Brian's Villanova link
Reading the link on Jay Wright turning Villanova into VILLA f'ing NOVA made me wonder. I am a pretty big college basketball fan, but I get the sense that prior to this year they and he didn't get a ton of credit/publicity.
Maybe it was the turmoil/turnover in the Big East the past few years?
Is it the lack of 5 star NBA prospects? Randy Foye and Kyle Lowry played there over a decade ago, not a lot since.
Maybe their lack of Tournement success (Nat'l Champ not withstanding)? In the two years prior to their NC, they were a combined 62-8, but got bounced in the 2nd round each year, last year they didn't get past the first weekend either.
I feel like they came out of nowhere for that title, but I guess not.
I don't know. Hard to argue with his success at a high level, does anyone else get that feeling as well? Maybe I just overlooked them and Wright's coaching acumen.
I think any residual lack of attention to Jay Wright dried up when they won the national title. Prior to that they were perennial contenders that suffered some early upsets--they weren't coming from out of nowhere. Wright is unquestionably one of the best coaches in college basketball, if not the best there is.
Other than John Beilein of course.
To hell with Villanova.
until something something.
"Huh, I wonder what Brian Cook's connection to Villanova is?"
March 31st, 2018 at 10:27 AM ^
but for lots of people it apparently is.
Jay Wright's tenure at Villanova has a lot of early exits despite being a fairly high seed, but they did get to the Sweet 16 twice as a 5-seed and 12-seed as well, which might have been slight overperformance given the seed and expecations. It's not great evidence, but it is there. Actually, I think since 2005, the only time they might have missed at least getting into the Tournament is 2012 (I think), which is a decent rate of success against expectations by most standards despite the lack of deep runs. It's been a slow process, but Wright's gotten them to a place where the previous guy - Steve Lappas, I believe - couldn't get them.
Fun fact--Steve Lappas was the coach of my high school's basketball team. My senior year, they won the New York State Class B championship. Rod Strickland was the star player.
I think a big part of it is the decline in prominence of the Big East. They don't really have any premier conference matchups other than Xavier and maybe Butler, and Xavier's in the same position of not having national hype commensurate with their playing level.
(Also, if you haven't, this is a good time to recommend watching the Big East 30 for 30. Easily one of my favorite 30 for 30s, gives a great look at the glory years of the conference and the tragedy of its demise)
I know Georgetown has been down recently but Nova/G'Town is a premeir rivalry in the sport. I really couldn't disagree with you more about the current state of the Big East either. I don't know how you could watch "Requiem for the Big East" and not understand that what made the conference great to begin with is what will sustain it in the future. Small, like-minded basketball schools from major metropolitan areas.
As a Temple alum I cannot stand Villanova, their beautiful Main Line suburban campus or their greasy and debateably ethical coach Jay Wright. I mostly dislike Villanova and their 46-42 lead in the Big 5 rivalry in Philly.
Jay Wright is a good looking dude.
I be like dang.
That's all I got.
he reminds me of Cary Grant in some of his later films.
They are in position to win 2 titles in 3 years. That can't be all about referees and intimidating competition with their name recognition. They're properly rated in my opinion.
I am grad of both schools and have watched probably 75% of both teams' games this season.
My take on Nova has changed dramatically over the last 4 weeks. Prior to the Big East tournament, they were an offensive juggernaut that played defense primarily because that's what you do when you don't have the ball. It felt half hearted at times and teams frequently got good open looks on them. They won by not turning the ball over, making a ton of threes, and taking advantage of opponents' self inflicted mistakes. When they weren't shooting well, they either lost or came very close to losing. When their offense was on, they blew people out.
Then in a press conference before the Big East Tournament, Jay Wright acknowledged his teams shortcomings on defense and he challenged his team to step it up. And to their credit, the players responded. The defense they played in the BET and first four game of the NCAA is exceedingly better than what I saw all season.
I LOVE this Michigan team, especially how they have figured out how to win ugly. I would argue Villanova has finallly figured out how to win ugly.
If we could get Michigan and Villanova in the championship game and have the non-ugly versions of both teams show up, it would be an incredible event.
A) M NC > incredible events
OR
B) M NC = incredible event > incredible events
OR
C) There is no C