And we're off!

Just about every year in Nov or Dec Nova is upset by a team they were supposed to beat and some guys on the board who apparently have never followed a full season of college basketball overreact and claim the sky is falling.

Tonight Nova lost by a team ranked higher than they were and yet we still have a handful of chicken littles throwing in the season.

Nova struggles with long and athletic, especially when the 3 is not falling.

Frustrating tonight definitely, but let's see how the BE season goes before we mail it in

i know this board wants to go into total meltdown but I noticed two things. I noticed Daniel on the bench with Jeff getting a Gatorade hit. Looked to me like he was cramping so that may explain the reduced minutes. That's a training issue to solve. Also. I was glad to see Reynolds playing well after he was in the boot after the St. Joe's game.

Not the end of the world, guys. It's early and they're still learning to play together.

That was an embarrassing effort on our part

Good thing, it only counts for one game

We will get back on track and knock off UVA

We have to make our first couple of 3's to get confidence offensively and defensively

Brunson is a multi year player Got exposed big time

On to the next game

Go Cats

While we have a good bit of experience, this team is a major work in progress. Tonight was Brunson's first game against elite competition. Do folks not recall Reynolds' struggles in his first semester?

This is Booth's first year as a major contributor. This role change is one that can take some time. Many expected Alvin Williams to be a force his sophomore year. It took until the UConn game on the road in February until he started playing to predetermined expectations.

Bridges is just getting his feet wet. He is showing signs of being a positive factor.

Jenkins is stepping into a starting role and learning how best to play against tough competition. With his skill set. Anybody remember how much Dwayne Anderson contributed in his first two and a half seasons?

Hart needs to learn how to handle being the best player on the team and how to assert himself. It took Hilliard until his senior year to do this.

We have a lot of moving parts. But a lot of potential.

....Arch, Booth, Hart, Bridges and Ochefu...imho a well balanced squad offensively and defensively...

Camo or other special patterned uni's for Monday?

Would have to figure Nike may want to do something for the made for TV game on a Military base.

A. We lost because we couldn’t shoot. People who say we lost because of our effort didn’t watch the game. They couldn’t make a shot. Oklahoma was on fire. That shook us a bit early, and we couldn’t recover.

We shot 4-32 from 3. You know the winning percentage of teams that have done that in the last 5 seasons? 0%. And they shot 14-26 from 3. So they scored 30 more points on 3s on 6 fewer shots. That’s the game right there.

B. If half our shots are going to be 3s, we need to shoot better. We’re at 28.6% shooting on the season despite taking half our shots from back there. Hart, Booth and Jenkins are all shooting well below their career averages. Brunson and Bridges have not shot well all year, and neither has Donte. The only one who has shot decently is Arch.

At some point, we need to either shoot fewer 3s, or start making them. I think the way the team is built, we need to be better shooters because we’re going to be small. I’m not pressing the panic button because players are shooting well below their career averages, but it’s definitely a concern.

C. This game was one of the weirder atmospheres I’ve ever seen because of Pearl Harbor. Honoring a veteran on every return from break. Tiny crowd in a high school gym. Just odd. And it’s part of the reason I’m not as upset about the game as I otherwise would be. I’m hoping we can chalk this up in part to the location.

D. Oklahoma is really good. Like Final Four good. They’ve shot the three well all year, not just tonight, though 13-24 is ridiculous against anyone.

E. If we want to gain respect nationally, we need to beat Virginia. This looks like another Villanova flop on a big stage to the general public. Not to mention, a 20-point neutral court loss against another team competing for a possible 1-2 seed won't look good in March unless we separate ourselves elsewhere.

F. Ochefu needs to play more. He played 21 minutes tonight. Now, he’s played 30 minutes in a non-OT game just twice in his career, so he’s not necessarily used to it. But he’s a senior, and now is the time to ride him. The difference between him and Reynolds is astronomical, and if Jenkins isn’t shooting well, he’s a liability at the 5.

G. Shooting stats...Villanova is the 13th team in the last 20 seasons to take 32+ threes and make 4 or fewer. 12.5% is worst by any team this year (min 25 3-pt FGA).

One last thing - we're still a very good team. Panic if you want, but I'm not. We won't shoot this bad the rest of the year.

Anyone live close by and is interested for tomorrow night's game. A bunch of people going. We will be on back heated patio.

Has his eye on PSU. Just might happen next season. If TU goes to PSU next Sept. and wins, good bye Franklin, hello Ruhle
In any event, I don't see Ruhle coaching against Nova in 2017.

Being No. 1 was fun while it lasted.

We dropped to No. 5.

Oklahoma jumped all the way up to No. 1.

They won 6 in a row before losing to Richmond(20-9). Then a bad performance in the first round(but a win) > Then today. Crushed by Richmond. I hope Tribe 52 will enlighten us.
At one time this season I thought Tribe was the best team in our conference. Had the best defense. What happened late in the season? BTW I am still not ready to talk about JMU.

