, I thought they played extremely hard. They got into us defensively. Lot of credit goes to them. Proud of our guys, thought we fought throughout the entire game but just give those guys credit for the win.”

“They got guys who are long, athletic, tough and they just go get them (rebounds).”

“They’re a good defensive team. I think our issues were on the defensive end more than anything. We had some makeable shots.”

“I thought we just didn’t get the stops we needed at the times we need to get them. This is the Big East. Every team’s tough, every team’s well-coached, has great players. If you don’t come out and defend the way you need to, can’t get stops at key times you’re not gonna have the results you want.”

There will be a little something special when Villanova hosts Providence on Jan. 17.

Nova survived a wild finish to beat No. 9 UConn Wednesday.


Biggest win of the season, obviously. What did you like most about the performance? Is it time to start thinking NCAA Tournament?

A nearly flawless performance from the Cats on Saturday.


What most impressed you? How are you feeling about the rest of the season? Any change or are you taking things with a grain of salt?

On Wednesday, Villanova engineered one of the more remarkable turnarounds you'll ever see.


How impressed were you with the win? Where does your outlook stand for the season following the most recent performance?

Hey all...my apologies, a family thing came up at halftime of the game and I hade to run out and was unable to see the second half. Obviously can't do a write-up or any analysis under those circumstances.

Looking at the box score, a couple things stand out. Obviously, the three-point shooting, as Creighton shot 56% for the game and outscored Nova by 18 from beyond the arc. The other is the assist numbers for Nova...after assisting on a high number of their baskets the last two games, Nova managed just eight assists on 32 baskets Saturday. It didn't seem to inhibit the offense, as the Cats shot 50% overall and 40% from three, but an interesting shift in the recent trend nonetheless.

Here are some quotes from coach Neptune postgame:

“Hats off to Creighton. They did an unbelievable job. They had a great game plan, came in and did what they had to do. Scored the ball unbelievably, we just couldn’t get stops.”

“They’re a team that score a lot of different ways. They can hurt you inside and then they have great shooting from the outside. There’s really nothing they don’t have in their offensive package. They came out, they set the tone, they made some early ones. Some tough ones, but some that we wanted to take away that we didn’t. But I give them a lot of credit. They came in and made a lot of shots, especially early. I thought we had it going offensively as well, but we were just trading baskets and they outlasted us making shots.”

“I thought we got a lot of good stuff offensively. But I don’t know if that’s the best recipe just trying to outscore teams and not get stops. They shoot for the game 55% and 56% from three, that’s not a good recipe if you want to be a winning team.”

“We weren’t as connected as we need to be defensively. I don’t think it’s just one thing, it’s a million different details and they took advantage of all of them. They went to the offensive glass, they hurt us switching, they hurt us in the post. They did a great job.”

“They’re a complete team offensively and we didn’t do a good job of guarding them.”

Nova now gets an extended break before returning to action on New Year's Day at Butler.

A look at the good, the bad and the ugly from Nova's win over Seton Hall Tuesday.


Did we miss anything? Was there anything you were impressed with or concerned by that we didn't talk about? What did you like most about the performance?

A solid start to the conference schedule for the Cats.


Encouraging showings from Longino and Perkins. Dixon scores 25 even on an "off night." The ball is moving and the offense is humming. Has your opinion changed? Is there hope? What did you like most about the performance?

A few injury updates ahead of the Big East opener against Seton Hall.

Aleksandar Gavalyugov is out with a left ankle sprain (he's in a walking boot).
Nnanna Njoku is out with right knee soreness.
Malcolm Thomas is out with left knee soreness.

A solid, if unspectacular, close to non-conference play for Villanova.


Nova did some good things and was able to keep the positive momentum going heading into Big East play. How are we feeling heading into conference play?

Nova followed up Tuesday's upset of Cincinnati by trouncing Temple in the Big Five Classic.


Are they going the right direction? Is there hope for this season?

Credit where it's due, Nova got an absolutely huge win on Tuesday.


What impressed you most about the victory? Do you dare let it rekindle hope? Where does the win rank among the biggest of the Neptune era?

Nova got back in the win column and back to .500 with an easy win over Rider.

What are we thinking about Eric Roedl as new AD?

I don't know a ton about Roedl, but I like that he's a Nova grad and has an understanding of the uniqueness of Villanova combined with extensive experience at a big, athletically-oriented state school. I think that's a mix that will be important. I think it was important to step out of house for this hire, and doing so while bringing someone with knowledge of the house was a good move in my opinion. Roedl will obviously have a big, important decision to make very early into his tenure, and how that is approached and what is ultimately decided will be telling.

Anyone more familiar with Roedl? Are optimistic on the hire? Or disappointed/concerned?