Villanova passed another early season test, beating Maryland 95-86 in Washington, D.C.
Nova was in control from the start and fought back a rally from a tough Maryland squad. They were very active on D but not always effective, allowing 86 points, 18 more than their previous high. They won the game behind the arc (16 made three’s) and on the offensive glass. All-in-all, a good early season game. A good road win against an ACC team, but a lot of areas that Jay Wright can use as teaching points.
Here are my thoughts on the game…
- The biggest concern coming into this game was the horrible shooting display the 3 guards (Reynolds, Fisher, Stokes) had put up. Reynolds was shooting 37.8% from the field, 25% from 3. Stokes was 37.5% and 36.4% and Fisher was 33.9% and 27.8%. All 3 improved on those numbers tonight, and scored 63 of the team’s 95 points. Reynolds was 7-18 from the field (but 3-10 from 3), Fisher and Stokes were both 6-13 and a combined 9-17 from 3.
- Aside from guard play, we won this game on offensive rebounding. Maryland shot 52.8% to our 40%, but we had 20 offensive boards to their 7, resulting in a huge difference in 2nd chance points.
- Taylor King needs to calm down a bit. He’s seems really, really excited that he’s not playing for Duke anymore and is certainly not lacking in the effort department, but on offense, he’s got to slow down a little and square up a little better. 13 points on 17 shots (he should never take 17 shots unless he’s on fire) is not good. I imagine King will single-handedly win, and single-handedly lose, a couple games for Nova this year.
- Nice to see Mouph Yarou on the sidelines in good spirits. I really feel for this kid – first the whole age controversy, now this illness that might end his season. Wish him nothing but the best.
- I wanted to see some post moves by Antonio Pena, who has been our most impressive player to date. However, after a couple tries in the first half, he deferred to the guards in the 2nd half. He played well and was great on the boards and on D, but it would be great for him to give us the low-post scoring dimension than Dante Cunningham did last year. Would like to see more aggressiveness from him.
- The freshman all got a lot of time in the first half, but only Cheek played any significant time in the 2nd. I guess Wright doesn’t trust them all in crunch time just yet.
- On Cheek, he showed flashes of his potential (particularly on D) but also showed that he’s not quite ready for the big time on a 2-play series in the 2nd half where he shot a bad air ball and then forced a drive causing a TO.
- Corey Fisher has some phenomenal hands on D.
Nova has 4 games before the start of the Big East schedule (St. Joes, Fordham, Temple and Delaware) and will likely go in 12-0, though Temple will likely give them a tough game.
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