Anything else going on around here?

VU 78 ok 72! Brunson / Ryan hero at FT line... Tom

i truly do not think we were one of the best 8 teams 2 years go, best 4 teams last year and best 12 this year thus far. We are. Strange team to figure out. Who knows maybe it's just a coincidence led night but I don't think so. We were not sharp at all. Looked so out of our game

Is that basketball can be a pretty simple game. When the other team makes shots and you don't, they often win and win going away. Oklahoma is one of the best teams in the country but watching the game, it's not like you were totally outplayed. At least that's what it seemed like to me. We had enough ball movement and open shots that if you make 10 out of 32, there's a good chance this is a ballgame. I didn't see much that Oklahoma did to make you say, God we have no chance. They had a guy who made 1 out of 8 threes all season and he went 3-5 tonight. S*** happens and you live to play another day. You just wish Jay or one of the coaches when we do have one of these games would say I don't want to see another three until we take the ball to the hole or try to draw a foul. Happy to lose this game in December versus a top 10 team than potentially in March against someone you know you're better than.

Couple really nice looking takes to the basket tonight. That dunk was awesome! Looked like he was getting attended to pretty frequently on the bench. Was it just exhaustion from hot gym?

1. Played a very experienced, deep, athletic team that is highly skilled on a night when they shot great. Just not going to win this one.
2. There is a reason we shot poorly. OU did a great job challenging our shooters both inside and from deep. Contested threes are tough shots. We took a ton of them. Like NC State, OUs athleticism allowed them to challenge almost every shot. Yes, we missed some open ones, but we missed a lot due to a hand in the face.
3. Given number one, we really did not have a shot when you consider we also got out worked. They just wanted it more tonight. Why. No idea but it was obvious. We got very few 50/50 balls.
4. Who would have ever guessed that in a big game the freshman Bridges would play better and with more maturity than all world Jalen. Jalen had a rough night, probably most affected by OUs athleticism. He was very passive tonight. Hate to hear that phone call from Rick after this one.
5. Hart seemed like the only guy who did not back away from OU, everybody else had a bit of the deer in the headlights look. Arch could not deal with OUs athletes.
6. Defense could not stop dribble drives, nobody kept their guy in front of them. Led to drives and kick outs for wide open looks which Ou did not miss all night.
7. Bright side, we probably will not face another team all year who plays for 40 minutes at that high of a level. OU is really, really good when they shoot like that.
8. Against big athletic teams I think you will see more of a one point guard approach. We had some success with lineup of Booth, Hart, Bridges, Jenkins, Ochefu. At least I think that was the lineup,Jay had out there for a few minutes in first half. Probably the biggest lineup we can put out there realistically since DO and DR will not play together.
9. Watch the tape once, learn from it, then burn it and move on. Will be a very long flight home.

We were just beaten by a much better team. Shooting 14% from 3 was only one part of the problem. We were out-worked,out-coached, out-played in every facet. The difference in perimeter defense was most noticeable. Nova will still accomplish a lot this season, and im going to enjoy the ride. Its only one game in early december....we will learn from this and get better. Keep the faith.

Chat is live

https://www.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=1000&CID=1157455

Apparently after the Fordham game, Mullin said to Fordham's coach something along the lines of "what you did tonight was bullsh!t and we are going to kick your a$$ next year."

Fordham beat SJU by 16, not 36, I don't blame the Fordham coach for not taking out the starters. SJU and Fordham both scored 32 in the second half. Also, apparently Mullin was also upset about Fordham's coach for taking timeouts late in the game.

Sounds like an overreaction to me. Again, if Fordham was up by 30, OK, I get it, but 16 is not that much of a blowout. Let's not forget our comeback against LSU when Malcolm Grant took over.

Van Gundy very complimentary of DH's performance.....has to be a confidence builder for him.

Right now there are a legit top 10 teams and we are 1 of them. If you look at who we played I have no problem with national media members who doubt us. Tonight we get to take our first shot against a legit Top 10 team on a neutral floor. IMO this game is very important when it comes to our national perception. The Big East is stronger at the top this year compared to the previous 2 years. I know some board members do not care how the national media looks at us, I do. Whatever happens tonight will not have any bearing on what we do in March. But I LOVE looking at the rankings at seeing Villanova ranked at the top. I am looking forward to seeing how we play against an elite team this early in the year. We will have plenty of tests in the Big East, not just from the other top 4 teams(X, Providence, GTown, & Butler) but everyone. We are the top dog and will receive everyone's best shot on the road. Plus, we travel to Virginia and play a Top 10 team in a hostile environment. Win or lose tonight nothing will be decided. But nationally we can make a lasting impression. Im saying we win a slug fest by hitting our FTs late and win by 7. It will be a 1 or 2 possession game all night but we pad the lead late with some defensive stops and Arch hitting 4 FTs in the final 30 seconds.

Is he from Delaware? Did we seriously recruit him? Did he want in and we said no? Very impressive big, would love to have him.