Tournament Preview: Villanova

Breaking down the Competition
Villanova performed very well in a tough big east conference and earned themselves a 3 seed in the highly favorable East regional. The wildcats will not even have to leave their home city the first weekend of play with first and second round games being played at the Wachovia Center--Villanova's home away from home. In past seasons, they have played up to 5 games in the arena, but since it was a tournament site this year, they only played 3. Had they played any more, the site would have been considered a "home court" and they would not have been allowed to play there. The savvy move gives them a leg up on the early competition that could extend into the later rounds when they play at the, relatively close to home, TD Banknorth Garden. Here is a breakdown of the tournament sites and dates. Villanova shouldn't encounter any obstacles on their way to the sweet sixteen. UCLA is the only team that could scare them, and they match up very poorly with Nova. Their first gutcheck will come when they run into Duke in the Sweet Sixteen.

Duke is a hard 2 seed to pin down. They have shown the ability to beat anyone, but I could just as easily see them losing to any team in the tournament. They don't have great size or great athleticism, and they rely more on the three point shot than most elite teams. Gerald Henderson is the one guy that really scares me. He is a dynamic player that has stepped up his offensive game to become the go-to player Duke needed. Kyle Singler is a gritty nonconvential forward in what has become the Duke mold: Solid defender, plays hard, unselfish, great shooter, caucasian. Jon Scheyer is the only other guy that gets consistent big minutes, and reminds me of a poor man's Kyle Singler. The rest of the guys they rotate in are solid role players and good defenders that allow Duke to run the floor and get open shots for their stars. The Blue Devils are very good when they can keep the ball moving, but their lack of a true point guard means that they can be thrown off of their pace fairly easily if you have the defensive personell to pressure them--Villanova does.

It seems like every expert in the world has Pitt advancing to at least the elite eight, and I am hard pressed to argue with them. They have a cupcake schedule up to that point, which may allow them to rest injured point guard levance Fields and get him back to full strength by the time they meet Nova. Pitt is a dangerous team when they are completely healthy. They are a physically imposing bunch, led by PF Dejuan Blair, who despite being undersized at 6'7" dominates on both ends of the floor. The way he plays is almost like a less athletic Charles Barkley. Fields is an excellent distributor helming Pitt's high octane offense, and Sam Young can run the floor and, at times, score at will. The big question with them, much like North Carolina, is, can they play enough defense to let their offense win the game? The matchup will be pretty even, but keep in mind that the wildcats won the only regular season meeting between the two teams.

Breaking down Villanova
I didn't really get into Villanova Basketball until I saw Scotty Reynolds torch UCONN his freshman year, it was a sick game and sold me on the program. Jay Wright has done great things with what he has to work with at that program, Plus he wears croc skin shoes and dresses like a baller, so he is the man. Wright has had undersized teams for the past 5 years, going back to the Kyle Lowry-Randy Foye-Allan Ray-Mike Nardi 4 guard team that made it to the final 4, but they have always been competitive. He gets his players to go all out for 40 minutes. The defense swarms to the ball, cuts off passing lanes, forces turnovers, and frustrates the hell out of opponents. The offense relies heavily on spreading the floor with Scottie Reynolds and sniper Corey Stokes. When the two of them are hitting, the lane is opened up for Reynolds and Corey Fisher to penetrate to the hoop, or dish off to the Wildcat's athletic swingmen.

Equally as important to their success is the effectiveness of Dante Cunningham. He is a wiry, undersized power forward, but he plays with an extra gear and consistently handles players much bigger and taller than him on both ends of the floor. Cunningham has improved steadily since his freshman year, blossoming as a senior into the teams leading scorer with 16.0 ppg. Villanova on the whole is a very deep team, rotating in 9 players regularly, they just lack depth in the frontcourt, so it is vital that Cunningham remain out of foul trouble.

I see Villanova using their quickness to run past Duke, and then winning an offensive battle against Pitt to advance out of the East Regional. They will face Oklahoma in the final 4 and bow out there as Blake Griffin eats Dante Cunningham for breakfast.