An Interogation: Villanova University/A Preview You'll Wish You Had Skipped

I high-jacked Blackburn's schtick for your entertainment purposes. Well, not so much entertainment, but more for your informative purposes. With our big win against Georgia Tech yesterday, we gain the pleasure of taking our Catholic brothers from just outside Philly, the 6th ranked Villanova Wildcats. We got a lot to cover, and I have to go to google how to treat sun poisoning for Blackburn, and chilli overdose for Donoher. Chris from the aptly named blog I Bleed Blue and White, was kind enough to take a moment and answer some questions for us about his talented Nova squad. Chris originally struck me as the kind of guy who answered his questions while drinking a well aged merlot and reading the Catechism to a group of newly minted puppies. I was quickly proven wrong, and now have him taking a close second to Ray in my favorite blogger rankings. We discuss Nova's suave coach, their front court struggles, and how Jim Boeheim is a pussy. I answered some questions from Chris too and I'll post a link for that when it goes up later.

***Update***

Chris posted my interview with him. Feel free to give his site some traffic and tell me how wrong all my answers are.

O'Brien: The early word out of Puerto Rico is that this just isn’t Villanova’s tournament. While the whispers and rumors were just background noise in early November, Nova’s fans worst fears were validated when Jay Wright showed up to the game wearing an UNTUCKED POLO. To make matters worse, his flowing mane was lacking its usual Dapper Dan high-sheen finish. Clearly the normally best dressed coach in the country just didn't bring his A-game today. What kind of effect does Jay Wright’s appearance have on the team? Will he make this mistake again?

Chris: I was on Twitter for the game. There were at least 150 tweets from Nova fans stressing about Jay Wright's appearance. This has been a common theme for these early season tournaments with him. There's obviouslNo homo, but that is a handsome man. y a correlation between his looks and the team's play. Clearly, the players took one look at him and thought, "If Coach is gonna half-ass this, we are too." It's unacceptable in my opinion and we've already started a fund for the Puerto Rico Alumni chapter to buy him a suit for tomorrow.

Call it early-season struggles if you will, but he usually doesn't bring out the Hugo Boss look until mid-January. A damn shame too.

O'Brien: I want to ask you about the George Mason game, but I’m not sure you haven’t already blocked it from your memory. One thing I’d like answered is whether Nova Nation wants to kill Corey Fisher for going 1-14 from the field or smother him in cold, Catholic love for going 14-18 from the free throw line.

Chris: Luckily the George Mason game is still fresh in my mind, and not that Irish travesty that occurred yesterday. Don't even get me started on that. I'll start yelling at you in Gaelic while I chop down Jameson.

Back to the topic at hand -- I think I can speak for everyone when I say I didn't realize how bad the shooting stats were for Fisher. But digging deeper, he kept taking it to the hole and getting fouled. He just wasn't finishing, so it isn't as bad as it looks because as you said he had a pretty good game at the line. He had a game his freshman year at Georgetown where he was something like 2-14 from the field and WASN'T getting to the line. That was bad.

O'Brien: This match up intrigues Dayton fans, mostly because Villanova has attained what Dayton strives for. A medium sized Catholic school, set pretty much in the middle of nowhere, which perennially contends for the Final Four. Coming off such a successful 2008-09 season, what are your expectations for 09-10 beyond Puerto Rico? Do you expect to find yourself back in the Final Four, or could this be a disappointing season that is packed with expectations?

Chris: Well, we are on the outskirts of Philadelphia, not exactly in the middle of nowhere, but I get your point. The key to our success has been Jay Wright, and the overwhelming support of the school. Jay has gone to battle with the big boys and brought in top-flight recruits, and he's also turned those kids into NBA players. But ultimately, it is the team aspect that he preaches that has made us who we are. Today was a great example of that. We finished the game with three true freshman on the floor because of fouls and still got the win. That's a testament to Wright (and of course the players).

This season, I personally feel we are ranked on potential. As we saw today, we are going to have growing pains. We are not the 5th best team in the country right now. But we can be, because we have a nucleus of guys who know what it takes to get to the Final Four and a talented freshman class that is eager for success. I think because of the ranking, and last season, anything less than the Final Four will be a disappointment for us. It may be unfair, but the bar has been set. If we want to be one of the elite programs, we have to be in contention for that every year.

O'Brien: The Wildcats are already short handed in the front court with Super-Frosh Mouphtaou Yarou being sent home with a viral infection, Reggie Reading being suspended till January for selling condoms at a Catholic Institution (right?), and you’re two starting forwards fouled out today. Will this effect your already guard heavy line up in anyway?Chris Wright better find himself in this postion on Friday afternoon.

Chris: The short answer is yes. I think with the lack of depth we'll see more ball-handlers on the floor instead of the classic look.

