Who can beat Villanova?

[dmac80]

Nationally it's who can beat Kentucky? But as we move toward the BE tournament in a few weeks, the question has to be whether anyone can beat Villanova. They've played very few close games in the conference this year.

Looking back at their 2 losses this year and their 2 at the end of last season, the one thing I can point to in their losses is low FG%' including for 3-point shots in most of the games. They rely onthe 3 as much as anyone in the league, so is it a matter of "live by the 3, die by the 3"?

Or is it the defenses that have been thrown at them. The 2 best FG% defenses in the league are Georgetown and St. John's, but Villanova has had no trouble with either of them. So, what is it that Seton Hall knows that other teams should be copying? Do they throw zones at them? What's their secret since they inflicted 2 of Nova's last 4 losses onthem?

Your thoughts?

Georgetown spanked Nova at home, I'm sure you forgot that.

Nova is the class of the league but very beatable imo.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Georgetown spanked Nova at home, I'm sure you forgot that.

Nova is the class of the league but very beatable imo.

Anyone (except maybe UK) is "beatable" in college hoops.

Yet, 32 games into this new conference and there are still 6 teams yet to beat Nova once. 85% winning % in a very tough league (Conf RPI Top 5 both years) is quite an accomplishment (next closest is PC at 65%). As we all know there are some really, really tough outs in this league. IMO only a couple teams in the country could have gone into Hinkle last week and won that game in that environment. Same with @ the Dunk and @ MSG for those games. In all of those games the opposing fan base showed up, was fired up for a big win, as was the team. It is not easy at all being the hunted every single game and still winning.

They've lost 1 game at H in 2 years (next closest is X with 4 losses), and this year every conf home game has been a double digit win. The two teams that beat them this year lost the 2nd time by 16 and 26 pts. respectively (and neither game was even that close with Gtwn down 24 and SHU down 30 with 5-6 mins to go). So to say that there is a magic recipe in beating them doesn't hold much water as whatever each did in game 1, could not be replicated or Nova simply adjusted. I think what makes Nova tough this year are two things: 1) Ochefu and a post presence and 2). their D has been tremendous. Both bring a dimension that last year's team just didn't have. Hopefully they will have success in March this year but this has been a dominant conference team for 2 years in a row.

So if you think your team is up for knocking Nova off its perch, I'll echo what was famously uttered in the movie Taken: "Goouuud Luck."

[cu blujs]

One of the factors that I'm starting to look at more closely is 2-point shooting because there's a greater chance that even a good 3-point shooting team can have an off night than a team that relies less heavily on 3's. One off night and a team is done in a single elimination tournament. Last year's Creighton team would be an exception because they were a 3-point shooting team that never seemed to have an off-night

Actually, Creighton is Exhibit A for your premises. I agree that a team built on hitting the three is much more vulnerable to having one off night somewhere. Creighton went 5-24 against Baylor for 21%. Had they shot their season average, then tack on another 6 3 pointers. I know they lost by 30, but it would have been a much different game end to end had they hit at their average in three pointers. The frustration of the night led to a lot of other miscues and easy buckets for Baylor that don't happen if you are scoring and dialed in the whole game. Of Creighton's 8 losses last year, in only one did they shoot their average or better from three. In 6 of the losses, CU shot less than 30% from three. After the first five games of last year, where they came out blazing from three, Creighton met or exceeded its season average for three point shooting in three consecutive games twice. Otherwise, they would have a game or two above average followed by a game or two or three of below average from 3 point (and rarely went more than four games without a night in the 20-30% range. When you take 25 to 35 threes in a game and shoot 30%, that's a lot of empty possessions and a lot of opportunity for the other team to get buckets and momentum. If you can't string more than a couple games of average or above-average shooting, then you are going to have a hard time getting past the first couple of games in the tournament - unless you have really good defense or just get lucky and catch a couple of teams also having off nights.

[dmac80]

Georgetown spanked Nova at home, I'm sure you forgot that.

Nova is the class of the league but very beatable imo.

Anyone (except maybe UK) is "beatable" in college hoops.

Yet, 32 games into this new conference and there are still 6 teams yet to beat Nova once. 85% winning % in a very tough league (Conf RPI Top 5 both years) is quite an accomplishment (next closest is PC at 65%). As we all know there are some really, really tough outs in this league. IMO only a couple teams in the country could have gone into Hinkle last week and won that game in that environment. Same with @ the Dunk and @ MSG for those games. In all of those games the opposing fan base showed up, was fired up for a big win, as was the team. It is not easy at all being the hunted every single game and still winning.

They've lost 1 game at H in 2 years (next closest is X with 4 losses), and this year every conf home game has been a double digit win. The two teams that beat them this year lost the 2nd time by 16 and 26 pts. respectively (and neither game was even that close with Gtwn down 24 and SHU down 30 with 5-6 mins to go). So to say that there is a magic recipe in beating them doesn't hold much water as whatever each did in game 1, could not be replicated or Nova simply adjusted. I think what makes Nova tough this year are two things: 1) Ochefu and a post presence and 2). their D has been tremendous. Both bring a dimension that last year's team just didn't have. Hopefully they will have success in March this year but this has been a dominant conference team for 2 years in a row.

So if you think your team is up for knocking Nova off its perch, I'll echo what was famously uttered in the movie Taken: "Goouuud Luck."

No doubt, now this year make a deep run in the big tourney, the conference needs it. I actually think playing at the smaller on campus arena for most of your games is a great home court advantage. PC would need a near miracle to win this week.

PC also needs to take care of business and do something in the big tourney it's been ages for us since we've won even a game.