NCAA Tournament, Second Round
Villanova vs. Iowa
The Barclays Center
Sunday, March 20 at 12:10 p.m. (EDT)
TV: CBS

Tickets: Click to purchase tickets.

Team Hotel
The Ritz-Carlton New York, Battery Park
Two West Street, New York, NY 10004
Villanova information desk will be located on the lobby level across from 2 West restaurant.
Get into gear! Visit the information desk to purchase your Villanova apparel.

For more details on events taking place throughout the weekend, please visit
www.villanova.edu/LetsMarchNova.


Check out the highlights from Villanova's 86-56
victory over UNC Asheville on Friday.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Saturday, March 19
4 p.m.
Meetup
The Ritz-Carlton New York, Battery Park

Sunday, March 20
9:30 a.m.
Team sendoff
The Ritz-Carlton New York, Battery Park

10 a.m.
Pregame meetups
The Montrose
47 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217

200 Fifth
Restaurant & Sports Bar
200 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217

Don't have tickets? Stay at the Montrose for a game watch.

Immediately following the game
Postgame meetup
The Montrose

REGIONAL GAME WATCHES

Atlanta: TBD

Baltimore: Heavy Seas Alehouse

Boston: Warehouse Bar & Grille

Charleston: Mac's Place

Chicago: Derby Bar & Grill

Colorado: TBD

Dallas/Fort Worth: Trinity Hall Irish Pub

Fairfield/Westchester: Bob Hyland's Sports Page Pub

Greater Philadelphia: Kildare's Manayunk

Greater Washington, DC: Parlay Sports Bar & Lounge


Houston: Doc's Motorworks Westheimer

Lehigh Valley: Boston's Restaurant & Sports Bar

Manhattan (Three locations): Proper West, Gramercy Ale House and The Montrose

Morris/Somerset: Sona 13

Phoenix: Kelly's at Southbridge

San Diego: Home & Away

Tampa: Ducky's Sports Lounge

Villanova Club of the Low Country
(Hilton Head, SC): Drydock Restaurant

Daily News predictions are surprising to say the least...........

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

1. Yesterday's game reminded me of two things. First, when they fought the first time in 1971, Muhammad Ali told Joe Frazier he was God, and Frazier responded, "God, you in the wrong place tonight." Second, when we played Kansas in 2005, I felt like they paid the price that day for all the losing, all the NIT appearances, all the injuries, the phone card suspensions, and even the near-death flight out of Providence. You could feel it that day all the way up in the stands. Well, yesterday afternoon, Iowa was in the wrong place, and they paid the price. Everyone in our locker room, and really even all the terrific VU fans in the stands, clearly were just ready to let out the frustrations of the last three Tournaments on Iowa. It was great to see it happen that way.

2. In retrospect, Jay played the psychology of 3/21/15 to 3/20/16 perfectly. He did five important things from what I could tell: 1) He talked about it as often as anyone wanted to ask him. 2) He didn't run away from the disappointment but also wouldn't let it define our program (at least within the program). 3) He kept the team's focus on each game even as he continued not to run away from last March, so that we didn't trip up along the way. 4) Once we got past Asheville, he talked to the team about how it wasn't the end of the world when we lost to N.C. State and wouldn't be the end of the world if we lost in the second round this year. 5) He made absolutely sure we were 100% primed and ready to go yesterday. Balancing the fourth and fifth points was a tricky deal. On the one hand, he wanted the team to play loose and aggressive, but on the other hand, he wanted total focus. I wasn't sure how tight the team might be yesterday, given how tense he was on Friday, but I'd say he got the result he wanted.

3. Now the trick, obviously, is not to be satisfied. The psychology of 3/20/16-3/24/16 is going to be almost as tricky as the last year was. I remember Jay coming into the hotel in Boston in 2009, at a moment when quite frankly I was totally satisfied, and telling everyone they weren't done yet. I thought, jeez, we're not even going to wait until after the party to talk about the next game? In any event, I have little doubt they were talking about Miami even before they left that locker room celebration yesterday. It may not be easy to get back to that peak focus/energy combination they had yesterday, but they gotta do it.

4. Speaking of which, I am a superstitious fellow who didn't want to say much last week about how perfect I thought that draw was for us, but my goodness, I love when we play skilled but not terribly athletic teams. Miami is a different beast.

