http://www.philly.com/philly/sports...Bembry_shot_and_killed_in_North_Carolina.html

Just terrible. He's about to have the best night of his life on Draft Night and this happens. He was only 20.

Pens

TEAM TAKEOVER OVER MEAN STREET........72-70.......IN A HARD FOUGHT GAME.......LYKES LED THE CAUSE WITH TWENTY SIX POINTS.......DJ HARVEY NETTED.....SIXTEEN POINTS........SOME OUTSTANDING FREE THROW SHOOTING BY ....K LYKES.......ONE OF THE NATIONS TOP LEAD GUARDS......

Part One - The team.
Daniel Ochefu said after the Championship Game that " We play for those who came before us". He repeated it at the postseason banquet. "We stand on the shoulders of giants who came before us" has always been a motto of Jay. Well, this thread will look at one of those giants whose retired jersey hangs in the rafters of the Pavilion and played 50 years ago. After his graduation from Villanova, he was drafted by the 76ers and played with Wilt Chamberlain and won the NBA championship in '66-'67 setting a record for the most wins in a season.
Our "giant", of course, is Billy Melchionni.
Billy averaged 27.6ppg his senior season and was only the 2nd player in Villanova's history to score over 800 points in one season. Although the Cats would go 0-4 in the Big Five that year, Billy walked away with the Geasey Award as the MVP of the Big Five. He had two games scoring more than 40 points and the 44 points scored against St. Bonaventure set a Palestra record.
The team finished 18-11 that year and was invited to play in the N.I.T. making it to the semifinal game. They opened with a 63-61 win over St. John's, who was breaking in a new coach named Lou Carnesecca. Next up was Boston College where Melchionni dropped 30 points to lead the Cats to a 86-85 win. In the semis, NYU played a box-and-one on Melchionni and won 83-69. In the 3rd place game Billy led the Cats to a 76-65 win over Army in Bob Knight's 1st year as coach. As the leading scorer in the Tournament, Billy was selected as the MVP.
The Team in 1965-66 was (1st 5 were the starters):
Frank Gadjunas 6-9/JR/C - from LaSalle High School
Bernie (not Bob) Schaffer 6-5/F - from Haverford High
Joe Crews 6-4/SO/F - from Bishop McDevitt - only player to make the varsity from the freshman team and would average 11.6ppg/6.6rpg over his 3 year career.
Charlie Coleman 6-0/SR/G - a Parade All American from Darby-Colwyn H.S. (Charlie always comes back for the "Alumni Walk" at our last home game before Christmas).
Billy Melchionni 6-2/SR/G - from Bishop Eustace Prep - played 2 years with the 76ers and 7 years with the N.Y. Nets in the ABA.
Kevin Traynor 6-0/SR/G - from Monsignor Bonner
Joe Turk 6-2/G-F - from LaSalle H.S.
Terry McGuire 6-4/F - from Cleveland, Ohio
Larry Livers 6-2/SR/F - from Norristown H.S. - he was "on loan" from Jumbo Elliot's track team. Larry was the IC4-A Hurdling Champion that year.
Head Coach - Jack Kraft in his 5th year. Kraft had gone 21-7, 19-10, 24-4 and 24-4 in his 1st 4 years.
Head recruiter - George Raveling
Trainer - Jake Nevin

Not sure if posted somewhere but here it is: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/sports/college/Jay-Wright-added-to-staff-for-select-team.html

Believe Kris Dunn and Dougie McBuckets will be on Select Team.

It is now time to focus our thoughts and energy on discussing other ball handling guards which we desire for our amazing university. So, with that in mind, who does everyone want in '18 & '19?

http://www.csnmidatlantic.com/washington-wizards/wizards-take-look-villanovas-ryan-arcidiacono

Anyone know what the Chef is doing?

Just took stage, is FreddyShoop stuck in customs at Heathrow

Nm

I was speaking to a friend of my son who was not born in 1985. He was asking how close the championship game was in 85. I told him from what I remember it was never more than about 4 points either way, but I was not positive. I had a VCR tape of the game, but no longer have a VCR player so I cannot check. Does anyone KNOW the most points we were down and also up in the game?

Thanks,

SVan

Right now, Villanova leads.
He recently took the SAT for the first time.
Stanford is waiting to see what his score is prior to arranging an official visit - their admissions requires that.
Lykes and his parents, in particular, are intrigued with Stanford and interested in learning more about it - academics are important to them and Stanford has near dream school status.
It will be a couple of weeks until he gets the scores. Though he is likely to commit in the summer, he may choose not to decide until after the potential Stanford visit.
You may ask: but what about the Stanford coaching change?
There is an assistant coach now at Stanford that was at Vanderbilt and was recruiting Lykes to Vanderbilt - so there is some tie in there.
Stanford and Miami have more PT to offer - he could start at Stanford potentially.
If he had to choose right now - Villanova would be the choice.
However, Stanford is the dark horse.

