Pitt

First tv timeout.  Some cold shooting initially, but we are grinding.

11:01 left in first half.  Excellent D so far.  We are contesting everything.  Might see more Ochefu this game, particularly b/c Pitt killed us on the boards last game.

Tony playing good again.  When he first came in, he penetrated then dished it off for a layup.  4:23 left in the game and he just made back to back plays.  He penetrated to the rim, dished to a big, and the big found wide open Arch for a three.  Then he came down, penetrated to rim, and hit Jayvaughn deep in the post who made a move for a layup. 

I have to think with this 7-man rotation our guys will get tired. Pitt is challenging everything defensively so they have to work harder, and with a smaller rotation they might get tired.

18 minutes left in 2nd half.  This is the best I've seen Tony play all year.  He had one that shouldve been an assist at the start of the 2nd half, but Hilliard missed a wide open 3.  Now he just gave Mouph a layup.  Good thing we didn't give up on him!

Four trouble!

My cable went out for a few minutes there in the 2nd half... when Pitt made their comeback. Some tough calls against us.  Refs prob thought Jay dressed up to snazzy.

...Cats had their chance to win thsi one.....

The end of regulation made me sick. No close out on the Pitt 3 by Pinkston and then you can't even get the inbounds on the last play. Poor execution. Now in OT Chenault can't make a free throw. Ugh!

Hilliard collapses on Woodall and leaves the Pitt player wide open for a three. Once again our perimeter defense fails us. They snapped defeat from the jaws of victory.

Should have won in RT but don't mind this loss as much as the one against Seton Hall! We looked like a top 25 team for most of the game.

JVP needs to improve his D.  Too many times I've seen his man get an o-board.  Too many times I've seen him slow to close out on the switch, and get beat by an open jumper.  His man hit the three at the end of regulation.  His man got the easy layup at the end of regulation b/c he wasnt paying attention.  He's a lethal scorer, but his D needs to improve next year.  Do or die against G-Town.

Coaching.  Coaching means people listening to him..I dont think many have since reynolds left.  This class is not overachieving by any means.  Arch, pinkston, kennedy when he was here, bell, yarou, armwood too, even hillard were all top 150 recruits.  maybe not hilliard but the rest were.  Syracuse gets the guys who dont get recruited and they are made great by boehiem. 
Just how the cookie crumbles, Like nova basketball the last 5 years. 

You have no idea what you are talking about.  Per rivals, in the 2012 class, Dajuan Coleman was #26 overall, 16 spots better than Nova's top recruit, Ochefu.  In the 2011 class, Rakeem Christmas was #27 overall and Michael Carter Williams was #29 overall, both about 20 spots higher than Nova's top recruit (Tyrone Johnson).  In the 2010 class, Fab Melo was #16 overall and Dion Waiters was #29 overall.  Nova's top recruit was Bell at #42.

Clearly you are just making stuff up out of thin air like refs calling fouls on Nova b/c they think Jay's a pretty boy.  It's a waste of time to even respond.

Well said, eviolago.   While Jay is not a great X & O coach they play solid basketball when the players buy in. 

This loss will certainly not hurt because of the "OT" that will go along with it.  Taking Pitt to OT in their building does not look bad on the resume.

With just a couple of seconds remaining, I like the play where they use Sutton for his height.  Even if they don't go to him, the opposing D has to respect his length.

Ryan A' got balls.  He does not play like a freshman.   At this pace he could be an all-time Top 25 scorer for Nova.  It does not seem he will have the advantage of any deep BE and NCAA tournament runs to help pad his stats.

It is a shame that Tony C could not hit a decent % of his FTs.  He has been providing a nice spark off the bench.

It is amazing that Mouph is playing 35+ minutes and is still hitting jumpers and FTs late in the game.  How many PF/Cs can do that?  He has really stepped up his game.  He will get a nice job next year in Europe.  Their less physical game will suit him well.

