(BET) (POST GAME) Villanova, Thur., Mar. 10, 7p, FS-1

[paultzman]

1.  Phantom lane violation
2.  Outrageous block call on Posh.
3.  Julian missing the shot he has to make to win the game
4.  Nova got the game at the pace it wanted
5.  Notwithstanding that SJU executed well throughout, with the exception of the Nova run with Posh on the bench
6.  Bonus point for the Gillespie haters (me):  If Gillespie was actually the All-American superstar that the Nova fans make him out to be then he would have been handling the ball last night.  Instead Jay decided to hide/protect him from Posh by having Moore bring the ball up.  Great coaching by Jay, but tells you all you need to know about Gillespie IMHO.
7.  Screw Nova.

Personally I'd go with F Nova but they that's just me

A bit obsessed with that word, no?  
 

 

[monte]

1.  Phantom lane violation
2.  Outrageous block call on Posh.
3.  Julian missing the shot he has to make to win the game
4.  Nova got the game at the pace it wanted
5.  Notwithstanding that SJU executed well throughout, with the exception of the Nova run with Posh on the bench
6.  Bonus point for the Gillespie haters (me):  If Gillespie was actually the All-American superstar that the Nova fans make him out to be then he would have been handling the ball last night.  Instead Jay decided to hide/protect him from Posh by having Moore bring the ball up.  Great coaching by Jay, but tells you all you need to know about Gillespie IMHO.
7.  Screw Nova.

Personally I'd go with F Nova but they that's just me


 

As a moderator I have to maintain a certain level of decorum with which you are not troubled.  /media/kunena/emoticons/silly.png

Back in the day I used to look at opposing teams and their coaches with contempt, especially UCONN, Cuse and GT. Now I look at them with envy. There was no doubt in my mind that, based on the look on his face during that last time out, that Jay Wright was gonna figure out a way to will his team to victory. I cannot remember the last time that I felt that way about one of our coaches. It's the same look that Cole had in our last game against UCONN. That cool, calm and collected look that says "we got this game", even when the scoreboard isn't in your favor. 

 

[mjmaherjr]

1.  Phantom lane violation
2.  Outrageous block call on Posh.
3.  Julian missing the shot he has to make to win the game
4.  Nova got the game at the pace it wanted
5.  Notwithstanding that SJU executed well throughout, with the exception of the Nova run with Posh on the bench
6.  Bonus point for the Gillespie haters (me):  If Gillespie was actually the All-American superstar that the Nova fans make him out to be then he would have been handling the ball last night.  Instead Jay decided to hide/protect him from Posh by having Moore bring the ball up.  Great coaching by Jay, but tells you all you need to know about Gillespie IMHO.
7.  Screw Nova.

Personally I'd go with F Nova but they that's just me

A bit obsessed with that word, no?  


 

To be fair 20 years of this will do it plus I don’t use F all the time. A lot of times my stupid phone will auto correct to say Duck instead of F

 

[Eric]

The frustration level is so high I still need time to cool off.  

 

[mjmaherjr]

The frustration level is so high I still need time to cool off.  

Totally agree and funny thing I was texting with Dinkins before I have at least 10 texts last night from 3-4am roughly from St Johns buddies so angry they couldn't sleep either. I'll say this. Taking an ambien but not falling asleep it definitely gets you loopy

 

[Mean Gene]

In a razor thin margin, there are lots of things to rehash in terms of bad calls, poor decisions, and failure to execute when it mattered most.

This game definitely goes into my memory box as one of the most painful losses of the past 50 years.   Seeing our kids openly sobbing at the end of the game tells you all you need to know about how much they emptied themselves to deliver a win.

To me, though, the shock of losing with two seconds on the clock to a foul brought to mind the Syracuse loss at Alumni Hall where Rencher missed the front end of a 1 and 1, and Marty Head to Louis Orr resulted in a buzzer beating layup.   We were stunned then, and stunned last night.

