'Nova, UCLA to clash in round 2
posted by Pete @ LetsGoNova.com3/21/2009 02:52:00 AM
#11 Villanova (27-7) vs. #18 UCLA (26-8)
1:05 p.m., 21 March 2009 at the Wachovia Center
TV: CBS
Line: Villanova -2
Villanova returns to the Wachovia Center this afternoon to face UCLA for the right to go to the Sweet 16.
UCLA has been to three consecutive Final Fours, but the Bruins appear to be a bit weaker this year, earning just a 6-seed and beating an upstart VCU by a single point on Thursday.
Despite those chinks in UCLA's armor, the Bruins will be an extremely difficult out. UCLA point guard Darren Collison is a force on both offense and defense, and he figures to be the best player on the Wachovia Center court on Saturday.
Senior Josh Shipp has also been to three Final Fours, and is as athletic as they come at shooting guard.
UCLA also has one of the most talented freshman guards in the country, Jrue Holiday. Holiday excels on defense and is one of the best and quickest on-ball defenders in the nation.
This game will be one of the few times the guard-laden Wildcats actually have a disadvantage in the backcourt. Villanova has the chance to make up for that with their athletic scoring forwards, Dwayne Anderson and Dante Cunningham.
Oddsmakers have installed Villanova as 2-point favorites, largely, one would think, because of the home-court advantage. UCLA might actually have been favored on a neutral court.
Indeed, KenPom favors UCLA by one point even after factoring the home-court edge to the Wildcats. KenPom gives Villanova a 45 percent chance at victory.
Check out the other Villanova blogs linked at right for their previews, and then try to predict the game's final score in the comment thread below.
The winner of this game earns a trip to Boston next week to face the winner of Duke/Texas in the Sweet 16.
1:05 p.m., 21 March 2009 at the Wachovia Center
TV: CBS
Line: Villanova -2
Villanova returns to the Wachovia Center this afternoon to face UCLA for the right to go to the Sweet 16.
UCLA has been to three consecutive Final Fours, but the Bruins appear to be a bit weaker this year, earning just a 6-seed and beating an upstart VCU by a single point on Thursday.
Despite those chinks in UCLA's armor, the Bruins will be an extremely difficult out. UCLA point guard Darren Collison is a force on both offense and defense, and he figures to be the best player on the Wachovia Center court on Saturday.
Senior Josh Shipp has also been to three Final Fours, and is as athletic as they come at shooting guard.
UCLA also has one of the most talented freshman guards in the country, Jrue Holiday. Holiday excels on defense and is one of the best and quickest on-ball defenders in the nation.
This game will be one of the few times the guard-laden Wildcats actually have a disadvantage in the backcourt. Villanova has the chance to make up for that with their athletic scoring forwards, Dwayne Anderson and Dante Cunningham.
Oddsmakers have installed Villanova as 2-point favorites, largely, one would think, because of the home-court advantage. UCLA might actually have been favored on a neutral court.
Indeed, KenPom favors UCLA by one point even after factoring the home-court edge to the Wildcats. KenPom gives Villanova a 45 percent chance at victory.
Check out the other Villanova blogs linked at right for their previews, and then try to predict the game's final score in the comment thread below.
The winner of this game earns a trip to Boston next week to face the winner of Duke/Texas in the Sweet 16.
Labels: NCAA tournament, NCAAs, predictions, preview, ucla, villanova vs. ucla, villanova-ucla
46 Comments:
Villanova 68
UCLA 66
Villanova 60
UCLA 54
Villanova71 UCLA64
Nova 74
UCLA 71
UCLA 72
Villanova 62
UCLA has a better coach and better players. It isn't fair to nova that they were given a six seed.
68-62 Nova win. Also, can the person who repeatedly calls Pete "Re-Pete" in the comments section please stop existing. Do you think that is clever?
Nova 70
UCLA 69
I really think we're going to put a clinic on today.
Nova 84
UCLA 66
I agree IMKL. Clinic time!
Nova 101 UCLA 70
Nova 72
UCLA 64
Villanova 78
Bad Guys 68
UCLA has the edge in the preposterously attractive cheerleader category, but Nova wins 73- 65
our first shot is a shane clark three point attempt? really!? this is going to be a long one....
agree with 14... the UCLA cheerleader are gorgeous
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jay should throw Rollie some tailoring tips.
This narrative that UCLA are delicate surfer dudes and 'Nova is a bunch of "big east style" thugs that Enberg is beating to death is a magnitude more stupid than typical TV analysis.
I love how here in Uconn country, all my friends tease me about Nova being little soft midgets.
Now we're being made out to being dirty players by Enberg because of our toughness. Go figure!
Theyre talking as though Cunningham might produce a knife and stab anyone who comes into the lane. "Redding with the foul. Is he wearing brass knuckles Dick?"
CBS: there better be a UCLA cheerleader shot coming back from the under-four.
IMKL, you called it: clinic!
That was the best game I've seen Nova play in the Jay Wright era. Even better than the Kansas blizzard game.
That was an absolute pleasure to watch. I am jealous of anyone who was able to be there in person. I may have to go up to Boston to catch our Sweet 16 game.
