The ace-nova-mobile got rolling on Wednesday night at about 8:30 pm with NovaNut and EdMcM on board. Unfortunately UncleBill had to forfeit this trip.
We had a nice uneventful trip with a couple of pit-stops and very light traffic on the PA Turnpike, just a few trucks here and there. Werolled into town and checked at the Mount Lebanon SpringHill Suites by Marriot around 1:30 am. NovaNut had friend in town that got us a real nice deal in this affluent suburb of Pittsburgh. After a late rise on Thursday, Ed and I headed to the team Hotel for the Pre-Game event and Team Walk Thru.
NovaNut stayed behind at the hotel because the poor baby was sick.
The Renaissance Hotel in Pittsburgh is really nice but the lobby was kind of small compared to other venues that the team has used in the past.
Theplace was packed with VUSports.com luminaries: forgive me if I don't mentionall but just to name a few: Delphi Dan, the BEEFER, Shennanigans, NovaCat91,Catintime, PeterN, PEM, The Bench, LTVU, The Worm, ADP, RPGambit, Stricker RB
Nova, NovaUMSC, and so many more and forgive me for not mentioning all.
Bythe time the team walked thru, the place was overfull. Nova Nation had literally taken over the hotel. At about we started the 20 minute walk to the stadium and it was quite a big group headed by Father Peter himself. It was almost like a procession.NovaWorm remarked that we had a whole family walking, Ed was the grandfather, I was the father, he was the son, and Darryl, his buddy was the family black-sheep. I picked up my tickets at the Villanova Will Call and soon realized that I had the good fortune to be sitting in section 101 downstairs. So ED McM and Iheaded down while Nova Nut went up in section 234.
About the Lafayette Game.Really not much to say about this game, Villanova looked good, real good!
They played like a # 1 seed, hitting on all cylinders.
During half time of the game BEEFER asked four quick questions that I had to answer
with a gun to my head. The questions were picking four different players over four other in the Jay Wright era. All four were tough ones and I will let his ask the questions on the board because
all four choices were really intriguing.
About the LSU - NC State GameWestayed to watch the LSU - NC State game and while watching I found myself rootingfor LSU, they seemed talent but undisciplined enough to overcome. The end ofthe game was a shocker. LSU only played pretty much five guys all game. Their legs gave out and in the last five minutes they had noting in the tank. Theymissed the last six free throws and about ten shots in a row. NC State did their come-back and I got a sick feeling in my stomach. I knew this feeling
because I had it once before in Minneapolis when I was rooting real hard for to win its game against Florida and they, just like LSU, choked to give away the game at the very end.Everyone around me was very confident so I kept that sick feeling to myself because I did not want to spoil the fun.
About Pittsburgh the Town.Friday we went to RedBeards to watch games all day. The place crawled with Nova fans. For dinner we met that friend of NovaNut and his little baby daughter at the Oyster House. This was quite appropriate as being Friday we wanted to avoid meat.On Saturday morning Ed and I did the tourist thing and let NovaNut, still sick, to
rest.We went to the Andy Warhol museum. I loved it and to my amazement Ed McM loved it too.We then met NovaNut at the Dusquene Incline and used the incline to go up the mountainside and have lunch with a great view the city at the Grandview Saloon. Throughout the day I had a pit in my stomach that was kept growing from last night and it
was now a stone, and yet I said nothing. We tried to make it to the Renaissance for the Father Peter Mass. We did get backon time for the start of the mass but not to get into the room. The mass was overflowing and standing room only. Ed managed to watch from the threshold of
one of the doors.We briefly talked with Father Rob, who appeared very confident about the team. In fact about 500 people in the lobby all were confident. Meanwhile the pit in my stomach was now a small rock. The view of the lobby was something to behold. Nova Nation was overflowing like a river going over the levy.
About the NC State Game.
