Ohter considerations kept me from the games and reporting this past week - catching up with things today.

After that perplexing loss to Marquette last week, the team got some balance back by beating Seton Hall and Georgetown in convincing fashion. The walkover against the Hall was no surprise, but as wev'e seen, this year's team is capable of losing to anyone on the schedule.

On Wednesday night, Nova jumped on Seton Hall to run out to a 13-0 lead five and a half minutes in, with threes from Carey and Burford, a conventential three from Holman and two layups from Sweeney. SH finally got untracked a bit to close to 20-13, but three more threes from Carey, Leer and Kane took us to the locker room up 30-15. It was more of the same for the first 8 minutes into the second half with Nova outscoring SH by 19-4 to go up 49-19 and coasted from there. Sweeney had 14 with 6 boards, 5 steals and 3 blocks, Kane had 12 on perfect 5-5 shooting, Burford 9 on 3-4 from outside the arc, and Carey collected 8 on 3-3 shooting. Overall 23-49 shooting (9-19 on threes), 14 assists and 10 turnovers. A very balanced attack, great defensive stands and generally doing what we should have done against a relatively poor SH team.

Saturday's outcome was more of a surprise. Georgetown was playing with a somewhat depleted roster, but still had Sugar Rogers on the court. Nova once again came out in defensive lockdown mode, getting 2 turnovers and limiting the Hoyas to only 5 shots in the first four minutes, holding them scoreless. Unfortunately, we were only able to make 2 of 8 during that stretch and led by only 5-4 after two Hoya buckets. After trading some buckets to still lead by 12-9 at the 10 minute mark (a common Nova game score at that point in a lot of games), the offense heated up from three point land. A layup by Sweeney and then seven consecutive threes by Pearson, Roberts, Burford, Leer, Burford and Burford again and finally Roberts again blew the game open at the half, leading 35-14, ending the half on a 23-5 barrage. After the Sweeney layup we took no shots from inside the arc, shooting 7-8 on threes to end the half.

Nova cooled off significantly in the second hafl, scoring only 22 points, but Georgetown closed the gap to inside of 20 only in the last few minutes as Sugar Rogers finally got her game going, scoring most of her game-high 21 in the last seven minutes. Game totals, Nova 20-57 overall, with 15-39 on threes and only 5 baskets from inside the arc. 17 assists and only 7 turnovers. Burford led with 15 on 5-12 three point shooting. Sweeney had 11, 9 boards, 5 steals and 2 blocks. Roberts picked up 9 points on 3-5 three balls. A fine overall performance although heavily weighted on the three point shooting. Not much attempt to get things inside as the perimeter was open all day with lots of passing around the outside and cross court.

Off until Sunday when #10 Louisville comes into the Pavilion. A top-20 win over Louisville would probably get us into the NCAA and we did play them close both games last year. Still a tall order to accomplish. A loss to Louisville and we are probably looking at needing two more wins out of the remaining games against St. Johns, Syracuse and Providence to get a sixth or seventh place finish in the Big East and any consideration for an NCAA bid unless we upset one of the big boys in the BE tournament.

Added link to PhilaHoopsW article about Nova-GT game and the current situation at Rutgers. Too bad we could not have pulled out the win over RU or the heat would really be on in South Brunswick.
This post was edited on 2/17 11:38 AM by tpenter

PhillyhoopsW game story

Some notables:

McEntee is running the 3K and 5K
Williamsz is in the 3K as well.
Denault and Tully in the mile
Fitz and Golato in the 800
Ellison in the 500, as is Reber, who doesn't have a qualifying time to the best of my knowledge.

On the ladies side
Summer Cook in the 3K and 5K
Lipari in the 1K and mile
Piccirillo in the 1K
Akande and Margey in the 800

No sign of Mimic or Mildenhall. ?

I attached the heat sheets

Heat sheets

Some very interesting results

Ben Malone wins boys mile in 4:12 and change

Sheila Reid wins women's mile in 4:27 and change but MAry Cain finishes 2nd in 4:28. Breaks her own us jr natl and hs records by 5 seconds. Also broke both records at 1500m along the way.

