Villanova to battle Duke in Sweet 16
posted by Pete @ LetsGoNova.com3/26/2009 01:30:00 PM
#11 Villanova (28-7) vs. #6 Duke (30-6)
9:57 p.m., 26 March 2009 at the TD Banknorth Garden.
TV: CBS
Line: Duke -2.5
Villanova returns to the Sweet 16 this year with a game against the Duke Blue Devils in Boston.
The game, scheduled for 9:57 p.m., is the last of the four match-ups tonight and will be the featured game by CBS.
In an ESPN poll today, 54 percent of voters listed the Villanova-Duke game as the match-up they most want to see tonight.
Villanova-Duke is also the closest handicapped by oddsmakers of the four games tonight. Pitt-Xavier (7), UConn-Purdue (6.5), and Memphis-Missouri (4.5) all see the higher seed favored by significantly more than Duke's 2.5-point spread over Villanova.
The Wildcats will try to use their penetrating backcourt and athletic forwards to out-hustle and out-muscle the well-coached Blue Devils.
Duke plays a run-and-gun, perimeter-oriented game, and the Devils love to score in transition, especially by pulling up for a three.
Villanova will have to stay at home on defense to limit Duke's triple opportunities. On offense, the 'Cats would do well to test Duke's interior with dribble penetration and posting up Dante Cunningham.
KenPom favors Duke by 3 points in this neutral-court match-up, giving Villanova a 41 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 will face either Pittsburgh or Xavier on Saturday for a trip to the Final Four.
9:57 p.m., 26 March 2009 at the TD Banknorth Garden.
TV: CBS
Line: Duke -2.5
Villanova returns to the Sweet 16 this year with a game against the Duke Blue Devils in Boston.
The game, scheduled for 9:57 p.m., is the last of the four match-ups tonight and will be the featured game by CBS.
In an ESPN poll today, 54 percent of voters listed the Villanova-Duke game as the match-up they most want to see tonight.
Villanova-Duke is also the closest handicapped by oddsmakers of the four games tonight. Pitt-Xavier (7), UConn-Purdue (6.5), and Memphis-Missouri (4.5) all see the higher seed favored by significantly more than Duke's 2.5-point spread over Villanova.
The Wildcats will try to use their penetrating backcourt and athletic forwards to out-hustle and out-muscle the well-coached Blue Devils.
Duke plays a run-and-gun, perimeter-oriented game, and the Devils love to score in transition, especially by pulling up for a three.
Villanova will have to stay at home on defense to limit Duke's triple opportunities. On offense, the 'Cats would do well to test Duke's interior with dribble penetration and posting up Dante Cunningham.
KenPom favors Duke by 3 points in this neutral-court match-up, giving Villanova a 41 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 will face either Pittsburgh or Xavier on Saturday for a trip to the Final Four.
Labels: Duke, NCAA tournament, NCAAs, predictions, preview, Villanova vs. Duke, Villanova-Duke
68 Comments:
Villanova 79
Duke 73
Villanova 82
Duke 75
Steelers 150
Villanova 74
Duke 71
Pete, I heard that Jay Wright only left a 14% tip at the Union Oyster House last night. The readers of letsgonova expect a full investigation.
I am pretty sure Wright would be a good tipper.
live blog tonight at Fact On Villanova Sports
Novafacts.blogspot.com
World infinity
Pete 0
Explains a lot, huh?
Nova 85
Duke 74
I stand by my clinic comment.
Villanova 82
Duke 68
Would absolutely love to see Scottie come to life tonight.
9,
I hope so... that would be nice. I think it's going to be much closer, either way, but we'll see.
Villanova 82
Duke 81
A nail biter with Dwayne Anderson winning it on a tip slam as time expires off of a missed layup by Scottie.
Gregg that sounds about right!
Nice comeback after being down 5-0. Its a good sign that we are playing above the rim. I agree Pete...I am psyched!!!!!!
Thats BS that they got that TO. The ball was in nobody's possession!!!
Fisher seems to be playing a bit tentative. He can take these guys off the dribble and get to the FT line, just needs something to get his confidence up I feel.
I hope we come out of the half sharp -- we normally come out terrible of the half. Come on Jay.
On pace for 52-46 ha ha ha.
Let's keep up this great defense.
Fisher has not made one good play yet.
Great D, but we cant seem to score at the right times to extend it to a comfortable lead.