This time instead of walking like again Lafayette, we took the T part of the way (Mistake # 1). As we are about to enter the arena, Dan Hartman and Bo Kimble were setting up to do a live report on CBS-10 and they asked if we wanted to be in the shot in about four minutes, and of course we figured why not and a short while later we were cheering for Nova on a live feedback to Philly. At this point I realized that was wearing a new sweatshirt and not the jacket that I wore for the Lafayette game (Mistake # 2). When I picked my tickets at the Will Call I discovered that I had been bumped to section 234 and I was not in the same seat as the Lafayette game (Mistake # 3)
As I reached the seats upstairs the pit in my stomach was now a full rock. Then the game starts: Ennis misses the first shot. Not good, he loses confidence when he does that and the rock in my stomach grows. Darrun air balls a three and the rock in my stomach keeps on growing. We miss one, two, three, four bunnies. What the hell is going here? And the rock in my stomach keeps on growing. The freshman is the only hitting shots, without him we'd be down double-digits.
NCST shoots a three and the guy banks it in. This is a bad, very bad sign. My thoughts go to the shot from the knees from that guy from St. Mary's. Then seems like we about to recover we managed to tie it up but they come down and and do a four-point play.
So now we have the last shot for the half. We miss it, they only have three seconds they hit a three, we're down seven and the pit in my stomach is now a full boulder.I try to think positive thoughts; we are a great second half team!
Nothing helps, I feel sick to my stomach.
Meanwhile I'm getting texts from my daughter who's having a big game watch party at her house. She is staying positive; I say nothing not to spoil the mood.
Second half is more of the same, missed lay-ups, missed treys, and missed DUNKS.
It is not looking good.
Yet somehow Darrun drags us back into this thing with a couple of treys from the other side of the Ohio River.
There are ten second left, the ball swings around to Ennis, wide open, all alone, he is set and in rhythm, we can take the lead, he shoots and just misses and that is the end, my friend.
That's a shot that I have seen him make many times, this could have been a fairy tale kind of ending but destiny had different plans and the ball clunked off the rim and the opposite side of the shot.
Many of us will see that shots in our minds for years to come. There is no way to erase it from our memory bank. I feel for Dylan because he worked very hard and fought all year long. It is cruel for him to be the one that some people will
scapegoat. It is not fair. That ball was a half an inch away from falling in.
About the aftermath
So when the final second ticked away I'm sitting in shock in my seat. NovaNut wants to leave, EdMcM and I can't move, we just sit there. The 25 minute between games slowly tick away and when the game starts I realize
watch for a while without really seeing anything. Then I realize that I don't really care at all about this game and feel like may not be able to watch for a while.So Ed and I go back to the hotel to see if the team is back.
Within five minutes of our return, the team bus pulls in.
There are about 50 of us in the lobby; Jay is the first one out, he comes by and you can clearly see the pain in his face, his eyes are lucid; he either just cried or he's holding back tears. I shake his hand and tell him to hang in there. His lovely wife Patty comes by and I give a hug and a kiss, she just sadly smiles and says: "thanks" very softly.
One by one all the players come. The biggest cheers are for the seniors. Josh Hart is visibly upset and Darrun is quite broken up.
Jay gave a short but heart felt speech, in which he acknowledged that we failed
because we wanted to win badly and did not; the team will own up to its responsibility and accept the failure and learn from it. He then thanked all the fans in attendance.
About looking aheadThere are 205 days until the first day of practice.
I don't mean to knock anybody but I thought that the seniors and the freshmen played their heart out.
The juniors had a real rough game, downright bad. If just one of the three juniors has a decent, not good, just decent game, we win!
As I said this is not a knock but the way this thing went down.
We can hope that the juniors will take this game a make it a rallying point for next year.
Our two seniors, Hilliard and Pinkston, will have a bright future wherever they go, they will make some serious dough somewhere. And I wish them nothing but the best of luck.
The one I feel worst for is Jay because he already a monkey on his back from the local and national media; we are not getting any sympathy from anybody and that monkey has now become a gorilla.
ButI truly believe that Jay will handle that gorilla well. He is one very classy gentleman and if anybody can handle the bad media (I think that's redundant) it is Jay.