These two #studs from NJ are amongst the top players in the country - any age. Lewis goes about 6'6" and is going to be a great college 4-man. Antoine is a 6'3" combo guard, more of a volume scorer. They play for Ranney School in NJ and Team Rio Select. (Team Rio is an under-Armour affiliated program, and thus MD is in mix.)

Ranney School will be at Nova's team camp in a few weeks. Staff should know where they stand w/ them after that - whether it's worth more future time - Cats might have real shot.

Offers are piling in for them right now. It's been a great job thus far by Jay's team.

He hung in there.

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/06/11/christopher-lee-dead

Designated for assignment by the White Sox.................

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports...ated_for_assignment_by_Chicago_White_Sox.html

Obviously, I don't follow the recruiting trail like many on this forum; just wait 'til I hear who has committed. But, I was wondering about how the program handles the kids that accept the offers.
For instance, in the class of 2017 it looks like Nova has offered maybe 5-6-7 or more kids, and the same for each succeeding year. When, it seems that Jay would only want two, or on occasion maybe three new players. What happens if by chance 3-4-or even 5 players that received offer give a verbal commitment? Does Jay or the staff rescind the offers to certain kids that received offers? Seems a little unfair, but, can't take all that got offers.
And, does Jay take the first 2 or 3 that committed......or does he take what he thinks are the best recruits?

Maybe i should know this after all the years going to the Nova games........but, although there is always a lot of chatter on this forum about recruiting and who is offered, never heard anything about kids that got offers and wanted to commit, but didn't get the scholly. Hey.....maybe this never happens.......

Jimmy Rollins has been named starting SS for the Chicago White Sox..........

We all the entire league will owe nova for this one..all of the big east. This is as meaningful as Georgetown landing Ewing.

ESPN was going to hold not winning the title over the Big East head and just keep beating the league over the head with it.

Second I really wonder what the old guard of the ACC is thinking. Two thirds of that league will never see the light of day.. they will be living in a top heavy lumbering behemoth of a league..

In addition it will be a cold day in hell before the ACC is a premier football league..it just isn't built for it. Some of the lower third of that league are now permanently confined to athletic hell.

Basketball outside the Big East will be more impacted by the inefficiency of the overblown size and deteriorated quality of the new ACC structure than the Big East will ever be.

It will be fascinating to wait ten years down the road and let's go re shoot that special.
And let's call it "Who is that on the autopsy table? "

Who will lament the reorganization more..it will be a most interesting question..

What does it say for the new ACC when the coach from Pitt gets up and leaves and how happy are the Pitt fans. When they look in the mirror do they perhaps see themselves as becoming BC fans in the future..is that what Georgia Tech and wake forest fans think..

I love the new big east league..I think we have a new generation of terrific coaches. I think we are well balanced..I love the fox affiliation..I love the garden rocking in march with the shouts of shu fans and our new banner..

Tonight is a great night nova nation, for our league.. and for our university with a young team celebrating the wonderful accomplishments in a fabulous year

In ending it all an acknowledgement and a huge congratulations to nova and all the nova fans..you won a great championship in great style and when you hang the banner back home feel free to hang the 600 hundred lb gorilla that you got off the leagues back right up there with it

GO BIG EAST
GO PIRATES
GO NOVA..JOB WELL DONE!!!

I just got an email saying SuperNOVA made the cut. First game is July 16th at Philadelphia University.

Here's the roster: https://www.thetournament.com/teams/supernova-villanova-alumni

...is it that he realized after visiting that there is a very good chance that Jalen Brunson will have the ball at Villanova for the next three years, which means he doesn't "get the ball" until his junior year. ...and maybe Jay doesn't want to go with Brunson and Lykes on the floor together given they are one small guard and one VERY small guard for long stretches as that might hurt us defensively - which limits Lykes' minutes to 20 or so for two years.

Doesn't make Chris take us off his list, but makes him think...

With Jalen - there is a very good chance, based on what we have seen from him and what we have seen around the NBA draft, that he could be here for all four years. He's a small guard. An average athlete. A good, not great shooter. He could be an all time great at Villanova - but he is really not a prototypical NBA guard - from the "measurables".

I think all of us would be elated if we were told that Jalen looks very much like a four year player at Villanova. He already has one National Championship and with him at the controls, we are a contender next year and the year after at a minimum for another. While we would be elated at that projection, Chris might not be. He might very well want the ball in his hands as a freshman and certainly would as a sophomore. That might be tough at Villanova with Jalen around - and projecting to be around for three more years.

At the end of the day, I think that Chris would get his burn. However, it's not crystal clear to him - potentially - how that might happen. Might Chris' hesitation with Nova be the lure of the Farm? Sure. But he'd be the first Top 50 to prioritize that "lure" in as long as I can remember. Or is his hesitation that Jalen is mighty good and could be our lead guard and leader for the next three years - with or without Chris.

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oh boy.

The guys is known as a recruiting legend, especially for NYC players.

I thought he seemed sort of bizarre on the St. John's bench - like an old uncle trying to share his words of advice to players who didn't seem to have interest in him.

Not sure whether St. John's is better or worse for this but he was a center piece of their all-star assistant staff.

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