Villanova

Villanova Could Become 1st Repeat Champs In 10 Years

... of pressure that lingered into this season — can Villanova beat the odds and become the first back-to-back national champs in 10 years. BRACKET CHALLENGE GAME. CHECK YOUR BRACKET. "It's always a reminder that everybody expects you to do it again," coach Jay Wright said. "That's part of the challenge. When people say it's hard to repeat, that's part of why it's hard to repeat, is because you have to deal with those expectations all the time, those constant reminders of last year.". The reminders of April were impossible to ignore this season. So were the warnings for the rest of the NCAA Tournament bracket that this season's Wildcats just might be better than last year's edition. "I don't know if we're better," Big East player of the year Josh Hart said. "I just know that we're playing just as well at the ...

Fatal Flaw For Villanova, And Every Other Contender

... He and Monk are shooting 40 percent from 3. Mychal Mulder could be an option, but is not in the same category as Monk or Willis. Kentucky shoots 35 percent from distance. Not terrible, but in the bottom half of tournament teams. West No. 2 Arizona: Freshmen panic. Lauri Markkanen has had an uneven past three weeks. He has been a very good player, but for all he has done, he wound up ninth in my year-ending freshman rankings. Kobi Simmons ’ role has greatly diminished. Rawle Alkins has been nearly as good as advertised, so let’s see how they play on the big stage. It’s the only major question mark for the Wildcats. Arizona cannot win a title with these three as C-plus-level role players. That’s the biggest issue for Sean Miller. He has other experienced guys, but Markkanen has to have a big tournament if Arizona is to win it all. Arizona needs Lauri Markkanen to come up big. USATSI. East No. 2 Duke: I look at Duke’s nutty season, and the biggest thing that will derail this team’s title hopes is if Luke Kennard’s role changes. That cannot happen. Jayson Tatum ’s play has steadily improved, but Kennard is the ...

Villanova Awakens And Cruises In Ncaa Opener

... 8 seed Wisconsin and No. 9 Virginia Tech. The final score and the accompanying final numbers - 51.7 percent shooting for the game, 43-27 rebounding edge, five players in double figures - looked fine, but Wright himself said they were the result of "more size and some more talented players that just made plays.". But he readily credited coach Jamion Christian and the Mountaineers (20-16) - the 68 th and last team on the NCAA seeding list - for being better prepared, and admitted that they outplayed his Wildcats. "This is our 35 th game; I didn't think we were capable of that," Wright said of the Cats' lack of energy. "I thought we were capable of coming out and missing some shots. making some mistakes. But the level of energy we started the game with, I just didn't think we were capable of ...

Attitude, Commitment Are Hallmarks Of Villanova Basketball

... player. "You have to have the players. But our core beliefs help us be successful. There's sacrifices, and compromises, they have to make. If our guys didn't embrace it, they wouldn't be here. I'm sure other programs have things they value. Our right way might not be their right way. We just feel if we're doing what coach wants, good things will happen.". You want a definition of VB? A few years ago in their opening game of the Big East Tournament, the Wildcats were up by a bunch with about a minute left when Ryan Arcidiacano sprinted the length of the court chasing down a loose ball that didn't need to be chased down. But he went for the diving save anyway. And he wound up sliding hard into the backboard support. He didn't get up right away, which made you question why he did what he did in such a meaningless moment. When we asked him, he looked at us as if we'd asked him why he bothered breathing. "It's what we do," he said. "And we don't stop doing it because we're up 20 or down 20 or it's the last minute. We don't know any other way.". What else do you need to compute. "We take every possession serious," said third-year sophomore Mikal ...

Ucla, Villanova To Meet For Title

... Believe in Bruins: UCLA, Villanova to meet for title. Anyone who knows me knows I like brackets. I like the structure of it. I like filling them in. I crave that order. Post to Facebook. Believe in Bruins: UCLA, Villanova to meet for title Anyone who knows me knows I like brackets. I like the structure of it. I like filling them in. I crave that order.  Check out this story on __link__: __link__ m KEnok. Cancel Send. A link has been sent to your friend's email address. A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. Join the Conversation. Believe in Bruins: UCLA, Villanova to meet for title. Shad Powers , The Desert Sun 3:45 p.m. PT March 15, 2017. Now that the field has been set, USA TODAY Sports' Nicole Auerbach examines the NCAA Tournament bracket and which teams have the best shot at making it to the Final Four. USA TODAY Sports. Lonzo Ball (left) of the UCLA Bruins ...

Wright A Finalist For Naismith Coach Of The Year Award

... of the school record and the most since 1958-59. • Led Northwestern to its first NCAA tournament appearance in school history, earning the No. 8 seed in the West Region. Mark Few. • Led Gonzaga to the program’s fifth consecutive West Coast Conference regular-season championship and its fifth straight WCC tournament championship. • Named WCC Coach of the Year for the 11 th time. • The Gonzaga men’s basketball program lost 70% of its points, 65% of its rebounds from last season’s team and welcomed nine new players for this season. • Few has guided the Bulldogs to a 32-1 record thus far, which marks their 10 th straight season with at least 25 wins, and third 30-win season in program history. • Gonzaga had its second number-one ranking in program history this season, and earned the top seed in the West Region of the NCAA Tournament. Bill Self. • Self led Kansas (28-4) to its NCAA-record-tying 13 th-consecutive Big 12 regular-season title. • Had an 18-game winning streak, and was 5-0 against teams ranked in the top-10 this season and 4-0 against top-five opponents. • Self was named the 2017 Big 12 Coach of the Year earning conference coach of the year accolades for the ...