All you can do is keeping tapping the rock and sooner or later that bitch will crack!
Hang in there Nova Nation!
We had a nice uneventful trip with a couple of pit-stops and very light traffic on the PA Turnpike, just a few trucks here and there. Werolled into town and checked at the Mount Lebanon SpringHill Suites by Marriot around 1:30 am. NovaNut had friend in town that got us a real nice deal in this affluent suburb of Pittsburgh. After a late rise on Thursday, Ed and I headed to the team Hotel for the Pre-Game event and Team Walk Thru.
NovaNut stayed behind at the hotel because the poor baby was sick.
The Renaissance Hotel in Pittsburgh is really nice but the lobby was kind of small compared to other venues that the team has used in the past.
Theplace was packed with VUSports.com luminaries: forgive me if I don't mentionall but just to name a few: Delphi Dan, the BEEFER, Shennanigans, NovaCat91,Catintime, PeterN, PEM, The Bench, LTVU, The Worm, ADP, RPGambit, Stricker RB
Nova, NovaUMSC, and so many more and forgive me for not mentioning all.
Bythe time the team walked thru, the place was overfull. Nova Nation had literally taken over the hotel. At about we started the 20 minute walk to the stadium and it was quite a big group headed by Father Peter himself. It was almost like a procession.NovaWorm remarked that we had a whole family walking, Ed was the grandfather, I was the father, he was the son, and Darryl, his buddy was the family black-sheep. I picked up my tickets at the Villanova Will Call and soon realized that I had the good fortune to be sitting in section 101 downstairs. So ED McM and Iheaded down while Nova Nut went up in section 234.
About the Lafayette Game.Really not much to say about this game, Villanova looked good, real good!
They played like a # 1 seed, hitting on all cylinders.
During half time of the game BEEFER asked four quick questions that I had to answer
with a gun to my head. The questions were picking four different players over four other in the Jay Wright era. All four were tough ones and I will let his ask the questions on the board because
all four choices were really intriguing.
About the LSU - NC State GameWestayed to watch the LSU - NC State game and while watching I found myself rootingfor LSU, they seemed talent but undisciplined enough to overcome. The end ofthe game was a shocker. LSU only played pretty much five guys all game. Their legs gave out and in the last five minutes they had noting in the tank. Theymissed the last six free throws and about ten shots in a row. NC State did their come-back and I got a sick feeling in my stomach. I knew this feeling
because I had it once before in Minneapolis when I was rooting real hard for to win its game against Florida and they, just like LSU, choked to give away the game at the very end.Everyone around me was very confident so I kept that sick feeling to myself because I did not want to spoil the fun.
About Pittsburgh the Town.Friday we went to RedBeards to watch games all day. The place crawled with Nova fans. For dinner we met that friend of NovaNut and his little baby daughter at the Oyster House. This was quite appropriate as being Friday we wanted to avoid meat.On Saturday morning Ed and I did the tourist thing and let NovaNut, still sick, to
rest.We went to the Andy Warhol museum. I loved it and to my amazement Ed McM loved it too.We then met NovaNut at the Dusquene Incline and used the incline to go up the mountainside and have lunch with a great view the city at the Grandview Saloon. Throughout the day I had a pit in my stomach that was kept growing from last night and it
was now a stone, and yet I said nothing. We tried to make it to the Renaissance for the Father Peter Mass. We did get backon time for the start of the mass but not to get into the room. The mass was overflowing and standing room only. Ed managed to watch from the threshold of
one of the doors.We briefly talked with Father Rob, who appeared very confident about the team. In fact about 500 people in the lobby all were confident. Meanwhile the pit in my stomach was now a small rock. The view of the lobby was something to behold. Nova Nation was overflowing like a river going over the levy.
About the NC State Game.
