It’s not quite the heady days of Rollie Massimino, but it will do for now.
I was just a little kid then, but I remember it like it was yesterday. Patrick Ewing’s Georgetown Hoyas were all the rage. They had their black T-shirts underneath their grey unis. They were considered thugs by a large percentage of college basketball fans. They bullied their way to the final of the NCAA tournament, then they met Massimino’s Villanova Wildcats, a No. 8 seed with little hope of upsetting John Thompson’s machine. Of course, I had no idea about the racial subtext of what was going on. Heck, I didn’t even know the rules of basketball or anything yet. All I knew is a lot of people got excited when Villanova stayed with the Hoyas right down to the end of the game, pulling out a 66-64 win.
Well, the ‘Cats are back on the scene. They’ve made a meal of their (non-conference) foes already, going a perfect 6-0 up to now, and the ‘Cats were ranked No. 4 in the nation going into the weekend. They’re probably not going to have much problem making it 7-0 when they take on the Pennsylvania Quakers on Tuesday. That would be the basketball team, not the . . . never mind. Penn is 3-3, one of only three Ivy League teams to reach the .500 mark already. Duke already beat them 72-59, but Penn grabbed the cash as a 21-point puppy, so let’s not overlook them at the pay window. Still, ‘Nova covered both times there was a line available, beating Rider and Oklahoma with little trouble.
I can’t say enough about this year’s version of the ‘Cats. This is pretty much the same team that nearly bounced the Tar Heels from last year’s tourney – wouldn’t that have been a story? Coach Jay Wright has not one, not two, but four excellent guards to work with. There is the senior pair of Allen Ray and Randy Foye canning over 20 points per game each, a hotshot point guard in junior Mike Nardi, and sophomore pivot Kyle Lowry, who made the Tar Heels look foolish in the tourney and is pushing Nardi for minutes. Anyone coach would eat his tie to have that kind of rotation at his disposal.
If you look at ‘Nova’s Dec. 6 performance, you’ll see what I’m talking about. The ‘Cats were up against Bucknell from the Patriot League, playing at the packed and very unfriendly Sojka Pavillion in Lewisburg, Penn. The Bison already had big upsets over the likes of Kansas and Syracuse the last couple of years. Were the ‘Cats fazed? Not a chance. They received 63 points combined from Foye, Ray and Lowry. That would have been enough right there for the victory, as ‘Nova rode out of town on the good end of a 79-60 final score.
Ah, but what about the frontcourt, you may be wondering. Curtis Stumper may not be healthy, but it looks like Jason Fraser is for the first time in three years, and he’s the key to Villanova’s Big East (and national) title hopes. Fraser’s had just about every basketball injury you can think of: stress fracture in the foot, messed up knee ligaments, broken hand – life as a student-athlete isn’t always a breeze. The big man is hanging in there. He’s being eased into the lineup as conference action approaches, but check out the 10 points he scored against Oklahoma in a season-high 26 minutes. And the four blocks he had in an easy 11 minutes against Longwood. There’s more of that on the way.
The Big East won’t be a cakewalk, but I’m looking at ‘Nova to do big things. Final Four things. We’ll see come March.
by Shawn Sillinger 
