Seriously, the weekend isn't really finished in college basketball until ESPN's Big Monday wraps up... and what a battle between #8 Georgetown and Villanova... it's a shame it ended with two free throws from a foul called 75 feet away from the basket.
The final tenth of a second obscures what was an incredible twenty minutes of defense: although Jonathan Wallace's free throws wrapped the Hoyas 55-53 win, stifling defense that held the Wildcats to 13% shooting in the second half =Nova went 0-13 from three-point range while leading scorer Scottie Reynolds shot 1-for-6 after the break.
The exclamation point was Jeremiah Rivers containing Reynolds in the final seconds with the score tied at 53... the sophomore has turned into the team's lockdown defender (remember how he forced Syracuse's Johnny Flynn into an off-balance three-pointer in the Hoyas' overtime win over the Orange last month?)
Another gut-check win for the Big East leaders on a tight turnaround...I guess the biggest question from Saturday's loss to Louisville involved Rick Pitino imitating Harold Hill from the Music Man or Mister Roarke from Fantasy Island--I'm still torn between the two... with Colonel Sanders entering as a potential third-party candidate.
American enters Wednesday's battle with Bucknell with a chance to build on their Patriot league lead and smash an eight game losing streak to the Bison... the Eagles have won three straight for the first time this year and buoyed by Garrison Carr and Brian Gilmore's recent play. Bucknell's been the recent bully of the Patriot League--can Jeff Jones' team make another move towards a first ever NCAA berth?
Nice win by George Washington Saturday 57-54 over Dayton--the Flyers were ranked in the early stages of the season and have been in the at-large mix for much of the year--this has not been an ideal season for the Colonials, and although this team is in a far different place than they were in last February--it's good for coach Karl Hobbs to have relief, if even for a moment (before it's time to focus on road games at St Louis and St Bonaventure)...
GW isn't the only school with problems on the road--George Mason isn't 0-9 away from the Patriot Center, but they have struggled outside Fairfax (3-4 in the CAA with an at-large eyesore like Georgia State ) and wrap up a three game roadswing Wednesday at Towson... the health of the Patriots in the conference race (they trail league-leading VCU by two games) rests partially on the health of John Vaughan's left knee (not 100 percent in the loss to the Monarchs).
I covered both the Maryland men and women last weekend--not only did each squad notch a hard-fought win, both games were preceded with National Anthems belted by vocal ensembles (give the edge to the ladies Friday night), proving more is more--(unless it's the hockey guy singing on top of an old-school organ)--now if they can only drop the "O's" chant...
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