5. On the topic of luck, all the upsets (and particularly all the luck the ACC got) reminded me that we really haven't gotten a lot of breaks ahead of us when we've advanced in the Tournaments since 2005. We got a nice break when Siena beat Vanderbilt in 2008, although I think we would have had a great shot against Vanderbilt given how well we were playing. But other than that, not so much. 2005: 4 (Florida) and 1 (UNC) seeds were there when we advanced, and UNC won the NC. 2006: 8 (Arizona), 4 (BC), and 3 (Florida) seeds were there, and Florida won the NC. 2007: lost first round. 2009: 6 (UCLA), 2 (Duke), and 1 (Pitt) seeds were there in the region, and another 1 seed and eventual NC was waiting for us in the Final 4. 2010: got a 10 instead of a 7 in the second round, but I don't think that qualifies as much of a break. 2011: lost first round. 2013: lost first round. 2014: 7 (UConn) seed won ahead of us, and they won the NC. 2015: 8 (NCSU) seed won ahead of us (pretty much a wash seeding-wise, but they were a terrible matchup). Anyway, not complaining. You have to make your own breaks. I'm just saying, we've been in the Tournament 11 of the last 12 years, including a few as a top seed, and only once have we gotten the kind of break Maryland, Miami, Duke, Texas A&M, Syracuse, Iowa State, and Notre Dame all got this past weekend.

6. I thought the officials did a pretty good job in our two games this weekend - better than the guys we typically get in Big East games. Nobody got in undeserved foul trouble. No team was in the bonus after 5 minutes. There wasn't any rush of make-up calls after one team did make it to the bonus. Makes me wonder about our usuals.

RhythmicSlapper would be proud of the horseplay going on in the Conestoga HS football locker room.

http://bigstory.ap.org/d448b59f7b7b4c408982a0a9ac5fc732

$55 million richer...........

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20160307_ap_25aae359707b4b588ffa6bb30e9ecd7e.html

How about a little rundown on Miami for those who have seen them play some this year?

Obviously have the Hispanic PG who is very good...and a bunch of 6'6"-6'8" athletic dudes...reminds me or Laranaga's (sp?) GW teams.

How do you beat them?

nm

anyone know what it is or o/wise have a recommendation?

Per Rothstein

see next post

Common Opponents:
@Nebraska W 77-72 OT
Butler (PR Tipoff - neutral court) W 85-75
@LaSalle W 95-49
@ Virginia L 66-58
Virginia W 64-61
Virginia (ACC Tournament - neutral court) L 68-73

Selected games of note:
Utah (PR Tipoff - neutral court) W 90-66
Duke W 80-69
Notre Dame W 79-70
@ North Carolina L 96-71
@ Virginia Tech L 77-62

Preliminary Analysis/Observations:

• They needed OT to beat Nebraska; we blasted them.
• We both beat Butler and LaSalle by similar margins.
• They played Virginia three times and lost two out of three.
• Duke and ND are solid conference wins but both were at home.
• Bad loss at a middling NIT bound Virginia Tech team.
• Annihilated by UNC.

Thoughts? Not really sure what to make of this but nothing really scares me here.

I'm going to be on a plane to SFO Thursday afternoon/evening. Anyone have experience with in-flight streaming? Looks like I can stream free through NCAA website. Should I have hope that this can work or should I not expect much? Haven't tried streaming on a plane. Anyone done it successfully, any advice/tips to follow? thanks for any suggestions.

p.s. If it matters, United flight that appears to be a 737-800

Josh Verlin ‏@jmverlin 2m2 minutes ago
St. Joe's sweeps the Big 5 awards: DeAndre Bembry is Player of the Year, Phil Martelli is Coach of the Year.

Congratulations to Villanova Men's Basketball on advancing to the Sweet 16!

NCAA Tournament
South Regional Semifinal
Villanova vs. Miami
KFC Yum! Center
Thursday, March 24 at 7:10 p.m. (EDT)
TV: CBS

Tickets: Click to purchase tickets:

Team Hotel
The Brown Hotel
335 West Broadway, Louisville, KY 40202
Get into Gear! Visit the information desk during meetups to pick up your Villanova apparel!

For more details on events taking place throughout the week, please visit
www.villanova.edu/LetsMarchNova.


SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Tuesday, March 22
10 a.m.
Team Sendoff
Villanova University, Davis Center
Cheer on the Wildcats as they leave campus!

Wednesday, March 23
2:10 p.m.
Open practice
KFC Yum! Center
Louisville, KY
Practice is free and open to the public.

8 p.m.
Meetup
The Brown Hotel

Thursday, March 24
4 p.m.
Pregame meetup and team sendoff
(Team expected to depart at 4:30 p.m.)
The Brown Hotel
Mix and mingle with Villanova alumni and fans, and greet the Wildcats on their way to the game.