Villanova Tames Mount St. Mary’s With A Dominant Second Half

... 16-seed Mountaineers certainly were a disruption for one half of basketball on Thursday. But after a sleepy first half, the reigning national champions and No. 1 seed Villanova dominated at Key Bank Center. They ended with a 76-56 victory and dreams of a repeat title still intact. Donte Di Vincenzo led the Wildcats with 21 points and 13 rebounds, his first career double-double, and was Villanova’s only source of energy before intermission. Mount St. Mary’s aggressive offense to start caught the Wildcats flat-footed, but Villanova improved a 40 percent shooting performance from the floor in the first half to 53 percent in the second. They jumped from 11.1 percent shooting in from the three-point line in the first — Sidwell Friends alumnus Josh Hart (11 points) had the Wildcats’ only three-pointer before halftime — to 35 percent in the second. Miles Wilson led the Mountaineers with 22 points and seven rebounds. Villanova had 13 turnovers overall, eight of which came after they had a comfortable lead in ...

Villanova Over Msm

... deflections, hustle and work on the boards.  His playing only 16 minutes was partly due to foul trouble and perhaps somewhat due to lingering aspects of his rib injury. Eric Paschall (24 Min, 10 Points, 4-5 FGs, 0-0 3 PFG, 2-2 FT, 1 Rebound, 0 Assists, 1 Turnover, 1 Steal, 0 Blocks, 151 ORtg)  His shot selection was a positive,  He made some impressive, athletic moves and dunked / finished with authority at the rim.  Though he wasn’t a huge factor on the glass and he had trouble guarding smaller, quicker players on switches, Paschall made some key contributions to this W. Donte Di Vincenzo (37 Min, 21 Points, 9-15 FG, 3-4 3 PFG, 1-2 FT, 13 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 4 Turnovers, 1 Steal, 0 Blocks, 122 ORtg)  With Hart in foul trouble and on the bench in the first half and with Jenkins struggling to make shots, Villanova needed the bench to step up and Paschall and Di Vincenzo answered the bell.  Donte was flying around the court all game making plays.  He rebounded like a banshee and found ways to get the ball in the cup on offense.  Though he made a couple of ...

Legendary Cbs Broadcaster Verne Lundquist Has A Soft Spot For Villanova's Jay Wright

... “So, I am disposed to think very highly of Jay.”. In fact, he thinks so fondly of Wright that Lundquist is embarrassed to admit he didn’t watch a single shot in Villanova’s first NCAA championship, the historic upset of Georgetown back in 1985. Lundquist, then the radio voice of the Dallas Cowboys, assumed Georgetown would win by 20 points and decided instead to go to dinner with his wife and his producer on the Cowboys radio broadcast. “We had a really nice dinner interrupted every five minutes by our waiter, who kept coming over and telling me, ‘By the way, Villanova is still winning,’ ” Lundquist recalled. “When I found out not only that they had won but how they had won, I just hung my head in shame.”. The fondness Lundquist has for Wright isn't just a one-way street. After Villanova's first round 86-56 win over UNC Asheville during last year's NCAA Tournament, Wright sent every one of his players over to the announcer's table so they could shake ...

Villanova Did It Once, And Knows How To ‘hunt’ Everyone Again

... Jenkins said. Jenkins, down to 235, is 16-17 pounds lighter than a year ago. “I can move my feet faster, I can run up and down the court longer, I can play longer, and I can more importantly give great energy and positive energy to my teammates,” he said. Of course, that positive energy is why he thought his buzzer-beater 3 for the ages was going in. “I think every shot’s going in, so that shot was the same,” Jenkins said. And of course, it changed his life. “Off the court you’re noticed more, but on the court and with my family and with my friends and my teammates, it might have made me focus even more on the things that I have to do to help us,” Jenkins said. Asked what he would tell his grandkids years from now about The Shot, Jenkins laughed and said: “I’ll probably just tell ’em to watch it and let me know what they think.”. Jenkins would rather talk about his teammates than himself. Josh Hart: “Elite competitor and he’s a complete player. Best player in college basketball by far.”. SEE ALSO. How can Villanova top last year’s perfect ...

From The Last Guy Who Did

... come across all that often.’ The best teams are the teams that are the most connected and together and play for each other,” Donovan said. “Villanova plays that way.”. Donovan had one other piece of advice for all teams in the tournament: Beware Louisville under coach Rick Pitino, who gets his teams to play an “extreme” style in postseason. So why is Louisville, a No. 2 seed, such a threat under Pitino in the Midwest Region. “Because of him. I would say this one thing I watched and learned from being with him, when you see a lot of upsets in the NCAA, a lot of it is based on the 3-point line,” said Donovan, who was Pitino’s Final Four point guard at Providence in 1987 and reunited with him on the Knicks. “Some team gets drastically hot from the 3-point line, and if you look at it traditionally, the reason Coach Pitino has had so much success in the NCAA Tournament ...

Sluggish Villanova Eventually Shakes Off No. 16-seeded Mount St. Mary's

... Freshman Miles Wilson scored 22 points as the Mountaineers (20-16), who edged New Orleans in a First Four matchup on Tuesday, gave the defending champions all they could handle in the first half. “I was thinking we could get the win,” Mount St. Mary's Elijah Long said. But the Big East champions, who entered this tourney with more wins than any past champion, regrouped at halftime and reserved a date with either Wisconsin or Virginia Tech on Saturday. It wasn't easy. It's not supposed to be. “They outplayed us,” Wright said. “At the end, we had more size and some more talented players who made plays. They deserve a lot of credit.”. Jalen Brunson scored 14 points and Mikal Bridges had 13 for the Wildcats. Villanova not only survived a tough test from the Mountaineers but a horrendous shooting night by senior Kris Jenkins. The ...