The Yarou news may be worse than originally thought, but we won't get into that. And unfortunately for us, Redding has a little too much in common with Ricky Williams. Those two things have left us short-handed for the time-being. Yarou appeared to hurt today as all 4 of our main frontcourt guys fouled out. It looks like Taylor King is going to get the start, and he was underwhelming in that role today. George Mason took it to him and he couldn't handle it. You'll be seeing a lot of Maurice Sutton. He's skinny, but really tall and active and can make things happen on the defensive end. Also, I wouldn't be shocked to Isaiah Armwood get more PT tomorrow after his game-winner today.

O'Brien: From what I’ve seen Villanova NEVER plays zone defense. Yet, Dayton biggest vulnerability is the zone. We’ve struggled with zone sets ever since Coach Brian Gregory came to town. Will Jay Wright stay true to who he is and play to Dayton’s strength or will he attack our biggest vulnerability?

Chris: Jay Wright's most famous quote is, "Zone is for pussies like Jim Boeheim." Actually, I made that up. I may have yelled that at last year's Syracuse game. I don't really remember. You'll rarely see Villanova play a zone though. Wright likes tough, in-your-face defense and demands that his players do exactly that, or they won't play. We have seen the zone when things are going poorly in the past but to be honest I'm not even sure we practice it.

O'Brien: Prediction time. Who wins the game, or are we saved by the Rapture? 

Chris: The Rapture. I like it. That should be Scottie Reynolds' nickname. Since we both had tough games today, I'd expect both to come out and prove yesterday wasn't the norm. I have a hard time seeing us shoot so poorly two days in a row, but at the same time Dayton is a much tougher opponent than George Mason, and I'd expect a similar fight to the game today. You know I can't pick against the Cats.

Villanova wins 78-71.

Pt. II: A Preview

It's already been a long weekend in Puerto Rico. Dayton needed all 40 minutes to dispatch an immensely talented Georgia Tech squad, Donoher is having separation anxiety from Blackburn, Marcus hasn't seen a white woman in 24 hours, and I've run out of scotch. Some people would say that our trip to PR is already a success because we have a win over a ranked opponent and that's all we need. The fact is Villanova may be our last chance to take on a ranked opponent until Xavier and considering that's two months from now, who knows what can happen to them? Don't let the ham and eggers tell you that we've done enough and we're winners no matter how this game ends. We need to take this victory to cement our place on the national stage. Am I delusional? No. Did that third scotch taste weird? Yes.

Villanova is the best team we could face in the nation that will exceed our talent in every phase of the back court. They have depth, range, speed, strength and intensity that Dayton will not be able to match for 40 minutes, no matter how many subs we make. It will take every bit of talent we have to contain Reynolds and fellow guard Corey Fisher, whose disastrous day shooting from the field against George Mason will not be repeated. Marcus Johnson, King Paul the First, and London are going to have to play their best game yet to give us a shot at taking this victory. Along with the aforementioned Corey Fisher and Scottie Reynolds, Nova will have their current high scorer Corey Stokes (don't get your Corey's confused) roaming the perimeter and a pair of freshman from Jersey in Dominic Cheek and Maalik Wayns, who each played crucial roles in the come back against George Mason.

Get ready for me to write a sentence you not only will never see again on this blog, but I also regret before even typing it. Dayton may have an advantage in the post. Hold on a second, I'm going outside to buy a warm 40 from a homeless guy to get this taste out of my mouth. Villanova's front court is as short-handed as a body that washes up on a Moscow river bank.Don't make me regret this Kurt Their top recruit Mouphtaou Yarou was just sent back to the states with a possible case of hepatitis, which has yet to be definitively traced back to the local Puerto Rican night walker population, and his loss has diluted an already thin front court. Current starters Antonio Pena and Taylor King, as well as back up center Maurice Sutton fouled out of yesterdays game, leaving Nova with Jay Wright's wet dream of four guards on the court in the final seconds against GMU. If there was ever a time for the Big Dog to eat and Kurt to be acknowledged by Dayton Cheerleaders in the ghetto, it's tomorrow. I'm not even sure who's going to match up with Chris Wright. Blackburn already told you Wright's lackluster performance cost him with scouts yesterday, he really only has one last shot to steal their attention in PR.

In terms of team philosophy, Villanova will play man-to-man defense against us no matter how bad our shooting is from 15 feet. Villanova and Dayton are two teams on the same train track heading right toward each other. There's only room for one Catholic school in the top 15, and Nova will be damned if they have to change their style for a bunch of Ohio boys. If only they knew the only man more stubborn than Jay Wright is Brian Gregory.

This game will be decided at either the three point line or the free throw line. If Dayton can stop the Nova 3's and hit their own shots from the charity stripe, this is a win against a vulnerable Villanova team. This game is going to be fun fellas (and Julia), so I recommend taking the afternoon off and not risk missing what might be the high water mark for Dayton this decade. I've never pretended to be impartial and I'm not going to start now. Brian Gregory upgrades his shark's tooth necklace to a Jay Wright's tooth necklace, Marcus lets Scottie Reynolds know that he has a juvenile name, Prairie Fires are on me and Chris Wright makes himself some money.

Dayton over Nova: 75-68