Villanova

[Rum_Ham]

Would much rather see Nova and Xavier drop a couple if it means the league can get 5-6 bids. In this year where there are no real dominant teams a mid tier big east team like Seton Hall, Creighton, or even Georgetown could go on a run and make the second weekend

[NovaBall]

I think even Villanova fans need to root against Nova for a few games.... to save themselves of potential embarrassment. It will be ugly if Nova goes undefeated and has an early exit. Ugly for everyone involved in this conference.

Not really.

Villanova fans understand where the program is and are generally pretty happy.

Maybe if we didn't have a final four not too long ago, along with another elite 8 and a couple other sweet 16s, then the two early exits would be worrisome. But it is essentially two bad games, one against the national champs.

Also, the last two nova teams were very good, but lacked that elite killer punch. They were good at beating up on teams below them, but never really showed they could beat the very good teams. The big east had 6 teams in the dance, but only nova was a consistent fixture in the top 20. Also, nova needed a miracle to beat some bad Michigan and syracuse teams last yr.

It wasn't like 2006 and 2005 and 2009 when the team had more losses, but you knew they had elite NBA caliber players who could carry them in the dance.


The other thing people forget is where nova was just a few years ago. The timeline:
2001-2004 - rebuilding
2005-2006 - randy Foye et al
2007-2009 - scottie's best yrs, bubble team, to a fluke sweet 16 team, and into the final four

But......
2010 - earned a 2 seed, but that was. Gift. Was really a top 5 team that imploded down the stretch. Still should have advanced to the sweet 16 despite all the chemistry issues, took some lucky shits by st Mary's to lose.
2011 - top 25 team until conference play, then Imploded again. Was the first team ever to enter the tourney in a 6 game losing streak. Still almost won that first rd game, but the losing streak continued
2012 - rock bottom. 20 loss season

At this point things are terrible. The two all McDonald's all american juniors are being kicked off the team. Recruiting has gone from five star guards to unranked three star guys like Darrun hilliard. James bell is a bench player who hasn't done anything.

And by November 2012 (for the 2013 season), it gets even worse. A blowout home loss to Columbia and some nova fans saying jay has hit a wall and needs to go.

Come January 2013, bell and archi figure out some chemistry, the team is wildly inconsistent but wins a couple big games and slips to the right side of the bubble

Remember though, November 2013 nova was still unranked and viewed as a middling team moving over to the mid major big east. But then archi and James bell hit a couple big shots in Atlantis, down go kansas and Iowa, nova moves into the top 15, and now it's 2016 and hey haven't looked back. And they have earned a lot of credibility for the big east as. Conference with a top caliber team along the way. It is not a given that your top team will be a top five team, like nova has done the last couple years. That adds tons of respect.



So yes, they list to the national champs in rd 2 of the 2014 tourney, and last yr Josh hart got in foul trouble allowing nc state to hang around, Ochefu missed a bunch of lay ups, and dylan Ennis missed a wide open three with 19 seconds to play for the lead. Oh well. Looking at where we were a few years ago, things are solid.



And I disagree that top seeds losing early is a disaster. I would rather have a 1 seed, and sometimes they don't advance, then have a bunch of 4-6 seeds that don't advance. The old big east had plenty of 1 and 2 seeds fail to advance to the second weekend. Butker took out pitt in one of those years. Syracuse and georgetown have plenty of early exits out of the old big east. Kansas and Duke have fallen as top seeds early. It's a single elimination tourney.

The mere fact that the conference has enough credibility whereby its leader earns a top seed shows a lot of respect for the league and is a good thing. Keep earning the top seeds and the wins will come.

[TBC Alum]

Obviously gtmo has not voted yet

[BEX]

X and somebody else. 1ST game was an anomaly with Ed going down. Mack said he had no idea what to say to his team after that. Wright saw the chum and attacked. I'd like to see who thinks they can guard Sumner the second time around without jumping on him @ the 'tas.

[RedStormHoops]

You can give me the complete history of Villanova basketball all you want. They still need to win some damn tournament games for us to get the respect we want as a conference. Blame it on Josh Hart getting into foul trouble or whatever.

But when the best big east team by far loses to a middle of the pack ACC team, it hurts. That's why come March we are all huge nova fans.

[Westbrook#36]

You can give me the complete history of Villanova basketball all you want. They still need to win some damn tournament games for us to get the respect we want as a conference. Blame it on Josh Hart getting into foul trouble or whatever.

But when the best big east team by far loses to a middle of the pack ACC team, it hurts. That's why come March we are all huge nova fans.

This conference needs more than just one team to make a run in March to get the respect we want. Anyone else feel free to lend a hand?

[XUFan09]

Xavier did their part as a 6 seed last year.

[NovaBall]

Top seeds lose in the tournament in the first weekend all the time. Didn't duke drop a couple first round games recently against Lehigh and Marist? Kansas, cause, gtiwn have all lost plenty of early games as high seeds.

Do you watch the tournament? It happens all the time. And you rarely hear the long term/non-bandwagon fans calling it embarrassing.

Jay wright has won a bunch of tournament games. The last two years he only won two. Boooooo hooooooo.

Villanova has earned plenty of respect for the conference the past couple seasons. Imagine if they lost to Kansas and Iowa in Atlantis as well as Michigan, vcu and cause last yr? Could you imagine the criticism the conference would be receiving? We wouldn't have had any "power" teams entering the dance.

Just be grateful nova was able to bring the credibility they did instead of complaining about them not making a final four in five seasons. Geesh. Some of you think the conference is entitled to a top 5 team every year. No, nova had to earn that respect.

[NovaBall]

Xavier did their part as a 6 seed last year.

I guess we have a different idea of what getting it done means

Getting the soft second rd game and going to the sweet 16 as a 6 seed is certainly not a better season than earning the number two overall see and falling one round prior to what Xavier did. Nova went to the sweet 16 in 2008 with the soft second rd game, I doubt you would find many nova fans who say 2008 was more of a success than 2014 or 2015.

Although I give Xavier credit for following up a mediocre regular season last ur with two tourney wins. That is appreciated by me. At least you guys are contributing.

This ur nova and Xavier are both doing their parts. If one or even both fell early, they still did their part keeping the conference in the headlines al winter. If seton hall or butler step up and win an unexpected game or two in the dance, kudos to them too.

[RedStormHoops]

You can give me the complete history of Villanova basketball all you want. They still need to win some damn tournament games for us to get the respect we want as a conference. Blame it on Josh Hart getting into foul trouble or whatever.

But when the best big east team by far loses to a middle of the pack ACC team, it hurts. That's why come March we are all huge nova fans.

This conference needs more than just one team to make a run in March to get the respect we want. Anyone else feel free to lend a hand?

Yea but when one team rolls through the conference EVERY year it's most important that they step up in the tournament. I wish my team was as dominant in conference, but they aren't.