Penn state set a new millrose and armory record with 7:41 and change in 4x800. They are loaded with 400 and 800 guys. Anchor ran 1:48. for them.

No problem. It's just the Cronks down the road taking target practice this afternoon. And I can tell that they are using semi-automatic 22 caliber rifles. There are still parts of America that are still America and I love it!

I like him. Would be a terrible executive but I love him.

Thoughts on him?

We're firmly in his top five. If I had to guess, he's off to Arizona because of James Li's work with Kenyans, but it's big that we're even in his top five, and it looks like Marcus will be the last person to get to make a pitch for him.

Cheserek college visits

Let's raise more taxes to offset the spending cuts that were supposed to offset the other spending I would not agree to cut. Amazing how this guy does this with a straight face. Guy can't provide a spending cut he'd endorse.

Some observations from today's upset loss:

It's kind of amazing to me that Nova only had 5 turnovers, considering the ball kept going through Nova's hands all game long. I guess if you don't have possession, it's not a turnover, but Nova fumbled the ball over and over, and fumbled many rebounding opportunities.

Why does Taylor Holeman shoot so often with her foot on the three point line? If she'd step back just a little, she'd be making three points instead of two.

Lauren Burford had 20 points in a game as recently as January 23. However, since then, she has 5 points, 4 points, 6 points, 0 points and 2 points. In the last 2 games, she has 2 points on 8 shots. What happened?

What happened to Megan Pearson's shooting touch? 0-5 versus Notre Dame, 0-5 today. How about trying to get Megan Pearson some layups underneath, instead of just shooting three-pointers?

Harry has gone to the Twin Towers defense in the last two games, a move which I supported earlier in the season, but unfortunately, opposing players seem to either just drive right by the Twin Towers or make mid-range jump shots. Is this because Sweeney and Leer are not used to being on the court at the same time?

Ever since they started telling Nova fans to stand up at the beginning of the game until Nova scores, Nova always gets outscored by 4-0 at the beginning of the game. It seems to me that asking fans to stand until Nova scores puts unnecessary pressure on Nova. Marquette went up 4-0 at the beginning and won by 4. Notre Dame started out 4-0 and won by 7.

Do you think Nova seemed overconfident coming off their 7 point loss to #2 Note Dame and Marquette's 57 point loss to #3 Connecticut?
This post was edited on 2/10 11:39 PM by TC Romulus

Harry's Lady Cats played an awesome hard fought game against the #2 Irish last night before a great crowd where even the usual student section was almost filled. Those Irish players and coach Muffin McGraw had to leave with well earned respect for our Team. The officiating was often brutal with even Harry questioning some calls where calls that should have gone against the Irish were called against us. Emily Leer led our Cats in scoring.

Both our men's win over DePaul and our women's game against the Irish were being televised. Muffin mentioned at the UConn game that she hoped that UConn would continue to remain on the Irish's schedule. Gino said that their schedule for next year was already full. I wonder if the Irish will remain on our schedule in future years.

An unexpected treat was having Joe Eichorn announce our game last night with his storied inflection and enthusiasm.
This post was edited on 2/6 10:06 PM by UncleBill57

Both are entered in strong fields. McEntee entered in the 3000, Williamsz in the mile. It'll be interesting to see the heat sheets when they come out.

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/wash/sports/c-track/auto_pdf/2012-13/misc_non_event/2013HuskyClassicEntries.pdf

NP
This post was edited on 2/6 11:02 AM by RSTRICK30

The game was over within the first few minutes. Breanna Stewart
is/was the best high school player I have ever seen; the Huskies have
ten more like her. They are so talented and athletic that we had trouble
getting into a any offensive flow.

Women's 1000 was very interesting. Schappert's 2:45.65 was second behind LSU"s Lipsey's 2:44.20. Margey still holds the Armory record from earlier this year, 2:43.89. After cutting 5 sec. off her PB mile time at PSU, today she cut almost 6 sec. off her PB in the 1000.

