Well… that’ll happen from time to time early in the season.
Villanova came out and beat Mount St. Mary’s 91-51 in the season-opening tune-up game.
That’s what they were supposed to do, but you still have to do it. Other ranked teams stumbled out of the blocks; namely Ohio State, Houston and definitely Virginia.
The Wildcats scored the first 10 points of the game and it was over before the first media timeout. Jay was able to play 10 guys which he usually does early in the year anyway.
You know what you’re gonna get from Villanova offensively. Four out, one in, penetration, fundamental jump stops and they’re going to shoot a shit load of threes. The ‘Cats took 30 threes against the Mount, most of them wide open, and made over half (16-of-30).
Justin Moore had a career night. He led the team in scoring with 27 on 9-of-15 shooting, 6-of-8 from deep. Jermaine and Brandon Slater added 17 apiece and if Colin Gillespie is the fourth-leading scorer (13pts), ‘Nova is going to be tough to beat.
I tweeted it out during the game (@StewSabine), if Brandon Slater shoots the ball like he did last night, nobody stands a chance. Dude is 6-7, 220, left handed and a freak athlete. If he’s also silky from 25-feet, somebody might pay him 82 times a year.
My guy Jon Rothstein either took notice of how Slater played or he took notice of my twitter account. Either way, JR sent him some love.
The one question mark for Villanova is their bigs. There is no Daniel Ochefu, no Omari Spellman and you can’t blame Jeremiah Robinson-Earl for taking 2M a year to play in the league.
Eric Dixon got the start yesterday and held his own. I was excited to see freshman Trey Patterson and Nnanna Njoku, but they only combined for 17 minutes. Likely, one of them will redshirt after a midseason injury. Hopefully, Jay works his magic with the other and turns him into a rotation player by the time Big East play starts.
Friday night won’t be as easy. Villanova heads to Los Angeles to take on the #2 ranked team in the country UCLA. Johnny Juzang is a legitimate POY candidate. Tyger Campbell can match up with the ‘Nova guards. Mick Cronin is a certified psycho. It should be a good game. Better than those four teams playing at MSG last night.
Life Takes 