He's jeopardizing any semblance of a deal.

Coyer 6-9 for 16 points, 2reb, 1A, 2stl at half. Leer 2-3 for 5. Starters totaled 13 for half. Sweeney had 2 fouls at half, scored 2. Hole man 2-3, pts,
4 reb,1stl, 1blk, 1 Pf. Roberts 2-3, 4pts, 1 reb, 2 PF, 1 to. Carey 1-4, opts, 2reb, 1pf,1to. That's our scoring. 5% left on battery.

E Donna 10 pts, 6reb, 1A, 1 stl

China began service Wednesday morning on the world's longest high-speed rail line, covering a distance in eight hours that is about equal to that from New York to Key West, Florida, or from London across Europe to Belgrade.
Bullet trains traveling 300 kilometers an hour, or 186 miles an hour, began regular service between Beijing and Guangzhou, the main metropolis in southeastern China. Older trains still in service on a parallel rail line take 21 hours; Amtrak trains from New York to Miami, a shorter distance, still take nearly 30 hours.

Why Can't America Have Nice Stuff

We won 55-44 in a really tough fought game even though the margin of victory in this game surpassed the 4 and 5 point wins we had in our other 2 Big 5 wins. Only Penn is left. Rollie was in attendant e with bride and 2 granddaughters.

Seeing the President crying on TV has shown me a side of him that gives me a lot more respect than I've had in the past. His comments were sincere and hopefully his comments stating that he would have to put politics aside and deal with the causes of all these tragedies, which we all know what they are. Flags have been ordered to fly at half mast. Unfortunately, all thoughts and prayers will not resolve or ease the pain of too many folks in Newtown, Ct.

Senator Daniel Inouye passed away last night. He was 88 years old. I'm not sure, but he may have been the last WWII Veteran in the Senate. He was one tough SOB, but if you ever heard him speak, you would never know the granite that was behind the soft voice. Rest in peace Senator.

The following is taken from Wikipedia.

" In 1943, when the [7]
....
On April 21, 1945, Inouye was grievously wounded while leading an assault on a heavily-defended ridge near Thompson submachine gun. After being informed of the severity of his wound by his platoon sergeant, he refused treatment and rallied his men for an attack on the second machine gun position, which he also successfully destroyed before collapsing from blood loss.


As his squad distracted the third machine gunner, Inouye crawled toward the final bunker, eventually drawing within 10 yards. As he raised himself up and cocked his arm to throw his last grenade into the fighting position, a German inside the bunker fired a [11"

Can't wait to hear Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson call Tim Scott an Uncle Tom.

New Senator

For those of you who care and are not already aware, Mel Greenberg (the "Guru" of womens basketball, and Women's Hall of Fame member as media) has joined forces with PhilaHoopsW and his local games stories (and later, I am sure his WNBA coverage) are now appearing over there.

The PhilaHoopsW site is much more organized and more pleasing in design, and Mel's first few game stories over there have a more "newspaper sports" feel to them than his blog, which sometimes was not much more than the ideas flowing from his vast knowledge of people involved in womens basketball. Photos sometimes included with the stories also.

Mel has been out to at least 3 Nova games already this year, which I think may have equaled the number of times we saw him last year. Bodes well for continuing media coverage of the Wildcats, if only in internet land.

The attached link gets you directly to the site and the story on yesterday's game.
This post was edited on 12/18 7:27 PM by tpenter

Greenberg - Nova St. Joes Story

Tough game. Court scored 12 and Sweeney 11 to lead VU. Full writeup on Villanova.com. Then teams, Then women's hoops.

From the Nova Nation side of the board, a link to a hilarious video (with sub-titles) pretty much putting into perspective the war mentality of the Big East teams.

CAUTION: Salty language galore.

Hilter's take on the Big East Split

With the loss of Rutgers, UConn and/or Louisville can't be long in leaving the Big East either. A shame, but maybe the demise of the Big East will be a blessing for Nova Basketball.

The non-BCS football schools in the Big East could form a pretty solid basketball league with Georgetown, Marquette, St. Johns, Providence, Seton Hall, Nova and Depaul just by itself. Keep Temple for all but football and raid the A-10 for St. Joseph's, Lasalle, Dayton, George Washington or Xavier. Keep travel costs down for all sports, bolster local recruiting, start, maintain or restore natural rivalries, etc. Annual tournament would travel around and be in the East at least 2 of every three years. This holds true for the men and the women sports.

Unknown in all of this is what kind of money Nova gets from the Big East in BCS television revenue, but that probalby would not be there for Nova even if the Big East can continue. They were pushing Nova to move up to BCS in football (bad move) or force them out, I assume so that there would be no revenue sharing with non-BCS schools.

Nevertheless, I think the Big East is up against it and never to be the same again. How many of you would be willing to pay for a Big East football television package? Anybody interested in travelling to away games west of the Mississippi? Time for Nova to start planning their own "exit" strategy and future without the B/E.

Go Nova.

