Villanova kicking butt and taking names...

T

tanaros

Well-Known Member
in 3 ncaa tourney games, Villanova has won each by 20+ points, and I'm not sure they've trailed at all in the tournament either. I read alot of the reactions to Iowa's loss to them on sunday. I remain disappointed in the game, as I thought at the least we would be competitive in the game, and had a chance to win. I was in Brooklyn for the tournament, and have now seen them play in all 3 games. Clearly, a lot of people underestimated Villanova.

My question is, does Villanova's performance to date change our collective opinions of how the season ended for the Hawks? Maybe our loss was as much as or more a reflection of Villanova being THAT much better than we thought?

I truly did think we had at least a puncher's chance of winning on sunday. I thought at least to some extent Iowa simply folded in the game. Now, I'm not sure if I wasn't giving Villanova enough credit.

Thoughts?
 
tanaros said:
in 3 ncaa tourney games, Villanova has won each by 20+ points, and I'm not sure they've trailed at all in the tournament either. I read alot of the reactions to Iowa's loss to them on sunday. I remain disappointed in the game, as I thought at the least we would be competitive in the game, and had a chance to win. I was in Brooklyn for the tournament, and have now seen them play in all 3 games. Clearly, a lot of people underestimated Villanova.

My question is, does Villanova's performance to date change our collective opinions of how the season ended for the Hawks? Maybe our loss was as much as or more a reflection of Villanova being THAT much better than we thought?

I truly did think we had at least a puncher's chance of winning on sunday. I thought at least to some extent Iowa simply folded in the game. Now, I'm not sure if I wasn't giving Villanova enough credit.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Iowa led 3-0 eleven seconds into the Nova game. :)
 
I was also in Brooklyn and deep down knew Iowa was f'd if they got past Temple after watching their game against Asheville. Didn't know that bad, but Villanova has all the pieces that would expose every weakness Iowa has.
 
Villanova looks like a championship team, they just destroyed a good Miami team down the stretch.
 
Pretty funny, some posters on here were convinced Nova was the worst two seed because some of the prior teams lost in the second round. They may lose to Kansas in the elite 8 but they are definitely one of the top 2 or 3 teams I've seen in this tournament.
 
Wisconsin draws Xavier.
UNI draws frickin Texas A&M.
Iowa draws Villanova.

Oh yea, and ISU draws Arkansas Little Rock.
 
I don't think a lot of people clearly underestimated Villanova. A lot of people may not have bought into a deep run based on Nova's fails the last few years.

I heard Nova players saying they were on a mission this year and they were not going to fail. I believed them; they were very convincing. Not just "we're going to play hard snd with energy. We are not going to lose."
 
Seth53 said:
....and the excuses continue.....
Click to expand...

I'm sorry if you think I, or anyone else is making excuses...As i said, I was there in person to witness Villanova take us apart. I was getting more and more upset as the first half especially continued (2nd half was more resigned to the inevitable). In games like that, I start to think about whether the game was more about Iowa playing poorly, the other team playing that well, or some combination of the 2. Having watched them play 3 games now, I'm coming to the conclusion a bit more that while Iowa decidedly DID NOT play well for most of sunday's game, I'm also believing that we also ran into a good Villanova team that is playing its best basketball right now.

The Iowa team that was around in January could have played with them, but they did not. I don't think its an excuse to simply say that the other team is simply playing much better than we were. No excuses, no rationalizing, the better team won.
 
PCHawk said:
Wisconsin draws Xavier.
UNI draws frickin Texas A&M.
Iowa draws Villanova.

Oh yea, and ISU draws Arkansas Little Rock.
Click to expand...

Sure we may have drawn a good 2 seed but we had couldnt have asked for a better matchup in the first round and likely wouldn't have been playing a 2nd game with a different matchup.

Temple was was a better draw than any other of the 10 seeds and even some higher seeds like Witchita St, Iona or Steven F Austin and probably even others.
 
I think Villanova is peaking at the right time and about 80% of the game was how well Villanova played and not how badly Iowa played. If you watched Md. vs Kansas or Miami in the second half. I think you saw the Hawks did a better job of playing basketball;whereas Canes and Terps both just gave up. That bodes well for next year. Hopefully we'll have better athletes and better defenders and guys who can finish at the rim. This years team helped get us on the right road, but Villanova was a tough draw and we earned it by not doing better in February.
 
And more importantly we won the second half. Villanova picked a great time to play their best basketball - and if we get to pick we move our January to March. On to next year and better athletes and better defense!
 
Seth53 said:
....and the excuses continue.....
Click to expand...

For some reason this is the way I picture you now Seth......after football, and now this....

e756ef3bcf6a9975ef7cc59002d52e29ab194e9d83d3fac4bae8c128ab7ef56a.jpg
 
PCHawk said:
Wisconsin draws Xavier.
UNI draws frickin Texas A&M.
Iowa draws Villanova.

Oh yea, and ISU draws Arkansas Little Rock.
Click to expand...

Not to overstate the obvious, play better down the regular season stretch and we don't draw a team like Nova in the 2nd round.
 
I'm kicking my azz for not taking them. I almost did. I'm in a pool at the U with 64 people, and not one person picked them to win which is weird. They are trucking everyone. I picked Virginia by the way 'cause rated so high in D efficiency. Funny if both them ended up in the c-ship game.
 
hagarwood said:
And more importantly we won the second half. Villanova picked a great time to play their best basketball - and if we get to pick we move our January to March. On to next year and better athletes and better defense!
Click to expand...

Hard to say we won the 2nd half. We were out so much by the 1st half that teams often pull back the reigns & play a completely different style to use clock. So, it's hard to really gauge or say Iowa won the 2nd half. If a close game, Villanova may have kept the foot on the pedal more. Who knows.

Iowa got trucked in the game. That's all that really matters.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top