Denault continues to run well -- third in the men's 1000 in 2:24.89




This post was edited on 2/1 5:34 PM by excattyguy


This post was edited on 2/1 5:39 PM by excattyguy

This post was edited on 2/2 11:42 AM by excattyguy

The Zimmerman family has been victimized for political gain by Omama and the liberal press in a manner which completely ignores and violates Zimmerman's and his family's constitutional rights.

Abuse of the Bully Pulpit Violating Bill of Rights

Not getting too much in-depth coverage, but it seems that the administration is ok with using drones to kill any terrorist, including US citizens.
I am not necessarily against this, but doesn't it seem to contradict the president's belief in the rule of law, due process, etc? I mean, this is the same man that vowed to close Gitmo, and try terrorists in NYC and show the world he is a man that respects people's rights to due process.
Thoughts?


This post was edited on 2/6 1:17 PM by E-Tec

An incredibly disappointing loss for the Nova women, bouncing back nicely from the drubbing earlier in the week at UConn to control this game nearly the whole way, but fading badly at the end. Nova completely stymied the Rutgers offense the entire first half, limiting them to five made baskets and taking a 24-17 lead at the half. It could have been much more, but at least five possessions came up empty on unforced turnovers. Laura Sweeney and Rachel Roberts led the first half scoring with 7 apiece and Lauren Burford hit two threes with the team hitting 5 of 9 in the half. Nova handled the press well and overcame some really bad officiating in the half.


Rutgers got their legs early in the second half scoring two baskets in the first 40 seconds, and you could almost tell it was going to be a fight from there on out. Nevertheless, Nova continued to hit some key shots and maintain their composure handling the ball and we led by as much as 8 points at the 7:25 mark after a long 3 ball by Emily Leer at the shot clock buzzer followed by a layup by Sweeney. Alas, that was the end of the Nova offense for the night.


Rutgers ramped up the press and pressure on in-bounds plays and hounded the Wildcats into submission. Leer scored a breakaway layup on a press break at the 3:18 mark to keep Nova up 46-41, but that was only basket that Nova would score in the last 7 minutes of regulation and the five minutes of overtime. In fact, other than a missed jumper at the buzzer by Megan Pearson that would have won the game, Nova only got off two other shots in the last 7 minutes of regulation, turning the ball over seven times. A rare three ball by Rutgers pulled them within three, and after a short jumper in the lane brought them to within 1, Rutgers had a chance to win in regulation. A drive with 8 seconds left resulted in a missed shot, but a shooting foul was called on Nova. A missed free throw kept us up by one, but the second shot was good to tie the game. Nova had a shot at the win but Pearson's shot just barely caught the front of the rim at the buzzer, leaving us in a 46-46 tie.




The overtime was anti-climatic as Rutgers quickly went up by six and the only points we could score in the overtime came from the foul line, shooting 0-6 from the field. Such a disappointing result, once again being outplayed at the end by a Rutgers team to extend our losing streak to them to 11.


A real downer, followed by a visit from #2 Notre Dame on Tuesday night. Come on out to try to cheer this team back on track - the Golden Domers will be sure to bring in a few fans for their team. A loss to the Irish will really put the pressure on Nova to get a must-win against Marquette next week. A loss to Marquette could really put this season on the skids.

Added link to Rutgers website game story and photos 2-2-13



This post was edited on 2/2 10:10 PM by tpenter


This post was edited on 2/2 10:10 PM by tpenter

This post was edited on 2/2 10:11 PM by tpenter

Link to Rutgers Game Story and Photos

Several good results -- Ellison's 800 1:48+ Denault 4:00.04 mile McEntee 8:08+ 3000 Akande and Schappert cut about 5 sec. of their PB in the mile and Lipari ran 4:39+ in the mile for third. Reid won in 4:30+

Margey ran 2:08+ for 800 and Picirillo ran 4:40+ for the mile

This post was edited on 1/26 7:38 PM by excattyguy

This post was edited on 1/27 12:04 AM by excattyguy

Came across this stat from a research report published in the Southern Medical Journal back in 2010. I would call it thought provoking:

Research shows that access to guns greatly increases the risk of
death and firearm-related violence. A gun in the home is twelve times
more likely to result in the death of a household member or visitor than
an intruder. The most common cause of deaths occurring at homes
where guns are present, by far, is suicide. Many of these self-inflicted
gunshot wounds appear to be impulsive acts by people without previous
evidence of mental illness. Guns in the home are also associated with a
fivefold increase in the rate of intimate partner homicide, as well as
an increased risk of injuries and death to children.