7:10 p.m.
Tipoff

Immediately following the game
Postgame Meetup
The Brown Hotel

REGIONAL GAME WATCHES


Baltimore: Heavy Seas Alehouse

Boston: Warehouse Bar & Grille

Charlotte: TBD

Chicago: Derby Bar & Grill

Colorado: Sports Column

Dallas/Fort Worth: Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom

Fairfield/Westchester: Bob Hyland's Sports Page Pub

Greater Hampton Roads: Shore Break

Greater Philadelphia: Field House

Greater Princeton: Brickhouse Tavern and Tap

Greater Washington, D.C.: Parlay DC (Dupont Circle)

Hartford: The Tavern Downtown

Houston: Doc's Motorworks Westheimer

Lehigh Valley: Boston's Restaurant & Sports Bar

Los Angeles: TBD

Manhattan: Gramercy Ale House

Monmouth/Ocean: Knights of Columbus

Morris/Somerset: Sona 13

Naples: Tavern on the Bay

Northern California: Perry's Embarcadero in SF

Palm Beach: Duffy's Sports Grill of PGA Blvd. & U.S. 1

Pittsburgh: TBD

San Diego: Home and Away

Sarasota: Gecko's Grill and Pub at the Landings Shopping Plaza

South Jersey: Double Nickel Brewing Company

Tampa: Ducky's Sports Lounge

Villanova Club of the Low Country
(Hilton Head, SC): Drydock Restaurant



Click for full list of regional game watches.

Saturday, March 26
(Should Villanova advance)
Three hours prior to tipoff
Team sendoff and pregame meetup
The Brown Hotel

Additional information to follow.

REGIONAL GAME WATCHES

Baltimore: Heavy Seas Alehouse

Boston: Warehouse Bar & Grille

Chicago: Derby Bar & Grill

Dallas/Fort Worth: Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom

Fairfield/Westchester: Bob Hyland's Sports Page Pub

Greater Princeton: Brickhouse Tavern and Tap

Greater Washington, D.C.: Parlay DC (Dupont Circle)


Houston: Doc's Motorworks Westheimer

Lehigh Valley: Boston's Restaurant & Sports Bar

Manhattan:Gramercy Ale House

Morris/Somerset: Sona 13

San Diego: Home & Away

Sarasota: Gecko's Grill and Pub at the Landings Shopping Plaza

Villanova Club of the Low Country
(Hilton Head, SC): Drydock Restaurant

At the game today, a rep from Barclay's sat down to next to me and asked me if I had problems getting tickets. He saw I was wearing a Villanova shirt, and asked me specifically if I was a Villanova fan before starting the conversation. To give complete transparency, I got 2 tickets on Wednesday for $150 each in section 122 off of StubHub. When it was all said and done the total price was $375, which I think is complete BS and is a friggin' sin because of all the fees, but what else can you do? Truth is these were BY FAR the 2 best tickets available in the lower section. After these 2 remaining tickets, everything else I saw was $200 and up.

I told the guy, obviously I didn't want to pay that much, but I wasn't going to miss the game. He said, well you can always get tickets off StubHub, but Jay Wright was upset that Villanova fans were having trouble getting tickets. Does anybody know the story with this? Was he talking about getting tickets from Barclays directly?

PS - There was definitely a decent showing by Villanova fans, but being in New York, I expected A LOT more. There was more of a crowd in the Temple / Iowa game, and watching the Michigan / ND game right now, Barclays looks like night and day. I know obviously timing has a lot to do with this, but still thought we could have done better.

Let me start of first by saying congratulations to Jay Wright, the coaching staff and this team. I enjoyed this season, just as I have enjoyed each and every season but there was no doubt in my mind the world would view us based on how we played yesterday. I give this team alot of credit, Jay, the seniors, staff and everyone. The season is a long journey and everyone in the room knew it was about one game and not only did they show up, they played the best 20 minutes of Villanova Basketball I have ever seen in my life time.

Watching Jay and the team celebrate is what is all about. These guys spend countless hours together, Jay has fostered a family like atmosphere with his players current and former. Watching him pump his fist going into the locker room made me want to run through a fregen wall. The guy loves his players and cares about them. He wants them to be successful on and off the court. On Sunday I was a nervous wreck, my wife said she had never seen me like this before a game, which is saying alot because I am always nervous. I simply told her its not about me, I can deal with the bullshit friends and the Doug Gottliebs of the world, its about them. Arc, Daniel, Henry, Pat and Kevin have put their blood sweat and tears into this program. I am proud to call them villanovans, they deserve to win this game, they deserve that in a season where they played their butts off to win the game that will ultimately judge their careers by the so called basketball experts. In the end that is what made me nervous. I am just incredibly happy for the kids, they deserve this week and hopefully next as well.

Now on to the game:
-This team played 40 minutes of high octane in your face defense, the offense got sloppy a bit but that is fine, you arent going to shoot the lights out of the gym for 40 minutes. The thing that impressed me the most about our defense was Booth and Brunson. That was the best Brunson has played all year defensively. Booth has been coming on and honestly I am going to say this now, I love the Booth Rodriguez match up. I think Booth can really get in his head and pester the ball.