This time instead of walking like again Lafayette, we took the T part of the way (Mistake # 1). As we are about to enter the arena, Dan Hartman and Bo Kimble were setting up to do a live report on CBS-10 and they asked if we wanted to be in the shot in about four minutes, and of course we figured why not and a short while later we were cheering for Nova on a live feedback to Philly. At this point I realized that was wearing a new sweatshirt and not the jacket that I wore for the Lafayette game (Mistake # 2). When I picked my tickets at the Will Call I discovered that I had been bumped to section 234 and I was not in the same seat as the Lafayette game (Mistake # 3)
As I reached the seats upstairs the pit in my stomach was now a full rock. Then the game starts: Ennis misses the first shot. Not good, he loses confidence when he does that and the rock in my stomach grows. Darrun air balls a three and the rock in my stomach keeps on growing. We miss one, two, three, four bunnies. What the hell is going here? And the rock in my stomach keeps on growing. The freshman is the only hitting shots, without him we'd be down double-digits.
NCST shoots a three and the guy banks it in. This is a bad, very bad sign. My thoughts go to the shot from the knees from that guy from St. Mary's. Then seems like we about to recover we managed to tie it up but they come down and and do a four-point play.
So now we have the last shot for the half. We miss it, they only have three seconds they hit a three, we're down seven and the pit in my stomach is now a full boulder.I try to think positive thoughts; we are a great second half team!
Nothing helps, I feel sick to my stomach.
Meanwhile I'm getting texts from my daughter who's having a big game watch party at her house. She is staying positive; I say nothing not to spoil the mood.
Second half is more of the same, missed lay-ups, missed treys, and missed DUNKS.
It is not looking good.
Yet somehow Darrun drags us back into this thing with a couple of treys from the other side of the Ohio River.
There are ten second left, the ball swings around to Ennis, wide open, all alone, he is set and in rhythm, we can take the lead, he shoots and just misses and that is the end, my friend.
That's a shot that I have seen him make many times, this could have been a fairy tale kind of ending but destiny had different plans and the ball clunked off the rim and the opposite side of the shot.
Many of us will see that shots in our minds for years to come. There is no way to erase it from our memory bank. I feel for Dylan because he worked very hard and fought all year long. It is cruel for him to be the one that some people will
scapegoat. It is not fair. That ball was a half an inch away from falling in.
About the aftermath
So when the final second ticked away I'm sitting in shock in my seat. NovaNut wants to leave, EdMcM and I can't move, we just sit there. The 25 minute between games slowly tick away and when the game starts I realize
watch for a while without really seeing anything. Then I realize that I don't really care at all about this game and feel like may not be able to watch for a while.So Ed and I go back to the hotel to see if the team is back.
Within five minutes of our return, the team bus pulls in.
There are about 50 of us in the lobby; Jay is the first one out, he comes by and you can clearly see the pain in his face, his eyes are lucid; he either just cried or he's holding back tears. I shake his hand and tell him to hang in there. His lovely wife Patty comes by and I give a hug and a kiss, she just sadly smiles and says: "thanks" very softly.
One by one all the players come. The biggest cheers are for the seniors. Josh Hart is visibly upset and Darrun is quite broken up.
Jay gave a short but heart felt speech, in which he acknowledged that we failed
because we wanted to win badly and did not; the team will own up to its responsibility and accept the failure and learn from it. He then thanked all the fans in attendance.
About looking aheadThere are 205 days until the first day of practice.
I don't mean to knock anybody but I thought that the seniors and the freshmen played their heart out.
The juniors had a real rough game, downright bad. If just one of the three juniors has a decent, not good, just decent game, we win!
As I said this is not a knock but the way this thing went down.
We can hope that the juniors will take this game a make it a rallying point for next year.
Our two seniors, Hilliard and Pinkston, will have a bright future wherever they go, they will make some serious dough somewhere. And I wish them nothing but the best of luck.
The one I feel worst for is Jay because he already a monkey on his back from the local and national media; we are not getting any sympathy from anybody and that monkey has now become a gorilla.
ButI truly believe that Jay will handle that gorilla well. He is one very classy gentleman and if anybody can handle the bad media (I think that's redundant) it is Jay.
All you can do is keeping tapping the rock and sooner or later that bitch will crack!
Hang in there Nova Nation!
