Nova: Champions of Puerto Rico

Villanova beat Ole Miss 79-67 to win the Puerto Rico Tip-off. Let's just get straight to the awards...

The '08-09 Dante Cunningham Award for Most Improved Player
Antonio Pena continues to impress me more and more each game. He was a beast against Ole Miss with 17 points and 16 rebounds, and won the Tournament MVP award averaging 13.3 points and 11.7 rebounds. This is similar to the massive improvement Dante made in his senior season, but the scary thing about Antonio is he's just a junior*.

*Although at 23 years old, Pena is already older than most seniors in the country.

The Mickey Rourke Award for Bounce-Back Performance
Scottie Reynolds and Corey Stokes both had huge bounce-back games. Reynolds took over the game offensively in the second half, scoring a season-high 21 points (6-16, 2-4, 7-10). Stokes had 18 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks, and a steal. He hit two 3-pointers and also drove the ball inside, drawing fouls, which he should look to do more often because he is shooting over 92% from the line.

The God Shammgod Award for Coolest Name
Wow, do the Rebels have some sweet names on their team. Murphy Holloway... instant inductee into the Reggie Cleveland All-Stars. Terrico White... just terrific. Logan Nutt... and he's not even the winner. That honor goes to Eniel Polynice... thank you Mr. and Mrs. Polynice.

The Devin Hester De-Pantsing Award for Embarrassing Moment

Yes, Taylor King actually did airball a free throw. His 3-point shooting (0-4) was off also, but he brings a lot more to the game than just shooting. He had 9 points, 11 rebounds, 2 steals, an assist, and he could have had a double-double if he made that free throw. He also showed off his hops with a nice one-handed slam.

The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Award for Excessive Violence

Not that he was playing violently, but Corey Fisher's impact was severely limited because of foul trouble. Having a third point guard like Maalik Wayns really helps when Scottie or Fish get into foul trouble.

The Rick Pitino White Suit Award for Worst-Dressed Coach
Did you see those jeans Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy was wearing? The Salvation Army has rejected better pants than those.

Nova Flys by Dayton

Villanova looked to be on their way to an easy victory over a good Dayton team, until the Flyers came storming back late in the second half. Nova led by 8 at the half and by as many as 18 points in the second half before Dayton cut it to a 2 point game with 2:23 left. Then Corey Fisher stepped up to ice the game from the free throw line for a 71-65 win. Now for the rest of the recap I'll be highlighting some famous "Flyers".

Superman: Corey Fisher saved the day with his clutch free throw shooting, sinking 10 of 12 to finish with 18 points, 3 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals. Scottie Reynolds had been the "Superman" of the team for the past three years, but he has struggled so far in his senior season. He went just 3-12 from the field and 0-3 from behind the arc to score 8 points, although he did dish out 5 assists. I don't know if there's been a complete changing of the guard yet, but Corey Fisher has been the MVP of the early season, leading the team in points (15.3) and assists (4.5).

The Wright Bothers: Jay Wright's team is gaining valuable experience with these close games early in the season, first fighting back to win against George Mason, and now withstanding Dayton's comeback to hold on for the win. Obviously you'd prefer to win more convincingly, but these tough games will help the team prepare for Big East play. No relation to Jay, but Dayton's Chris Wright looked impressive with some high-flying dunks and scored 15 points.

Stealth Bombers: It seemed like Luke Fabrizius was invisible the way he kept getting wide-open threes. He made 5 from long-range to lead the Flyers with 16 points. Corey Stokes, aka the Bayonne Bomber, is normally Nova's top sharpshooter, but he had his second-straight off-night shooting the ball. Stokes went 1-9 from the field (1-3 from 3-pt), although those rims in Puerto Rico looked really tight, which may be affecting his shot.

Griffin: Antonio Pena has been playing like Blake Griffin this year. He had 13 and 7 with a block, and is basically averaging a double-double on the season with 11 points and 9.8 rebounds. He even sank two clutch free throws at the end of the game. He had big shoes to fill, but Pena is proving to be a capable replacement of Dante Cunningham.