-Kris Jenkins is going to be a good NBA player. Kris Jenkins plays with fire, passion, plays great D, and has the prettiest jump shot in America outside of Mr. Steph Curry. Kris Jenkins is going to be a very good NBA player, mark my words.

-Josh Hart had 19 points yesterday. I have no idea how Josh Hart had 19 points but every game I say the same thing to myself. Kid is scrappy and just gives what the defense will give him. Saying that, he needs to work on where he picks up his dribble. He has been picking it up in traffic alot lately, something he can easily fix. Think he needs to come back to work on the handle aspect of his game, but he is not that far off.

-Ryan Arc, lay up, hits a three, sets the damn tone of the game. Loved it when they went on a run and Arc is screaming at the bench getting them fired up. A true leader for the Wildcats, man I am going to miss him.

-Mikal Bridges is playing like a junior, having him on the floor and in the rotation just makes us so much better defensively. Love how he is playing right now, going to be an all timer at Nova.

-Daniel Ochefu, I am sure people are going to post on this board about Ochefu didnt play well offensively. I dont get why people get on him, Daniel is smart player. When he has to go against another 7 footer he isnt going to force things and I am fine with that. It wasnt the greatest match up for him, neither is Miami when Jakori is in. Saying that if we can get Jakori in foul trouble their other two big men are soft as charmin and in that case I really like the match ups. To me the thing that stood out about Daniel in this game was his aggressiveness on D. I tortured myself this summer and watched the NC State game, Daniel had multiple chance to block shots and alter them and just stood there. Against Iowa he made things extremely difficult for Utoff and their guards. I thought that was one of Daniel's best defensive games of the season.

-What I love about Darryl Reynold is he is always even keel. Takes what the defense gives him, doesnt force anything, was surprised he missed so many foul shots at the end though, he has been a very good foul shooter this season. Really like the minutes he is giving us.

My keys to the Miami game:

-Frustrate Rodriquez, as he goes Miami goes. Give him multiple looks, Bridges, Booth, Arc, sprinkle in some Hart.

-Force McCellan off the three point line, he tends to get out of control when he is heading to the basket.

-Newton is going to be jacked up, take it at him, get him in some foul trouble, need to eliminate one of their dribble drive threats.

-Really like the Jenkins, Hart match ups. Really like Brunson in this game too offensively.

This is going to be a tight game with multiple runs. Miami is a good team but match up wise they dont scare me. One thing is Larranaga's teams play hard, he gets them fired up. Need to do the same thing as we did against Iowa, play suffocating defense and get some transition opportunities.

Enjoy the game and the week everyone, best week of the year when you win the first weekend.

Other Notes:
-How bad is CBS become t the NCAA Tournament? The announcing is terrible across the board, the guys in the studio know nothing about the teams, even Clark Kellogg who is suppose to watch this the whole season is clueless. Fox and ESPN do so much of a better job with College Basketball and its not even close.

-I find myself craving Mexican food during games because of that damn Chalupa commercial.

-L Ville, anybody have extra tickets will be in Columbus this week, might make the drive there.

-If we are to win, I really really want Maryland. Dont ask me why, but for some reason I envision us taking them out.

-The 10:00 tip on Sunday has got to stop, I get it on Friday, Saturday and even Thursday, there is just no reason do it on Sunday.

-Tru TV is not a thing, and I plan on only watching it for four days a year.

now

?..any details on when the send off will be

is all of a sudden the strongest IMO. Four teams that all would be legit National Championship contenders if they made it out of the bracket. I don't think you'll find that anywhere else. I could easily see Kansas, Maryland, Miami, or Nova making a big run.

The Top 4 seeds in the West made it...but look closer at the quality of the teams. Does anyone really think Duke can win everything? Oregon had tons of trouble beating SJU(PA) last night. Texas A&M needed the single most miraculous comeback in NCAA history to beat an 11 seed.

If Xavier had beaten Wisconsin, you could make the case that the East was as strong. Wisky got by them though...they are a great story, but I don't see either ND or Wisky making a big run at this thing. The top of the bracket is very strong (Indiana/UNC)

The Midwest is putrid outside of Virginia. Syracuse and Gonzaga shouldn't be in the tournament (Zags there because they won the WCC, of course), and one will be in the Elite 8. Iowa State does not impress me at all and was 92 in KenPom's defensive rankings. UVA should waltz to the Final Four.

SMH.

They are a disaster. Awful rebounding team, a lot of erratic shots. Think Ennis would have helped them.

Take a look at this "Basketball Power Index" graphic. Based on what it says, The BPI states we are the 2nd best team between the South and West regions, and only slightly behind Kansas. It gives us 72% chance to win on Thursday and a 39% chance to go the Final 4. KU is only slightly favored over us at 43%. I guess we're viewed a pretty damn good team.

http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/115391/bpi-chances-to-advance-sweet-16