The First Nova Update

We know you were waiting for the first round of gloating from this blogger regarding his alma mater's men's basketball team, currently ranked #4 in the country.

Hey, we like to live up to expectations.

Seriously, it's a shame that Curtis Sumpter's preseason injury has folks doubting Villanova's ability to make a run at the national title. I agree that Sumpter would have made us a cinch for the Final Four, but I'm hoping transfer Shane Clark can fill some of the gap when he becomes eligible. Andy Katz has a nice article about Jason Fraser's comeback as well. Even without Sumpter, our four guards can run anyone in America out of the building, as they did with #5 Oklahoma Saturday. The nice thing with these guys is that it's hard to imagine all four of them coming in cold on the same day. In addition, all of them have demonstrated that they can beat the opposition from the outside and take the ball to the hoop. In past years under Steve Lappas, Nova had guards who could one of the other, but not both (with the exception of the sublime Kerry Kittles). Foye and Lowry look like no one can stop them when they want to take the ball to the hole. And Foye's performance in last year's Sweet Sixteen game against UNC can no longer be viewed as a one-time thing; he's now a big-time scorer capable of doing that (and more) any time his team needs it.

The great thing about the OU game was watching our team apply pressure and force turnovers, rather than the opposite. I spent many of my college and post-college years wondering why the opposition didn't employ the press against us more; most of the time, we would burn timeouts, Lappas would pull on the lapels of his jacket like that meant something, and we would end up with someone dribbling the ball off their foot. Now, we have four guards who can handle and apply pressure; it's a bonus when you consider that Villanova fans in the mid-90's would have had to watch replays of the 1985 title game to see a guard in our uniform handle pressure well (Gary McClain, riding that train, in one of the best (and oft-forgotten) point guard performances in Final Four history).

Now, it's on to a game against a very dangerous Bucknell team on the road. For those of you laughing, I'm serious. The Bison already beat Syracuse at the Carrier Dome, and these guys have had the guts to schedule a game at Duke later this season. They play a deliberate style that's guaranteed to slow the game down and keep it close. I'm glad the game's probably not on TV, because I'd be reaching for the Maalox.

But then again, it's not like our guards fear anything.