This post was edited on 11/20 8:27 PM by tpenter

Predictable. Obama screwed her.

nm
This post was edited on 12/14 2:52 PM by novaclassof90

General Clark tells of the plan to invade 7 Countries weeks after 9/1//2001

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DJ--Z3lvaQ

Anyone know if the XC or track teams allow walk ons? If so, any details (time requirements, etc). I was asked by a parent of a high school runner who is hoping to get into VU. Thanks.

In a poorly played game by both squads, Nova managed to get just enough offense to hold off the Tigers and win their seventh straight game to go 8-1 on the year. Both teams shot the ball poorly in the first half and there were a lot of turnovers on the night.

Laura Sweeney returned to action and scored Nova's first seven points as the Cats "jumped" to a 15-8 lead after 12-1/2 minutes of action. It wasn't pretty. Princeton then let it be known that they were going to go away, closing to 15-14 and 21-17 before Nova ran off five of the last six points of the half to go up 26-18. Nova was 10 of 32 and 4 of 15 on threes for the half and Princeton was even worse at 7-32 and 0-5 on threes. Sweeney had 9 and Lauren Burford 6 on two threes to lead the scoring.

Nova pushed out to a sixteen point lead at 39-23 three and a half minutes into the second half, with threes by Jesse Carey, Burford and Rachel Roberts wrapped around a jumper by Taylor Holman. Nova maintained a 10 point cushion through the eight minute mark when some bad offensive possessions allowed consecutive three pointers and a foul shot to shrink the lead to only four with six minutes to go. Then a jump shot by Emily Leer, a beautiful fast break layup by Roberts from Caroline Coyer and a Roberts three ran the Nova lead back up to 11 with only 3:30 to go and Princeton could get no closer than 5 after that. Nova shot 50% in the second half, including 4 of 8 on threes, spending much of the time trying to push the ball inside.

Coyer finished with 12, Sweeney had 11 with 9 boards and appeared healthy but played less minutes than normal. Leer put in six points on 3 of 6 shooting and brought down 7 tough rebounds. The sloppy play yielded 14 Nova turnovers vs. only 15 assists.

Carey left the game in the second half with a severe facial cut on the upper face area and did not return to the court. No word as to the extent of her injury yet. Harry played only nine tonight.

An ugly win, but a win nonetheless, avenging an incredibly ugly loss to Princeton last year. Nova entered the game with the 22nd best RPI, and this game will not hurt that ranking as Princeton's RPI was 55. Temple up next with a 78 RPI and then Delaware at 90 RPI. If we win over Delaware in the New Year's weekend tournament, we almost certainly would play Duquesne who currently has a 30 RPI. If this team keeps winning they will enter the Big East Schedule with an outstanding record and RPI, boding well for a shot at a tournament spot this year as the Big East strength of schedule will almost certainly generate a low year end RPI for us.

Nine days off until the Temple game; plenty of time to allow wounds to heal, finish final exams and get ready for another Big Five battle.

Update: Link to Mel Greenberg game story. His website also has updated Philly Top 10 Poll with Nova up to #2 behind Penn State.

This post was edited on 12/13 4:56 PM by tpenter

This post was edited on 12/18 7:24 PM by tpenter

Greenberg Game Story

Collegiate leader in the 800m going into the break. Her converted time is 2:09.50 (from 2:10.99) which is faster than any Villanova girl ran indoors last year. I was at the meet, she probably could have run even faster had she been pushed, but she ran from the front virtually the entire way.

It will be interesting to see what they do about a women's DMR this year. There are a lot of possibilities

Piccirillo/Akande/Lipari
Varonica Johnson/Michaela Wilkins(?)
Margey/Akande
Akande/Lipari/Piccirillo

That's a lot of possibilities. I think that Lipari has to be the anchor, because that's the leg that matters the most, and I think she has the best kick. But I think that at Penn, they'll do DMR/4x8 this year instead of DMR/4x1500 like they have for the last few years.

Despite the fact that her mother is former Villanova All-American Celeste Halliday, Villanova was never under serious consideration by Sydnee Over (Windsor, CT). She just made it official and committed to Florida State. Here is the story:

Track: Windsor's Sydnee Over to run at Florida State

10:43 p.m. EST, December 10, 2012






Windsor senior Sydnee Over,who finished second at the New Balance Outdoor National championships in

the 800 meters last year, will run at Florida State next year.


Over, who plays basketball in the winter and runs cross country in the fall, was the New England and State Open 800-meter outdoor champion and the Class L 400 and 800 meter champion. She chose Florida State over Penn State, North Carolina, Virginia, Kansas and Texas A&M, among others.
She was the Courant's outdoor track runner of the year as a sophomore and a junior. Her mother, Celeste Halliday-Over, was an Olympic alternate in the 800 meters in 1992, a Pan Am Games bronze medalist and an All-American at Villanova.




This post was edited on 12/11 9:24 AM by LSU-Nit

Going in this figured to be a tough test for Nova and it got worse 3 minutes in when Laura Sweeney took a shot to her eye that left her momentarilly disoriented and left the game and could not return. Emily Leer came on to star in her second straight game and Taylor Holman had some key plays and tough rebounds to somewhat contol St. Joes center Cahtil Van Grinsven, who had a monster game with 24 points and 11 boards and was a presence throughout the game.