However, waking up this morning, it felt a whole lot more like the iconic loss to undefeated eventual NCAA champ Indiana at the Garden in the 75 Holiday Festival.    It was a different era and a different fanbase, and fans had a chance to compose themselves and rise up and salute our guys in the closing moments with an ovation that shook the Garden.

In the end, our kids played as hard as they possibly could, played extremely well but not perfectly, and showed they are nearly every bit as good as a Villanova team that will likely be a 3 or 4 seed in the dance.   In the Nova lockerroom I seriously doubt that Nova kids felt they were far superior to our guys.  I'm pretty sure they felt a relief in escaping with a victory to a team very nearly as good as they are.

Yes, if we started this season over today where we are today, I'd expect we would punch a dance ticket, but in no way does that make our kids failures.   I enjoyed watching them improve, never give up, and give every team in conference a run for their money all year long.   

A big what if game, in a big what if season.   In the end I'm proud of them and would take every single roster player back if we could. 

Great post Beast. Now that I’ve had time to calm down and go through all stages of grief, our guys played their asses off and represented the school and the program extremely well last night. There are many things that happened during the game that we can go back to in order to explain or complain about why we lost but the fact of the matter is these kids gave everything they had and just came up a little short at the end.
For next season let’s get Posh, Wheeler, Wusu, Pinzon, Stanley , Soriano, Niywe and Traore to stay onboard and just bring in a couple of transfers who can shoot the ball to go along with Storr and King and I think we’ll be fine.

I remember that Syracuse game Beast. I believe Looie was calling for a charging call on Orr. I believe Reggie Carter was there to take the contact. I think, if I remember correctly, we lost another tough one the following weekend against Louisville with Darell Griffith, also at Alumni Hall. Two brutal loses on consecutive weekends.

 

[jregina22]

1994 grad who grew up idolizing Mullin. Watching the game last night with my high school junior daughter who has already decided she wants to attend St. John's. When we go up up 17 she turns to me and says "Dad, how are we going to blow this?". All I can think was "What I have done?". 17 years old and she already has no hope.

 

[MarkRedman]

I hope that all eligible players return for next year.  No more mass exodus.


This is the key to future success. When you bring in as many transfers as we did this season and have to teach them how to play in a very unique system, it takes a very long time to develop team chemistry and for everybody to be comfortable in their roles. It took most of the season for that to happen this year but, right now, most of the "newbies" are well settled into to CMA system and it reflected in how well we played in the BE tournament.  I wish we could restart the season right now - I think you would see very different results.

If all/most of the "newbies" were all to come back next season, the learning curve won't as steep for the majority of the roster. We should be a more formidable team in 2022-23.
 

 

[BrooklynRed]

It took me a while to calm down--needed a little help from my friend Jameson.

First Nova is a Lox.  They will not win BE Tourney. They will win at most 1 game in NCAAs.

Gillespie is overrated and can't see him being more than bench player in NBA,  

Compare his stats in conference to Posh and Posh is the better player, Posh is God and hopefully the chance to play 2 games next season at Barclay will want him to play in front of the home folks.

 

[Amaseinyourface]

I’ll just say that the things about Gillespie that makes him great have little to do with numbers. And yea I think he’s great. Annoying as hell. But great. 

 

[espken]

A day later, muttering and talking to myself in the office. How the eff did we lose and let Nova off the hook?

 

[mjmaherjr]

A day later, muttering and talking to myself in the office. How the eff did we lose and let Nova off the hook?

welcome to the F EFF bomb club !

 

[GardenCity62]

Have different games on the tv this afternoon which are just backing up the feeling how special the big east tournament is.Today’s games are similar in fan reaction to a SJU - Colgate contest. The big east tournament just raises the level of excitement.
The ACC are playing in Brooklyn trying to duplicate the big east excitement but it’s not working

 

[IDRAFT]

Have different games on the tv this afternoon which are just backing up the feeling how special the big east tournament is.Today’s games are similar in fan reaction to a SJU - Colgate contest. The big east tournament just raises the level of excitement.
The ACC are playing in Brooklyn trying to duplicate the big east excitement but it’s not working

The ACC lost their collective minds ever putting that thing in Brooklyn. They had so much misplaced hubris about how well that league would be embraced in this area. But, and I think the NC folks here would agree, when they play it south of the Mason-Dixon line they rival what we have here.

