St. John's 52, Villanova 49

[TC Romulus]

In the last game, versus Louisville, Villanova had a 2 point lead, but could never extend the lead beyond 2 points. Last night, versus St. John's, Villanova had a 4 point lead on numerous occasions, but could never extend the lead beyond 4 points. St. John's looked tired and beatable, so I don't understand why it's so difficult for Villanova to extend leads.

I thought the first turning point of the game was when Villanova had a four point lead with about 6 minutes left, and Villanova got an offensive rebound by Sweeney to keep possession, but St. John's got a steal and a fastbreak layup to cut the lead to 2. That seemed to wake up St. John's. I don't think Villanova ever had a 4 point lead again.

The second turning point was when Villanova had a three point lead with two-and-a-half minutes to go, and possession of the basketball. Then, on two successive possessions, Villanova just seemed to stand around, and never even got off a shot.

On the second to last possession for Villanova, Roberts took a three pointer, but missed. Roberts is, in fact, Villanova's top three-point shooter this season. Considering how badly Villanova shot three pointers in this game, however, I didn't like the decision to shoot a three. Villanova shot just 2-10 from three point range in the second half.

On the last possession for Villanova, if Kane had made the 15-footer, it would have looked like a great call. At the time, I wanted Kane to drive to the basket, because the refs were calling a lot of fouls. On the other hand, Kane was only 2-4 from the line in the game, and Villanova was a brutal 6-12 from the line in the second half, compared to St. John's 9-11 at the line. However, if Kane had made just 1-2 from the line and St. John's hadn't scored in the last 6 seconds, the game would have gone to OT. Considering that Kane is a 69% free throw shooter for the season, I think she could have made at least 1-2 from the line.

In the last two games, Villanova's motion offense and deep bench seemed to tire out both Louisville and St. John's, but Villanova doesn't seem to be able to handle prosperity well against the Big East's better teams. When Villanova misses easy layups, they allow tired teams to keep it close.

 

[needatobaby]

Thanks. Our foul shooting has saved us in the past but apparently not this year. I have watched this program for about 10 years. In a tight game, when they have the lead, Harry will start playing the clock and not the game. He prides himself on figuring possessions, time, score etc. Problem is if we start to concentrate on not shooting till near the end of the clock it adds pressure. If you do not use the clock you better be sure to make the play or probably be yanked
The three has always been his game and when times get tough, he falls back on it. Just my thoughts.

 

[tpenter]

Joe coached the St. Johns game. Harry was on his way to North Carolina to visit a seriously ill sister. Not sure if he will be up at the Cuse tomorrow or not.

For the second game in a row we got their bigs in foul trouble, had them in the bonus with a lot of time left in both halves. We pushed the ball inside both games (unlike last year when we never tried to take advantage of those situations). We missed many layups, got fouled quite a bit, and missed a lot of foul shots including the front ends of one and ones. Not a lot you can do to win games when your players can't convert the points the other team is giving you.

All so very frustrating in that we are an experienced and veteran team that should flourish in those situations and it is just the opposite. We don't have the best talent on the court and we need to convert opportunities that come our way and it just hasn't happened for us this year. The foul shooting has been just terrible the past 10 games or so from a team that has traditionally been one of the better teams at the line.

The defense has been outstanding in almost every game this year; a consistent and productive offense has shown up in mabye seven or eight games, hardly any Big East games. When we shut other teams down for long stretches without scoring we should be able to pull away and yet more often then not we are still behind or only a few points up on them before they get untracked. It seemed going into this season that we had enough different offensive weapons to keep that from happeining this year, but a lot of time we are no better then we were last year.

The Big East and certain teams have not been kind to us over the years. I was looking forward to kicking Louisville, Rutgers, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Syracuse right on out of the league by whooping them this year, but so far we have only beaten Syracuse and lowly Pitt and Syracuse is just itching for the rematch at home tomorrow. Hopefully Hilsman will oblige us by playing a zone again for the whole game, and we can shoot lights out to beat them again.

 

[TC Romulus]

I ought to have mentioned that Joe coached the St. John's game, not Harry. Possibly on those two possessions near the end of the game where Villanova just seemed to be standing around and didn't get off a shot, Harry would have called timeout with 10 seconds on the clock and ran a play. On the last possession, Villanova did run it up court and call timeout with 11 seconds remaining, to set up the last shot.

I agree it's hard to win playing the Villanova style if you don't make foul shots, don't make three-pointers, and repeatedly miss easy layups. At the end of the game, St. John's drove to the basket and made layups or got fouled. St. John's didn't rush layups the way Villanova frequently does. It was disappointing how many times in both the Louisville and St. John's games Villanova had an open layup, but rushed the shot and banged it too hard off the backboard. What skills are needed to make an easy layup? Is this a lack of athleticism or a lack of composure?

Do you think that when all these teams, such as UConn, Notre Dame, and Syracuse, leave the Big East, it will hurt Villanova recruiting? Do some players choose Villanova because of the opportunity to play these top teams?

Do you think Villanova recruiting has gotten better or worse? Through 27 games, the high scorer for Villanova has only scored 20 points 5 times. Is that a sign of balanced scoring or a lack of scoring?