Nova had a slim lead most of the game; the few times St. Joes took a one or two point lead, Nova immediately responded to regain the lead. Devon Kane was a key factor early on, driving to the hoop repeatedly for layup attempts. Nova also battled the striped shirts in this one as Kane came away several times with all but open wounds but no foul calls. Nova led by 27-23 at the break, had no turnovers and five assists in the first 20 minutes with Kane and Leer leadng the scoring with 7 and 6 points. Holman started the scoring with a three ball and Emily Suhey had a productive two minutes, coming in to get open in the corner for a big three pointer.

Until the 9 minute mark of the second half, Nova never led by more than four and St. Joes only led by two on one occasion. After St. Joes tied the score for the final time at 38-38, Holman put Nova up for good with a layup and then Kane went coast to coast with a steal to score. A layup by Rachel Roberts and an improbable off balance prayer shot by Megan Pearson at the shot clock buzzer put us up by 8. After two free throws from Roberts we had a seemingly comfortable 10 point lead with a little more than 4 to play. After two free throws by Pearson we were still up by 8 with 47 seconds to play and the chess game began. A pair of foul shots narrowed the lead down to 6, a single free throw by Roberts put it back to 7, a layup by St. Joes took it down to 5, two more foul shots by Roberts back up to 7, still with 31 seconds left. A long bomb by Van Grinsven cut it to 4 and a single foul shot by Kane took it back up to 5 with16 seconds left. After taking a foul they had to give, Nova gave up a final layup to Van Grinsven with 6 seconds left and St. Joes immediatly fouled Roberts on the inbounds. After missing the first, thoughts were of that awful loss last year at Marquette, but Roberts made the second to ice the game 55-51.

Good stuff - only 8 turnovers, great pickup by Leer and Holman for Sweeney's absence, limited 3 point attempts (5-11) with lots of ball movement and working the ball inside. Good to see immediate offensive response when St. Joes tied or went ahead and the overall poise that the entire team had dealing with the additional adversity of playing without Sweeney and against the refs. Great games by Roberts (16 points on 4-5 from the floor with nine rebounds), Kane (10 points on 4-8 from the floor and controlling the game at times) and Pearson (11 points on 4-6 from the floor).

Downers - Sweeney experiencied blurred vision but apparently was later cleared to play, but Harry chose to have her sit out. Hopefully a full recovery by Wednesday night. Poor foul shooting for the second straight game, some in key situations. Getting this team in position to win at the end of games should be the hard part; closing them out with ball control, clock management and decent foul shooting should be the easy part.

This was the first of three straight games against teams with high RPI ratings. Team is now 7-1 on the year with a big game against Princeton Wednesday night at home to try to avenge last year's blowout loss, then a week off for exams before taking on Temple in our quest to retain our Big Five title from last year.

Attached Link takes you to St. Joe website for some great photos, video and nice comments about Nova by coach Griffen.
This post was edited on 12/8 8:26 PM by tpenter

Video and Photos from St. Joe website

Samantha Wilkes wanted her senior year to be as worry free as possible. That's why the Immaculate Heart senior point guard ended the suspense early and verbally committed to play basketball at Villanova.





FILE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KARAS/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The 6-foot-1 Wilkes, who'll be one of the preseason favorites for The Record girls basketball Player of the Year honor, was one of the most recruited players in North Jersey.

The 6-foot-1 Wilkes, who'll be one of the preseason favorites for The Record girls basketball Player of the Year honor, was one of the most recruited players in North Jersey. She had almost 30 scholarship offers, choosing the Wildcats after paring down the list to include Syracuse, South Florida and Delaware."

More on another Nova commit

"Decatur's 6-0 senior point forward Jordan Dillard signed a letter-of-intent with Villanova University Thursday at the Decatur High Arena.

Surrounded by her two sisters, two brothers and her parents, Courtney and Gayla Dillard, along with several hundred Decatur students, Dillard officially announced she'd attend the Big East Conference school about 20 minutes outside of Philadelphia.

Dillard becomes the second Decatur girls player to earn a Division 1 basketball scholarship in the last year. Queen Alford signed last spring with Jacksonville University and has already played in two games.

Dillard said her short list of schools included Memphis, St. Johns, Georgia Tech and Harvard."

Georgia prospect

Do we have any interest in Regan Rome, out of Dallas, Pa. She's small, but has the heart of a lion, and a pedigree to boot. Her mother ran for Penn State, father wrestled Div 1 at Wilkes. I,m not sure what her ceiling is, but she's a junior who's time are steadily improving. I think she deserves a look.

"I'm not a scientist, man," Rubio told the magazine. "I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that's a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I'm not a scientist. I don't think I'm qualified to answer a question like that.

"At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says," he continued. "Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries."



Member of Senate Sub-Committee on Science and Spac

What would it take for the LadyCats to become competitive with Notre Dame. The Irish- Husky game had to be one of the best games,men or women played this year.

Not there, but had to be ugly. Assist to tornover not that good. Glad to see Leer hitting groove. My thoughts is that too many subs takes away from the flow and also reduces the players confidence on the floor. Yep, they are d-1 players, but a little boost every now and then can't hurt. Game never should have been that close.