Okay, so the clinic thing isn't going as I thought.
We seem to be dominating the game, just a bit of a lackluster offensive performance. A couple of wide open 3s we missed, a Reynolds layup missed, and a real close charging foul on Stokes.
COULD be a clinic, but it isn't.
Frightened that we only are up 3 right now....
Agreed, IMKL. While both offenses are off, we are definitely getting better looks and executing better... things just have to start dropping in. I'm very frightened that we're only up 3, but our team looks like they want this game much much much more. Keep getting those rebounds and hustling for those second attempts and we'll be good.
Good statement to start the second half. Can we keep this up please?
Less than 5 mins into the half, duke is in the bonus.
RIDICULOUS
4 on Henderson is HUGE -- this game is ours to put away
is reynolds wrist wrapped!??!??!?!
9 mins away..... come on nova hold on........!!!!!!!!!!!
thanks cbs....
the game is available online -- mmod -- or in CBS philly KYW
why are the announcers rooting for duke -- when GH shot a three, he said "get in."
WTF -- neutrality much?
Announcers are openly rooting for Duke right now....
Well, not the type of clinic I envisioned, but a clinic nonetheless.
Is this the same ref crew who did the Pitt game???
I'll take it... fu#k Dook... let's go Cats!!!
Good thing Coach K took the shoot-around seriously.
TCHUSI SCORES
TCHUISI!!!!!
FRANK T ACCIDENTALLY DUNKS
Low class play by Duke at the end there
What a play by stokes to set up frank t!
Imagine, if Wright had prepared the team properly they might have won by 40.
TCHUISI x2!!!
I believe I said this is about how it would go. Been saying that since we dismantled UCLA.
Whatever, I don't know shit.
Pete, be a man. Admit you have no idea what you are talking about.
Jay Wright should be coach of the year. Outcoached a Hall of Fame Coach, again. Xs and Os ..
LOVE the Pitt match-up.... they've looked like shit past 2 games; we've looked amazing. And we beat them when they were better than they've been playing!
Well... eat crow bitches! BELIEVE IN THIS TEAM, WOULD YA? WATCH THE GAMES AND SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING. Gotta toot my own horn at the doubters, so to recap my pre-game chatter:
"Duke is a lot like UCLA. Good perimeter team that doesn't react well to physical play. They don't have as good post play as UCLA, but their defense is much better, this year in particular.
Playing UCLA recently, and Marquette 3 times, has got to be great prep for a team like Duke.
I think we can put on another clinic on Thursday, meaning another 20 point victory. The keys will be containing Duke's fast break opportunities, and limiting our own TOs.
Hopefully the team didn't use up all their energy and intensity against UCLA. If they come out that way all the time, near unbeatable!"
AND...
"#14 - No I am not kidding about a clinic on Thursday. I said the same thing about UCLA, as I watched how they played vs VCU and noticed that they would be no match for Nova. At the time I don't think many people agreed with me there either, and what happened?
This Duke team got absolutely blitzed by Clemson by nearly 30 points. Duke is a good team sure, but we are much better. I see us putting a beat-down on them, with the lead in the 2nd half consistently in the double digits."
IMKL --
Nice call... but I think everyone here predicted a Nova win. However you had blowout called so congrats.
I'd like to say a big FUCK YOU to this message board's editor. After an entire season and even recent posts questioning Jay Wrights ability to coach, he has helped our team put together 2 of the most complete back to back games I can remember seeing. Both games coincidentally against two of the most storied programs in college basketball history. The second being against one of the greatest coaches in NCAA history.
Pete, stop your bitching, stop your complaining. You dont know shit about basketball. You dont know how to coach, I'm certain you dont even know how to dribble. Jay Wright is an amazing coach...deal with it. I'd like to propose that if we make it to the final 4 that you never make another post again.
LETS GO NOVA!!!
#47 --
This is a blog, not a message board.
And I would love to make the final 4. Go nova!
We play Pitt at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday -- only game in town, of course. No more switching off the game for CBS!
guys, guys. this just in. jay wright talked to the media for about a half hour while the team sat around trying to remember how do warmup drills. i know we eeked past duke, but this is probably going to carryover into the pitt game. damn it, jay, why don't you coach!
GREAT WIN! Next!
At #49 - no acknowledgement to 47s comments about you hating on Jay Wright all year long? What do you think of him now? Still a bad coach?
