March Has Arrived So It's Time for Philadelphia to Jump on the Villanova Bandwagon
Once again, Villanova is the only relevant team in the Big 5, therefore making us the only college basketball team in the Philadelphia area worth blogging about. Shocker. We just had a massive win in Newark against #8 Seton Hall and we're competing for a share of the Big East regular season title this weekend. Before yesterdays game, Joey Brackets had us as a three seed in the upcoming tournament and Jon Rothstein thinks if we can take down The Hall again in the Big East Tournament we could be returning to Madison Square Garden for the big dance.
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Now for the casual Philadelphia college basketball fan, here's what you need to know about this years squad.
Villanova basketball is still Villanova basketball. We live and die by the three, good defense, and efficient free throw shooting (we wont speak about our performance at the charity stripe at the end of the game yesterday because that was abysmal and embarrassing). Additionally, we are led by a veteran point guard, and a dominant wing. Very on brand for Villanova. For comparison, think Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges, or Ryan Arcidiacono and Josh Hart. Collin Gillespie and Saddiq Bey have been fantastic this year. Averaging 16 and 15 points per game respectively, they have been the x factors.
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Justin Moore have been very productive in their first year with the Cats. Moore is the third scorer who possesses an ability to go and get his own bucket when the offense seems stagnant, and JRE is a forceful rebounder who shows flashes of prowess on the offensive end.
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Then there is Jermaine Samuels who seems to be the most inconsistent offensive player in recent memory for the cats, but always seems to be making the little plays. He also hit arguably the biggest shot of the year against the number one team in the country.
Now the problem with this team compared to previous Nova teams is their lack of depth. Unfortunately, those 5 are the only players that Jay truly trusts right now in big games. Every single starter played at least 35 of 40 minutes last night against Seton Hall, and only one bench player logged more than 2 minutes. This will ultimately be our downfall in the tournament, because if we get into foul trouble we are fucked. The perfect example being the Providence loss at home this weekend. Bey got into foul trouble early and we could not recover.
Nonetheless, this is still an exciting team to follow in the tournament and truly can make a Final Four run if we somehow get into the East region. The Sweet 16 and the Elite 8 of the East will hold all of their games at the Garden making us a very tough out if the seeding committee looks favorably upon us. Villanova has played so many games at MSG in recent years, and we play extremely well at the Mecca. We have a huge alumni presence in New York and Jay has even referred to the Garden as our home away from home.
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March is here baby and I can't wait to make another fucking run at it. V's Up.