Discuss




http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/11/jo

Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner. Liberty is the sheep having adequate firepower to contest the vote.

I'm not sure which founding father is the author. Anyone know?

CENTURY MARK: Faris needs two 3-pointers to reach 100 in her career.
That would give the Huskies four players with 100 career 3-pointers on
the same team for the first time. Hartley (152), Mosqueda-Lewis (149),
and Doty (132) have already reached the mark.



SUCCESS STORY: UConn coach Geno Auriemma
has endured 130 losses in 27-plus seasons at UConn. No opposing coach
has had more success against the Hall of Famer than Villanova coach Harry Perretta, who has earned 11 wins in 46 meetings. ~This year is as good a time as any to hand them another loss~




CATCHING UP: Doty and Carey are friends and former teammates at the
high school (Germantown Academy) and AAU levels (Fencor). This will be
the final time in their career that they will meet in a regular-season
game.


Home game

Roberts was born in Manchester and was a three-time, first-team
All-State selection by the Connecticut High School Coaches' Association,
the Courant and the New Haven Register at Mercy-Middletown High. As a
junior in 2007-08, she averaged 22.5 points and 7.8 rebounds. She scored
1,700 points and ranks second all-time in scoring at Mercy and was a
two-time conference MVP.


GO NOVA!

It is an experience unlike any other for
the Huskies. It is the Villanova Experience and it is next on the
schedule as No. 3 UConn will host the Wildcats Tuesday at the XL Center.


Sophomore Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis remembers well playing against
Villanova and its deliberate, 3-point-happy style for the first time a
year ago. And it was not much fun.


"It was hard for me last year going to Villanova and getting screened
that many times and having to remember how I'm supposed to play this
screen and who's a shooter and who's not. It's going to be tough. Coach
(Geno Auriemma) told us that this is going to be a good test for our
team to see where we are mentally and see how patient we can be.''

The Wildcats are 16-3 (5-1 Big East), fresh off of Saturday's 64-59
win over No. 22 Syracuse. It was their first win over a Top 25 Big East
team since a victory over then-No. 25 DePaul Feb. 14, 2009.


Villanova is averaging just 59.6 points. However, it is eighth in the nation in scoring defense (50.0).


The Wildcats, who regularly like to drain the 30-second shot clock, also lead the nation in fewest turnovers per game (11.4).

"It's a mental challenge,'' UConn senior Kelly Faris said.
"Obviously, their style plays different than most teams. They like to
use up all 30 seconds. They like to test you. They'll back you down.
They'll clear everybody out. They'll run flare screens and just
constantly run, run, run. So it's going to be more of mental challenge
for us to stay focused for every possession for 30 seconds. You're not
used to doing that. You're used to playing hard defense for three
seconds here, three seconds there and then get the ball and go. So it
will be different just because we don't play too many teams that are
like that. And defensively there's got to be a ton of talking. So
communication is key for that.''


Here is another fascinating stat pertaining to Wildcats … 44.6 of
their 1,054 shots this season have been 3-pointers. They are averaging
7.6 made 3-pointers (20th nationally) on 24.7 attempts per game.


"I think it's difficult to defend a team that that's all they're
going to shoot,'' Auriemma said. "One of the reasons why they're really
good this year is they scored 65 points against DePaul (Jan. 9) and won
by 20 and only made three 3s.''


The Huskies have spent a great deal of time beyond the 3-point arc
too this season. They are averaging 8.8 made 3-pointers per game, which
is fifth in the nation, on 24.1 attempts. Also, 37.6 percent of their
1,216 shots have been 3-pointers.

Just don't expected UConn to get sucked into a 3-point shooting contest with the Wildcats.