Why doesn't Villanova recruit foreign players the way St. Joseph's does and Drexel used to do a few years ago? Drexel formerly had a great team with a lot of foreign players, but now they only have two foreign players, both from London, England. Besides Liad Suez-Karni, what foreign players have played at Villanova? How did Suez-Karni happen to choose Villanova, and why didn't she open the door for more foreign players?

This post was edited on 3/2 11:39 AM by TC Romulus

 

[tpenter]

TC - I meant to thank you for your posts; we need all of the input that we can to keep this board going.

You have a lot of questions, and the people that can truly answer a lot of them are not able or willing to post on this site for various reasons. As best I can -

Harry readily admits that he does not have the most talented players and that has always been true although we have stepped up the recruiting and look to have some special players in the pipeline, starting with C. Coyer who will suit up for the first Big East game next Saturday. For Nova to win takes a special combination of coaching, player experience, defensive lockdown and offensive execution. Although we can always complain about the coaching, for this season I think it is clear that the execution has been lacking or we would have at least four or five more wins. In my opinion, some of our veteran players have not come through in the clutch in several instances this year, which has been frustrating and disappointing. I expected the loss of Coyer to not hurt this team as much as it did.

The break-up of the Big East is happening as I write this. By Tuedsay or Wednesday we should know that the "Catholic Seven" will leave the conference at the conclusion of the season, retaining the legal rights to the Big East Name and playing the men's tournament in Madison Square Garden. Xavier and Butler will join right away, with possibly Creighton and Richmond to follow. The best story I heard yesterday was that Notre Dame is interested in leaving a year early and playing in the new league next year before completing their move to the ACC the following year. The new league will be getting a huge TV contract as a basketball only league. Although all of this is a no-brainer in financial terms for the schools involved, it clearly will be a step-down in the overall level of competition, and yes will hurt the recruiting, especially on the women's side. Overall we would be much more competitive in the new league year in and year out, rather than getting a good team every four years or so, and thus have more opportunity to qualify for the NCAA through an automatic tournament bid for the conference. I would say that most of the current players and recruits came to Nova to play on the national stage with UConn, Notre Dame, Louisville, Rutgers, etc., but those schools would all have left us behind in the Big East anyway, so Nova had no choice but to find their own way in the future. None of them will probably be willing to schedule the Nova women if they are not in the same conference.

With regard to the foreign players - I think the academic enviornment of Nova and the Big East is a big reason why you don't see too many Europeans in the league. Even UConn hasn't had once since Svetlana Ambrosinova. The grading standards and difficulty in determining whether those players fit the mold is pretty hard, and the Nova recruiting budget wouldn't allow for much in the way of travelling to see them play or have personal contact. The European style of play that has the bigs that can handle the ball and shoot threes would be right for Harry's paybook, but don't look for it to happen. Liad was not recruited by Nova. She was set to go to St. Joes. The St Joe coach abrubtly resigned amid stories about sexual misconduct by her husband/assistant coach. As I understand it, Liad was left hanging and Harry agreed to take her on, even though there was some concern that the NCAA might not grant her eligibility to play since she had played in a league with some semi-pro players in Israel while completing her military service. The NCAA finally gave her three years of eligiblity and forced her to sit out her freshman year (the 2003 elite 8 team). One of the great quotes from Harry talking about putting things in perspective - He said that he is trying to teach kids basketball fundamentals, and here Liad could teach him how to tear down and reassemble a machine gun in a minute and a half. .

Keep up the posting - we should have lots to disuss over the next two weeks between Big East seeding and upcoming games and the NCAA selection process. A win over Providence should get us in, but it would be better if we can finish sixth in the league with DePaul, if they lose at St. Johns on Monday. We would get the sixth seed on the basis of our head to head win over them (and South Florida also, if they win and also wind up tied with us).

 

[ccoyer]

I wonder why the C7 didn't go after VCU or G Mason? Either/both would have been better pickups than Richmond in my opinion.

 

[TC Romulus]

Tpenter- Gabriela Marginean wanted to go to Villanova, but Harry suggested Drexel. She wanted to play as a freshman, but Harry and his assistants didn't think she'd be ready until her junior year. At Drexel, she set the all-time Philadelphia area Division 1 record for career points.

Marginean led Drexel to its first and only NCAA tournament appearance in 2009, but what I don't understand is what happened after that. Given its success with a roster full of foreign-born players in 2009, why did Drexel subsequently de-emphasize foreign-born players? After the success of Marginean, why didn't Villanova actively pursue foreign-born players?

Villanova has had a number of players who moved overseas to play and live after graduation. Couldn't those former players steer the next Gabriela Marginean in Villanova's direction?

It's not like foreign-born players have underperformed for Villanova. What foreign-born players has Villanova had besides Liad Suez-Karni?

Maybe I'm making the process of bringing foreign-born players to the US too simple. Marginean had already come to the US for high school. I notice that in the entire Ivy League right now there are only 3 foreign-born women's basketball players : two from London, England, and one from Slovakia.

On the other hand, it seems to be comparatively simple to bring foreign-born students to the US to play NCAA tennis. In the ACC, for example, 42 of 103 women's tennis players are foreign-born.

In NCAA men's college basketball, likely #1 rated Gonzaga has five foreign-born players: two from Canada, one from Germany, one from Poland, and one from the Ivory Coast.





This post was edited on 3/4 1:37 AM by TC Romulus