Vulture: Maurice Sutton earned the start, and he has been vulturing the paint in Yarou's absence. Sutton isn't going to score a ton, but at 6'11 he can run the floor, rebound (8) and block shots (2). Jay must have liked what he saw from the young center as well, playing him for 30 minutes.


Balloon Boy: Alright, I can't figure out how to relate these psychos to anyone on Nova, but I'll use this space to mention how good Taylor King was. He got hot early, making 4 threes for 14 points, but he has impressed me the most with his rebounding, grabbing a team-high 9.


Sully Sullenberger: Sully became an American hero for landing a plane in the Hudson River, and Isaiah Armwood will be a Villanova hero for his game winning shot against George Mason. He scored 4 points off the bench.


Puff the Magic Dragon: Reggie Redding... I kid, I kid. Sorry Reggie, we still love ya.

Thunder in Paradise: Nova Narrowly Avoids Upset

He shouldn't even have been on the floor at the time, but an unlikely hero, Isaiah Armwood, came into the game with Villanova down by two with under thirty seconds left to hit the game-winning 3-pointer, his first three points of the season. Wait, hold on... I think the refs just called another foul. It was a brutally officiated game on both ends of the floor. The only reason Armwood was in the game was because Corey Stokes, Taylor King, Antonio Pena, AND Maurice Sutton ALL fouled out. George Mason also had two players foul out and another three had four fouls. It seemed like anytime two opposing players went near each other, the refs called a foul. George Mason led for most of the game, and it looked like the former Cinderella would pull another major upset. I've talked a lot about Villanova's depth this year, and in the end it paid off, as they needed every inch of it to win.

Villanova was already shorthanded before the game even started. Starting center Mouphtaou Yarou had to leave the team from Puerto Rico because of a viral infection. Taylor King started in his place, but at 6'6, he doesn't exactly bring the same kind of post presence. Because of Yarou's absence and the whistle-happy referees, Jay Wright was forced to play Maurice Sutton major minutes, who can do some nice things, but isn't ready to play 17 minutes a game yet.

One player managed to benefit from the barrage of foul calls. Corey Fisher got to the line 18 times and sank 14 of them, which helped make up for his poor 1-12 shooting effort from the field. To his credit, he kept driving to the basket, attacking George Mason defenders. Although he missed a lot of shots, I liked the fact that he was aggressive and drove to the basket, rather than just settling for jumpers. Fisher had 17 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists.

Scottie Reynolds led the team with 18 points, but he treated the ball like a hot potato, turning it over 8 times. Scottie seems to have poor games like this every so often (vs. Texas last year comes to mind), but I expect him to take much better care of the ball in the next game.

Antonio Pena picked up another double-double (10 points, 12 rebounds), but fouled out in 27 minutes. He struggled with fouls last season, but I'll excuse this game because of the erratic officiating.

Corey Stokes took a big step backwards this game. After leading the team in scoring through the first two games, he had just one point before fouling out in 22 minutes. Although, he did grab 5 rebounds, an area of his game that he seems to have improved in.

In his first start, Taylor King looked good while on the court (8 points, 4 rebounds). The only problem was he only played 17 minutes and fouled out.

Maalik Wayns played great off the bench again: 9 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and a steal.

Considering all the foul trouble the team got into, it was surprising that Dominic Cheek only played 11 minutes. He was held scoreless, and missed two free throws late in the game that could have been costly.

Yes, Villanova won, and yes, the officials may have made the game a little closer than it should have been, but this is clearly not a top five team right now. They could be by end of the season, and personally I think they will be right there among the nation's elite when everything's said and done. However, this team is still so young and inexperienced. Everybody saw the strong backcourt returning from last year's Final Four team and the amazing recruiting class and assumed it would translate into instant success. Jay's young Wildcat squad isn't quite there yet, and he knows that better than anyone. But just like his teams of the past, this one will continue to get better as the season progresses, and when tournament time comes rolling around, Jay Wright will have his team ready and playing its best basketball of the season.

With all that said, I wouldn't be surprised if the team used this near loss as a wake-up call and proceeded to win the Puerto Rico Tip-off by blowing out their next two opponents. Next up, tomorrow at 3:00 PM, are the #21 Dayton Flyers, who knocked off #19 Georgia Tech earlier today.