"Definitely not,'' Mosqueda-Lewis said. "We're going to use our
height to our advantage. With Stefanie (Dolson), I don't think anybody
can guard her in there so we're going to get it in there as much as we
can. And whenever she's double-teamed or whenever they feel like they've
got to double her or stop her, she'll kick it out to us when we're
open.''

Rich








Rich Elliott


Rich Elliott covers UConn women's basketball and the Bridgeport Bluefish for the Connecticut Post.

http://blog.ctnews.com/elliott/

What is this South Carolina in 1833?

Jail Federal Officials

#25 Villanova beat #22 Syracuse at the Pavillion tonight before a great crowd who were also there to celebrate our BE championship 2003 team that ended UConn's 70 game win streak.Trish Juline had her jersey raised to the rafters in honor off her great Villanoba career through that championship season. Many of the team members were there to be recognized and applauded.

Catherine Coyer had her redshirt ended tonight and proved herself to be another very talented freshman who played solid minutes and scored 5 key
points. I hadn't realized that her sister Carolyn has a broken hand.

The game was a really hard fought one with the talented Orange pressing the entire game. Roberts was the high scorer with at least 26 points making key buckets throughout, many from long distance. Laura Sweeney made key shots along with some great defensive ones along with key rebounds throughout the game. As usual our entire team played tough hoops throughout even though the Orange did get some easy buckets off of steals. Harry was a pretty calm general tonight directing our palers in beating the press and keeping the Orange from even taking a Trey when we were up by that number as the seconds wound down.

The Orange had tall and broad inside players to go along with excellent long range shooters and were good going to the basket as well.

It was a very supportive and vocal Villanova crowd nelpong to cheer our Cats onto a Great win.

The shine came off the Nova season tonight with an ugly loss to the Friars. Nova's failure to hit open threes and extend a large first half lead, unable to score at all at the start of the second half, the inability to come down with key defensive rebounds and numerous missed foul shots sent us down to defeat. Rachel Roberts did not make the trip with the flu.

Providence scored the first bucket and led 4-0 and then managed to miss their next 20 plus shots. Nova ran off 21 straight points to lead 21-4 at the 17:16 mark, but it should have been much more with the total domination they had on defense through that stretch. Providence finally scored their second bucket at the 5:50 mark. Nova led 29-8 after a Sweeney three and Providence scored to close the half at 29-10, shooting 3-30 for the half. Just ugly. Laura Sweeney almost had a double double in the first hafl with 9 points and 9 rebounds.

Nova promply gave up the lead by not scoring for the first 7 and a half minutes, letting Providence motor ahead by 31-29 until Sweeney nailed another three to put us back in front, ending a 21 point run by the Friars. Things finally got going for us, with Lauren Burford picking up the pace, scoring 18 points after the half. Her three at the 9:33 mark put Nova up 42-35, but it was a dogfight the rest of the way. Nova had a 50-47 lead after Sweeney made one of two at the line, but Providence immediately scored on a short bank shot after a time out. Burford then missed the front end of a 1 and 1 and Providence ran down and scored on a layup with 6 seconds left. Nova held the ball to take it to OT.

Providence jumped up by 55-51 on a put back and a short shot, but Devon Kane and Burford nailed threes and we were back up by 2. Another putback and a fastbreak layup put Providence up 59-57. Devon Kane then missed the front end of a 1 and 1, allowing Providence to score off the run-out and then with two free throws to lead 63-57 with 25 seconds left. Burford immedidately answered with a three and on the ensuing inbounds Nova stole the ball but then lost it out of bounds in a scramble. After fouling Providence to put them on the line, they missed the front end of the 1 and 1 but we gave up an easy rebound for a putback score to ice the game. Final Score, 65-60.

Burford finished with 20, Sweeney 14 with 11 boards, fill-in starter Kane posted 8 points. Providence pulled down a near Big East record 65 rebounds, including 30 offensive. Seven missed foul shots (9 of 16) didn't help, many in clutch situations. Got to re-group and play much better to beat Syracuse. Need to hit threes (especially if they zone us the whole game again) and put up more of a fight for the rebounds against one of the better centers in the league. WIth our loss, Notre Dame remains as the only undefeated team in the Big East.