What to Watch For (11/12)
Jay Wright has a lot of experience coming back, which should eliminate a lot of the lineup shifting that we saw during the first half of last season. Expect to see a starting lineup of Scottie Reynolds, Corey Stokes, Dwayne Anderson, Antonio Pena and Dante Cunningham. Shane Clark may have challenged Anderson or Pena for a starting spot but he just had arthroscopic knee surgery and will likely come off the bench when he returns in 4 to 6 weeks. And while Corey Fisher is probably one of the five most talented players on the roster and will receive "starters minutes", as one of this team's lone two point guards, Fisher will likely come off the bench as the 6th man to backup Reynolds and provide a change of pace. This also allows Jay to go with a bigger defensive lineup on the perimeter, something he clearly preferred last season. Redding, Drummond and (eventually) Clark will provide depth, experience and defense off the bench.
The biggest "news," or lack thereof, for this team is that everybody is back and there are no newcomers to integrate into the rotation (freshman Maurice Sutton will likely redshirt barring a rash of frontcourt injuries). While one of Jay Wright's shortcomings is that it takes young players an inordinant amount of time to adjust to his defensive standards, one of his strengths is that he is very good with an experienced team. I would even go so far as to say that experience is more important than talent for a Jay Wright-coached team. Luckily, this team has both. They are not exactly the 2006 Randy Foye led-team, but they aren't too far behind. They should be more balanced offensively this season with guys like Stokes, Anderson and Pena emerging as real scoring threats to take the pressure off of Reynolds and Cunningham. And the defense has a chance to pick up the intensity right where they left off the last month of last season. They might not be able to run with the likes of Louisville, UConn, Syracuse and Notre Dame, but expect to see a very good defensive team, with sound fundamentals and scoring balance that will scrap out tough wins with toughness and intensity.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
i don't agree with you in saying that villanova doesn't have what it takes to contend with the higher ranked teams in the conference. we most certainly do! With the exact same team last year we beat many of these teams, and we're only improving.
I think you misunderstood what I said. I didn't say Nova couldn't contend with the elite teams in the Big East, I said that we couldn't RUN with them. I can see how that may be confusing given my ambiguous wording, but by RUN I mean that we are not built to play an up-tempo, run and gun style and simply run away from teams. In other words, we are not gonna beat the likes of Louisville and ND by out-running them in one of those track meet type of 95-93 games. But I do believe we can CONTEND with them, by playing tough D, working the shot clock for quality looks and keeping the game in the 60's.
Post a Comment