If only Pete avoided that stupid blog posting about Jay Wright talking to the media during a circus event known as open practice, none of us would need to be talking about Pete and Jay Wright. We'd all be talking about our team and being elated, just like we were after UCLA.
Why Pete? Why did you feel the need to post that bullshit?
We should be talking about the game we just watched, what this team has accomplished, what this senior class has accomplished, etc. But we're stucking talking about you.
Mission accomplished. Oops.. ignore that I said that. It makes it sound as if I think you had an agenda..........
Wright, Dante, Scottie on ESPN post game right now
Eff JAY WRIGHT!!! BRING IN STEVE LAPPAS IMMEDIATELY!!!
PS: Pete knows NOTHING about Villanova Basketball. Maintain this blog as pure entertainment only. It's the WWE of Nova Blogs!
IMKL,
"But we're stucking talking about you." HA HA HA.
You choose to talk about me! I have been talking about almost nothing but the game. You choose to be super offended whenever I say anything negative about Wright.
Wright has his positives and negatives. He is not perfect, neither are you, and neither am I.
Great game for the 'Cats -- I will be talking about the great game and the match vs Pitt coming up.
Henderson 1-14!!! WOW, what a defensive job on the future NBAer.
box score
looks like somebody has got their foot in their mouth due to a seasons worth of ignorant, uneducated and plain stupid blog postings. well done pete. do you still think that your ability to dominate EASports PS3 NCAA '09 makes you a credible basketball analyst/strategist/critic?
Great job 'Cats!!!! Excellent regular season, fantastic post season so far. Everybody has played great; coaching has been superb. 3 more games, we can do it!
What are Wright's positives in your eyes Pete? I'm guessing something like this.....
1. Well-spoken
2. Well-dressed
3. Talks well to the media
4. Develops family, although there are cracks in the family appearing, recruits may be able to see through his bullshit! Shit.. this isn't a positive. Umm...
5. Doesn't get in the way of our superior talent
Yeah that's about all his positives.
Actually, 58,
I called the past two wins. So I don't know how you think I have my foot in my mouth. I could have easily predicted a loss -- but I didn't.
So looks like you have your foot in your mouth.
See Bob Ford's article for Friday already posted....
"Wildcats wanted it more"
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/20090327_Bob_Ford__The_Wildcats_wanted_it_more.html
As the great Ryan Fannon just said..."Cats Win, Cats Win, Cats Win"
61, thanks -- here is that in linked form
article
Villanova's 29 wins is a school record.
We have seen more wins this year than any previous 'Nova season.
School Record... Yet our coach is a "hack" and you would prefer half of the league's coaches to our coach in addition to Steve Lappas?
How can that be?
Hubert Davis is destroying Digger on college gameday.
Making great points.
Why so negative, hataz?
Villanova is 40 mins from the final four! Let's talk about that.
They are openly mocking Digger on Gameday now... So funny
Sportscenter just said that Duke's 23-pt loss is the largest ever by a 2-seed in the sweet 16.
I would prefer the Anons actually picked a name to consistently make fun of Pete with. My assumption is it is just one dude constantly typing "I hate Pete", which is silly. Pick a name. Roll with it. Anon makes your comment immediately useless.
Just watched the Digger hatred. Awesome stuff. Digger is a retard. "Revenge game, REVENGE GAME". Hubert answered so quickly when asked if it mattered it was hilarious. "No Digger, revenge does not mean anything, getting to the final four is all that matters, you are wrong, shut it", paraphrased of course.
I did not read Pete's comments on Jay talking to the media but I am guessing it was useless and unnecessarily Jay biased, but who cares. He is rarely correct about anything Villanova related. Jay is a great coach...one of the best in college basketball and there is literally no way to question that. It is the truth and it is great.
Cannot wait to be in Boston for the game Saturday although I question my presence as I am 0-2 (Texas/Georgetown) at games I went to this year. I would love a final four under the belt to take this program to the next level. GO NOVA!!
On a random note, the combined Vegas line for Nova's last 2 games was ~0. They have won by a combined ~44. Fantastic stuff and much easier on the heart.
Chef,
What do you think the Pitt line is going to be? I think it might be close to pick-em, given Nova's dominance the last 2 games, Pitt's apparent weakness, and the fact that Nova won last time.
Pitt -1 at worst, right?
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