The Pavilion was totally packed last night.
One of the biggest crowd ever, similar to Randy Foye Senior year in 2006, the F4 year, 2009, and Scottie’ Senior Year 2010.
The mood was joyous all around and spirits were flying high.
We had two VUSports.com tables right next to each other and the tables were in the middle of the floor, a sign that VUSports.com is no longer viewed as a necessary evil, well maybe just a little still.
I want to give a special shout-out to Brill, a longtime poster, whom I had the pleasure to meet last night for the first time.
Three important notes to start:
I.
Yes, Dylan Ennis was in attendance and was all smiles as always.
Father Peter talked about the fact that Dylan would always be a Wildcat and closed with “Go ahead and spend a year with them”.
At this point the them is yet to be determined but it seems as Illinois could be the landing place.
II.
The second very noteworthy point is the fact that at this event Jay delegated the MC duties. That function was taken over by Scott “Awesome Voice” Graham and aided in some parts by Ryan Fannon.
III.
Third fact is that the BEEFER, who considers himself a proletarian sat, by special invitation, with Villanova highest aristocracy: the Davis Brothers.
One other notable was the speech by one of the three Jack Kraft daughters who told the audience how honored and proud the family was by the fact that Nova wore the JK initial all year long.
Many seniors were introduced by Fannon, among them the Piccolo Player.
Then all players and the supporting cast were introduced and received BE Championship watches.
Then the evening rolled along with the many awards.
The Nova Nation Award, a trophy that goes to the person that does a lot of hard work quietly behind the scene. That Award went to Alex Nerny.
The Cristopher M. Dincuff Award, known as CMoreDink on this board, went to Student Manager Alex Mortillaro.
The Teresa and Joseph J. Martini Endowed Scholarship in Honor of Randy Foye went to Student Manager Kristen Leen.
The Joseph Walters Special Recognition Award went to Dr. Mike Duncan who has become the first full time doctor on the basketball program.
New Hall of Famer George Raveling presented the Alumni Appreciation Award to Chuck Everson. I thought this was extremely on point and well deserved as Chuck does a lot of work for Villanova and the basketball fraternity close together.
The Paul Arizin Award for the Most Improved Player was shared by Josh Hart and Kris Jenkins.
The Al Severance Award that goes to the hardest working scholar was shared by Darrun Hilliard and Phil Booth.
The Jake Nevin Award for the most unselfish player was shared Darryl Reynolds and Ryan Arcidiacono.
The Most Outstanding Player went to Darrun Hilliard
This year for the first time they awarded the Villanova Attitude Award, this is aprize for the player that collects the most attitude points during the season, and the inaugural winner was Daniel Ochefu.
The final award and the highest honor of all is the Villanova Basketball Award and the winner was JayVaughn Pinkston.
During the cocktail hour I gave Darrun a picture that was taken five years ago when Darrun was senior in HS.
The picture was taken after a Conshy game and in it were Darrun, a HS junior named Ryan Arcidiacono, and longtime posters Ed McM, Cathill, The Worm, the ZMan and Nova Nut.
Darrun seemed to really appreciate and got a kick out of it.
All in all it was a glorious Villanova-type of evening.
