Villanova Game thread 02/17/2018

[X-lucidity]

To lose again, epically, to Nova yesterday hurt me more than usual. I was pissed and surly the rest of the day. Not sure why but likely due to the fact that we cannot even compete with them. It's like Groundhog Day. No sense over analyzing as actually TheCoach posted a precise summary on the prior page of this thread. He is right, it aint complicated. But what irritates me is how easily Nova gets in our collective heads so early in each of these games. They mentally own us. The swag they come out with is palpable and X wilts under their collective Vulcan mind-meld. Another poster added some much needed clarity by pointing out that we had just finished the toughest 4gm stretch to date at a 3-1 clip. Not bad at all. You win games by being able to end up with more points than the opponent. We're just going to need to keep scoring a lot of points - something that we typically excel at.
Sure would help if Kaiser Gates could manage to throw it into the ocean from the pier........................

[ChitownSteve]

Respect all the previous posts. Toughest thing in CBB is to defeat a good team for the third time in a season. Saw flashes of the breakthrough.

Hence, cannot wait for X to play Villanova again ... a Musketeer victory G.U.A.R.A.N.T.E.E.D!

[longliveskip]

Nova is just better than us right now. it's that simple. and they showed why on Saturday.

Brunson, DeVincenzo, and Bridges > Q, JP, and Tre. that's a fact. and that's why they are better than us.

we simply have to outscore them because we certainly can't defend those 4 very well. add Booth to the mix when he's healthy and that's a recipe for another L (if we meet in the BE tourney)

not saying we can't beat them, but right now, if we played 10 times, they'd win 8 for sure. maybe 9.

[XU 87]

Wright owns Mack. It is a knock on Mack. He is a mediocre coach. He is a great recruiter. He should be a well paid assistant. Pulling in great players for a strategist to mold into a dominant team. Did the team fold, yes but it is again bad coaching. Tre was taking stupid shots in the first half and that caused the rest of the team to start playing 1 on 1. Mack didn't call a TO. Mack also pulled the 1 player playing at a high level because it was his turn in the rotation. Macura was not tired and was not making mistakes at that time. He was simply knocking down shots and finding open teammates. He sits and comes back in and is more or less a non factor. Seriously, what could have been the logic? I've seen JP tired and he most definitely wasn't. I've seen him make poor decisions and deserve to be pulled (at least once Mack actually did pull him - one of Mack's better moments as a coach, only wish he would do it to the countless other players - Tu, Lyons, Bluiett, etc when they are doing foolish things on the court).

Obviously pulling JP should not have been the difference in the game but combine that with the fact that Bluiett was playing poorly and he stayed in instead of JP and suddenly you have a double digit deficit. Then you combine it with the traditional Mack defensive strategy of try not to get in the way of the other team when they have the ball and suddenly you have a real problem.

After all these years, with team ranked 3rd, and in line to get a #1 seed, and you're still posting stupid ***** like this. You made more sense when you proposed kicking GW, LaSalle, and Fordham out of the A-10 so that way GTown, St. John and Nova could join the A-10.