Today was brilliant. Congrats to Colenda for scoring his first points too. Dominance from everyone.
Pete, you should just give every player an A or A-. Simply dominant up and down.
I have to agree with IMKL; that was the best game Nova has played this year. Next stop Boston, but man it would be nice to go to Detroit Rock City!!
you gotta hand it to them... Stand By for a live blog of the next game at Novafacts.blogspot.com
im anxious to hear the inevitable cynicism and disgruntled comments. Jay Wright still sucks, blah blah...bring it on pete! whats a letsgonova.com entry without your expected and standard hatred?!
Pretty quiet today Pete? Nothing to write to criticize the coach. CAn you say 100 wins in the last 4 years. Trivia for you RePete...how many coaches can say that in the last 4 years?
I think Pete was at the game.
Both 27 and 28 Anons, why even bring up mentions of that stuff? If you were both real Nova fans you'd be celebrating today's game and being proud of it like the rest of us are, including Pete!
Get a life #27 and #28.
27+28: after a game like that, how can your first thought be to go online and make fun of Pete? How about a right-column poll question to determine if that behavior is super-creepy or super-gay (which would be super-OK). Anyway, AMAZING PERFORMANCE TODAY.
One more thing: Two direct questions for the person who keeps calling Pete "Re-Pete."
1. Do you think that is remotely clever?
2. Are you sad inside?
#31 I'm not the one but it is a little funny seeing how many times he's repeated shit about Malcolm Grant.
BIG WIN TODAY!
hey 31...not meant to be clever at all...it is the sad truth about this guy. He keeps droning on constantly about Jay. I wish he would take himself someplace else. Not sad at all my friend. Our Wildcats are going to Boston.
Stop making like your someone else RePete!
Pete, when you're right you're right. With an even halfway decent coach, Nova would have won by 25. With a GOOD coach, they would have won by 30, at least. The way they gave up 5 points of their lead in the last 3 minutes was dusgraceful.
Love the conspiracy theories. If you read my live updates from Twitter (on the right sidebar), you would have known I was at the game. And I was 100% positive. Jay coached a great game -- one of the best Jay Wright coaching performances ever. In fact, that was my last update.
Gotta be honest with you Pete, at this point I'm not even trying to be fair to you. I've just been burned so many times before by brief glimpses of sanity from you, that now I ignore those brief glimpses and just treat this site as a humor site.
36,
I really hope my life does not ever get so fragile that I can be "burned" by a blog about basketball.
Go Duke! Love the match-up against the Blue Devils.
go go go Duke
Pete, I love the Duke match-up, too. Like UCLA, they have no inside presence and rely on guys with only so-so athleticism.
During the game today you could see Nova made a point of attacking that Eastern Euro dude off the dribble. He didn't have the foot speed to hang with Anderson. I can see Anderson and Dante doing the same to Singler and Zoubek on Thursday. Go Duke!
'Nova gets Duke on Thursday. Will update LGN on Sunday night with the UCLA grades/recap.
Duke game is very winnable. Don't let Henderson slash and draw fouls, and stay at home on Scheyer and Singler on the perimeter.
Need Fisher in there penetrating because no way Scheyer can stay with him. Need Dante and Dwayne to exploit Duke's lack of interior defense.
Fisher needs to get 35 + mins and we will beat Duke.
Hey Pete...re CF "getting 35+ minutes and we beat Duke". What we need to do is score more points than Duke! I could care less about how many minutes anyone gets. I am sure though that Dante, Dwayne, Reggie and Shane will get mega minutes given the defensive needs against Duke. CF will be used as he was yesterday...explosive offensive up the gut of the Duke defense. It will not be anywhere near 35 minutes.
There are 200 minutes to split up among 5 players and Jay will do it based upon the game plan and how things go in the game.
Lets go Wildcats!
Hey Pete. I love your site. I have read a couple of your posts here and I could not agree with you more. Jay Wright sucks. BTW, is it true that a Villanova “professor” was convicted of selling marijuana to basketball players? You guys are a disgrace of a team. We’ll show you what real basketball looks like next weekend
Blue Devil 1999
Blue Devil 1999, you are a clown! I can't wait to see 'what real basketball looks like', especially after your team barely got by Texas in the last round.
Johnnyb1
I cant wait to see Schyer and Paulus get banged up by Fisher and Anderson. I'd love for this to be a statement game for the Big East. I'm feeling a 15 point win... similar to last game!
This site is horrible. Anon's, site narrarator, everyone and everything about it. Why even bother upkeeping a site on your team when all it does is promote negativity? I'm really curious Pete.
45,
Who said it only promotes negativity? This site is overwhelmingly positive. It's called Let's Go Nova, for Christ's sake.
There is a certain subset of readers obsessed with ideological purity who object to the slightest expression of disagreement or criticism of the team or its coach's decisions.
This group ignores the 95%+ of all other content and focuses on what it considers to be "all negative.
You, 45, either seem to be in the group, or fooled by its shouting.
A recent post here by Bluedevil 1999 brings back memories of a Duke game @ GaTech where fans were holding up signs which said:
"Breathe If You Hate Duke"
=))
JohnnyB1
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