I actually attended the Big Ten thing a few years ago at MSG. If I remember correctly the seller on Stubhub paid me fifty dollars to take the tickets off his hands. They could have played that tournament at Carnesecca!

 

[kred]

If we had Pitino  .........

 

[kred]

And yeah this was such a rough season for Champagnie. Great player, fantastic kid whose career I will closely follow but that airball…man. We literally got a wide open shot to most likely ice the game and it’s in the hands of the guy we want taking the shot and he just choked. I hope that comes across as just a sad observation of what we just watched rather than an unfair, mean critique of a college athlete. I agree that for all of his wonderful qualities, closing & showing up in big games were not his thing. Great representative for the program. One of the best reps maybe. Unfortunate ending to his college career.




 

I think it's a fair observation, I'm a big fan of Julian and think he'll be a contributor in the NBA, he has the size and shooting ability to be a good role player, but there's been too many games this year where he didn't show up offensively or just didn't make plays to close the game when the team put the ball in his hands.

It's March and your season is on the line, you can't airball a wide open 3 to win the game, you gotta step up and shoot that with confidence and make it.  Then to make it worse he fouled on the game winning free throws, he has to know the situation. If he doesn't get the rebound, just put both hands straight up in the air if you see the guy shooting, there's no reason to lean your arm down on that shot, the angle the Villanova player was shooting from was a tough angle, it was almost no way he was going to make that shot.  Reminded me of Paul Scruggs on Xavier last night just having a brain fart and fouling and giving up the game.  You gotta know the situation at all times.
———
. Nova is a well oiled, well coached machine. They make their free throws ,play smart bb. and keep mistakes to a minimum . That was one of the differences in the game.

Its easy to look like a well oiled machine when you have the confidence of a NCAA leadership of free throws. Something like 83 percent

 

[SLYFOXX1968]

I’ll just say that the things about Gillespie that makes him great have little to do with numbers. And yea I think he’s great. Annoying as hell. But great.                                Posh is the straw that stirs the Redmen drink , without a doubt .  He’s a great Player but , Gillespie is the straw that stirs the current edition of Villanova .  He is a great Player and obviously BE Coaches agree .       Who , in their right mind wouldn’t wish to see a Gillespie type player in the Red and White . Nobody !                              Wright is a great , iconic Coach . We all knew before hand he was going to make Gillespie the SG and not be the PG and bring the ball up . It’s called strategy .  He took Posh harassing Gillespie out of the game plan.   Gillespie has the skills to be both , PG and SG .  

 

[GardenCity62]

By taking the responsibility of bringing the ball against Posh away from Gillespie Jay Wright was able to play him 37 minutes and have him somewhat fresh at the end of the game. 

 

[Delaware]

A brutal loss for sure. I'm numb with every close loss. The foul on Posh is an example of the lack of respect our players endure. Our drives to the basket where our players go flying out of bounds with no fouls being called vs. the opposite with regard to our opponents is ridiculous. That combined with our inability to execute late in games kills our chances all too often. So tired of both.

 

[Johnny Rapper]

Staff mismanaged game ending, Champ misses big shot, story of season. What could Anderson have done to change the outcome? How about instead of a champ outside shot, tell one player to drive and everyone else hit the glass….. that’s how Nova won. 

there’s a reason they have lost every close conference game this year…. And it’s not the players. The ending was a microcosm of the season, poor end game coaching and our best player falling short. 

Fair to criticize the staff for plenty that went wrong this year.  But I though the play  at the end for Champagnie, our best player, was a good shot that would have won the game.  He flat out missed it.  Had to try to sit Posh when he picked up his third foul and then buy a little time when he picked up his fourth.  In my view, this game was not lost bc of bad coaching by our staff,

 

But Champs last shot was a three after a screen from Wusu? Champ was 1 for 6 from three, why set him up to take a three anyway?