Thats fine, you guys keep living in your mythical cloud that Jay is a good coach.  Its like saying the Eagles will win a superbowl sometime soon.  You all feed into jays non sense.  College basketball is about winning, and winning conference titles, the big dance and regular season titles.  Evan an NIT title would be ok.  Has Jay won any of them?  He tied for aregular season title the year they were stacked.  Thats great in a 13 year career.  I mean even Lappas won regular season, big east tourny, and the whole NIT, with far far less talent than Jay has had in the past.  30 wins, down to 25 wins, down to 13 wins, now at 18 wins and most likely wont win another game, but maybe just maybe get to 20 wins.  Doesnt seem like things have got better.  Luckily this year or next (i cant remember) is his last year of his contract.  He had enough time to win anything.  Hes not a winner. 

Oh and if Jay is not good X and O coach, and you just pointed out all the recruits that other teams have got th at are better than Novas I guess he is not a great recruiter either.  Specially when the TOP recruits from philly, dont choose the best philly school and go away.

And to your previous post.  How can you say anyone but Cunningham and reynolds got better through their years.  Possibly Pena.  Those two yes...the rest did not get better.  if they didnt get worse they went stagnant.  Mouph can hit a 15 footer now, but hes 6-11 and cant make a layup.  Fisher, Wayns, Cheek, Stokes, Yarou, armwood, all of whom coming out of HS as mcdonald all americans or all stars and all except for armwood were getting great reviews about their next level in the nba, and Wayns is the only one to get a month contract at all.  Really good making them better when they were suppossed to just be in college stopping by onto the nba. 

I honestly could care less who the next coach is.  Every sport needs change.  Eagles needed it 3 years ago, they finally did it, Phillies are about to need change and looks like they are after this year with Sandberg.  Its time for nova to change because not winning anything at all doenst work well. 
Its about winning and losing and titles.  Jay has none.  in a very long time to go through 5 recruiting classes, good and bad.  If you want it to be about teaching moments and all this whorah he brings and all that, go to HS basketball games, thats what they are all about.

I'm only going to say two things in response.


1. You make a false statement (SYR only got the recruits that nobody wanted, then Boeheim coached them up), then when you are provided with teh facts (SYR's better recruits then Nova) you change the issue and say Jay cant recruit.  The issue was whether your statment that SYR only gets recruits that nobody else wanted is false.  B/c you're wrong, you have no choice but to change topics.


2. You are judging whether a player got better based upon how they did in hs compared to how they did at Villanova.  I am basing it on whether a player got better throughout his career at Villanova, i.e. did he progress from his frosh year to his junior/senior year.  In hs, the recruit is playing against inferior competition.  You're comparing apples to oranges.

Although it is frustrating that they let the game slip away from them yesterday, they definitely showed they belonged. I'm more bothered by when they play down to their competition. It is crazy to think that their tournament hopes might be dashed because they lost to Columbia at the pavilion. They are not emotionally ready to play the bad teams. Is that coaching? Maybe but I'm pretty sure all the coaches are telling them not to underestimate these other teams no matter what their record. It is more likely overconfident young players who have yet to learn the ropes. Good teams beat teams they should beat. This team has glimpses of greatness, but they cannot be considered a good team yet.

Nova is a good teham not great team. This is not the same team that lost to Columbia. Nova was still finding their chemistry at the start of the year. Just go back and reread those posts. Mouph was terribly rusty at the start of the year and Arch was trying to do too much. Good team sometimes lose tames they should win. Michigan lost to psu but Michigan is still a good team. Didn't a bunch of #1s lose a bunch of times to teams they shouldve beat? It happens literally all the time. Good teams teams just dint let it happen too often. Nova keg it happen too often at the start of the year (before they became good) which is why they left themself so little margin for error.

Syracuse gets the guys who dont get recruited and they are made great by boehiem. 

Is this an early April Fools joke?