How do you beat Villanova?

[muskieman]

Watching DePaul as they lead at halftime. They have limited turnovers to 2 while they have turned Nova over 6 times. They have gotten 4 of the 8 Nova players in foul trobled in the first half and forced them to play a little softer on D. Refs are actually not giving Nova a break so far although one play they let GILLESPIE commit 2 fouls before y called the third.

HOW do you think X can beat Nova on Wednesday?

[Jesseandrippers]

Watching DePaul as they lead at halftime. They have limited turnovers to 2 while they have turned Nova over 6 times. They have gotten 4 of the 8 Nova players in foul trobled in the first half and forced them to play a little softer on D. Refs are actually not giving Nova a break so far although one play they let GILLESPIE commit 2 fouls before y called the third.

HOW do you think X can beat Nova on Wednesday?

Simple.
- Dont force contested threes
- Take care of the ball
- Pound it inside
- Close out on their threes
- Position for rebounds

[longliveskip]

get the refs to actually CALL Gillespie's arm bar, which he should have at least 2-3 called on him a game in the ones i've seen Nova play.

that's it.

oh, and run the "make shots" offense. that seems to work the most.

[Xavier2005]

i think X is 1 win and 11 losses versus Nova. and that is against numerous different Nova teams vs numerous different X teams. The only constant has been the Nova coach. You have to beat the Nova coach and his constant game changes. So far, he has out coached X. This year X has some great players and are doing very well. Make Nova play X'[s game and keep Nova guessing what to do. Change , change, change players and tactics through out the game. Whatever works ...and feed the hot hand who is scoring.

[ChitownSteve]

i think X is 1 win and 11 losses versus Nova. and that is against numerous different Nova teams vs numerous different X teams. The only constant has been the Nova coach. You have to beat the Nova coach and his constant game changes. So far, he has out coached X. This year X has some great players and are doing very well. Make Nova play X'[s game and keep Nova guessing what to do. Change , change, change players and tactics through out the game. Whatever works ...and feed the hot hand who is scoring.

Heck, Villanova has now defeated DePaul 21 consecutive times. Granted, DePaul has been abysmal for far too long, nonetheless, that is extraordinary dominance.

Wish I could proffer some wisdom to answer the question. Can only hope that X frustrates Gillespie and creates foul trouble for the Wildcats, forcing them to go deep into their bench.

Go Muskies!

[tacitus]

We need to go inside. Last time, when the outside shooting dried up, it was clear that Steele instructed them to get the ball down low. They had no answer for Nunge once he got the ball in the post. But they deflected the pass to the post 2 or 3 times in the second half, resulting in turnovers, and they just gave up that strategy. They do not have the size and strength to defend us for 40 minutes in the post. We need some outside shots and some dribble drives to open things up, but if we want to beat them, we will need to pound them down low pre-Warriors style as much as possible.

Nunge and Freemantle got off a combined 11 shots last time, and 4 of those were three pointers, and a few of the others were 10-15 footers. They need a combined 20 shots this time around, and most need to be in the paint.

It would also be great if Scruggs had a better game offensively.

[XU2011]

You lose as much to them as we have it’s hard to say one thing, but generally do one of two things:

- defend vs the 3 better

Or

- make more 3s

Watch any XU-Nova game you generally see the same thing. We trade 2pt scores for 3 point scores for 30 min and by the end of the game you just can’t overcome the math.

[AirJordan]

The key to beating Villanova?

Easy. Nova is in our heads and until we evict them, they will continue to own us. Saw an interesting piece last night before the Bama-Georgia game. Gist was the difference between a rival vs a nemesis. It helped crystallize my thoughts about tomorrow's game. We might like to think of them as a rival but, historically, they have been our nemesis---a hurdle we just cannot overcome. Our second half performance a couple of weeks back wasn't driven by anything Jay Wright did. Nor, were Steele's adjustments going to be effective. We will not beat Nova until we expect to beat them. Plain and simple.

[edgecliff hall]

Right you are, AirJordan.

[skyhops]

Well said Air J