Villanova set for exhibition vs. West Chester

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By MIKE ANGELINA

NovaNationHoops.com

@MikeAngelina

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What: West Chester vs. Villanova

When: 12 p.m. Saturday

Where: Wells Fargo Center

TV/Radio: None/None

For weeks, the Villanova Wildcats have not played anyone other than themselves in preseason practices. Before then, it was the lengthy off-season which did not feature any type of games. On Saturday afternoon, the Wildcats get a break from intra-squad scrimmages and the opportunity to compete against a group of people they do not call teammates.

Villanova will meet the West Chester Golden Rams at noon at the Wells Fargo Center for a preseason exhibition. The two will square off as a chance for each team’s players to get their feet wet and give their coaches an idea of where their team is a week away from the season opener.

The Wildcats are excited to get back to the court in a real game setting. One thing they are especially excited for is that opportunity to face another team, and not beating up on their teammates.

“We’re just excited to play another team, we’ve been killing each other in practice,” point guard Ryan Arcidiacono said. “Now, we get to play on Saturday, so we’re really excited about that.”

This game will give Jay Wright the opportunity to do a few different things. One of which is to toy with his rotation, and get a feel for the set of guys he is using. He will be using his two of his freshmen, Josh Hart and Kris Jenkins, more than he originally anticipated because of the injury to Dylan Ennis. Due to a broken bone in his hand, Ennis will be sidelined for 6-8 weeks, according to Wright. The exhibition presents the ideal opportunity for Wright to see his freshmen in a game situation, and see how they figure in the rotation as he perfects the rotation game plan for the regular season.

Another thing Wright will be looking for is the way the team to West Chester’s defensive pressure. The Golden Rams utilize team quickness to force a press on their opponents.

“They press a lot so that could be good for us, they have really good team quickness,” he said.

Wright said it could be a sample of what some Big East teams could present to Villanova on defense. The exhibition will give him a chance to gauge the use of his rotation and how each of the players responds.

He also thinks playing the game at the Wells Fargo Center could be a great experience for the players who have never played there. Villanova is scheduled to play five games in the South Philadelphia venue this season.

“I think it would be good to play at the Wells Fargo Center, some of these guys it’ll be their first game down there,” Wright said.

There is no better opportunity to gain experience and learn than an exhibition game. The game could prove quite value over the course of the season not just for the experience, but also if Wright identifies something that he either needs to adjust, or something he could ride throughout the season.

Scouting West Chester: The Golden Rams compete in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, a Division II league…they went 20-8 a season ago, losing to Indiana (Pennsylvania) in the semifinals of the PSAC tournament…Cory Blake, who returns for his junior season, led the team in scoring a year ago with 11.5 points per game.

Scouting Villanova: Wright has been very impressed with Hart, who figures to get a good chunk of playing time with Ennis out…the Wildcats have not lost a preseason game since falling to Duke in a preseason NIT tournament in 2000.

Sound off: Who or what will you be keeping an eye on most during the game?

Big East coaches see strong, competitve year ahead

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By MIKE ANGELINA

NovaNationHoops.com

@MikeAngelina

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In previous posts, Philahoops broke down both the series of events that led to the “New” Big East and the outlook of it, as well as the potential effects on teams in the conference, including Villanova. This post will discuss what others within the conference are saying about the new league, speculating on how everything, from competition to the television network will be and whether the conference can remain at the top in the nation.

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Although it may be branded externally as the “New” Big East, the conference will do whatever it takes to get back to the ways of the “Old” Big East from its inception. The league understands the status it has around the nation, and because of how respected, and at times feared, it was, those from within will attempt to maintain the elite status the conference has earned over history.

That challenge will be something that the top end of operations will take head-on, and facilitate to let the lower tiers, including the basketball operations, be consistent with the original standards of the league. It is something that new commissioner Val Ackerman made a point of emphasizing how committed the league is to ensure it remains a force, just as founder Dave Gavitt built it up to be.

“We are going to do everything that Dave Gavitt set out to do when he brought this league into being in 1979,” she said as part of her welcoming remarks. “We’re going to make this basketball conference a force”.

Listening to some of the coaches and people in each of their season tip-off parties talk about the league in which they are, the additions to the conference seem to be satisfactory enough to maintain the elite nature of the Big East. Many coaches talked in great excitement and admiration for each of the teams joining the conference.

“For the three new teams joining the Big East, we’re excited about Butler, Creighton and Xavier,” Ed Cooley, head coach of Providence said.

Jay Wright echoed Cooley, pointing out that each of the three programs has strong basketball traditions. Because of everything they bring, DePaul head coach Oliver Purcell said the teams bring “tremendous cachet” right now. The timing, if he’s correct, would be crucial for keeping the Big East atop and not suffer any type of letdown, on or off the court, for losing the many tradition-rich programs.

The entering teams have even fared well recently in this current decade, as Wright’s predecessor Steve Lappas, now the head coach at St. John’s points out.

“Butler’s played in the championship game two of the past four years,” he explained. “Creighton has the best player in the league.”

The player he was referring to was the Blue Jay’s Doug McDermott, a two-time All American. McDermott, an accomplished collegiate athlete, talked about the excitement from the players’ perspective. They are playing in a few different cities, different arenas with different crowds, and competing against new players. Among those little things, players such as McDermott, who played in the much smaller, less competitive Missouri Valley Conference previously, are excited about the new travel and playing at historic venues.

“I’m really looking forward to going to the [Madison Square] Garden,” he explained. “But I’m really looking forward to the travel, playing against a lot of new teams, new fan bases, it should be a lot of fun.”

Another thing that could keep the Big East on top as far as interest and keeping it consistently on everyone’s radar is its new television network, Fox Sports 1. The network, which launched in August, will give the conference some of the most thorough coverage in the land of college sports. So far, FS1 has received tremendous reviews for its programming – Sports Illustrated Media Analyst and Reporter Richard Deitsch, an expert in sports media, has called the new network “Team Fun” several times. The network, which shares the coverage with the rest of the nation, could be a game-changer in keeping the conference on top.

“FOX Sports 1 has changed the game, changed the landscape,” Cooley said. “Our exposure will be second-to-none, and I feel we have the best conference in America.”

There will be plenty for the network to cover and use to highlight the strengths of the conference, according to the coaches. Many predict the league to be very deep this year and go wire-to-wire in vying for post season berths.

“I think we’re going to have seven teams coming down the stretch that will be vying for NCAA tournament teams, and there is no reason we shouldn’t get five or six teams on a regular basis when you look at the coaching, the history of the universities in this conference, the personnel, and the urban recruiting basis in this area,” Lappas said.

He predicted that ultimately half the league would make the NCAA tournament.

“So we expect to get five or six in this tournament field, but seven, at a minimum, will be vying, and probably eight teams, nine teams will be vying for a postseason berth when you throw the NIT out there, as well, as a postseason tournament.”

It sounds like any college basketball fan’s dream: tremendous coverage of what should be tremendous competition. According to Lappas, you will not want to miss a game.

“If you’re a basketball junkie, you’re [going to] want to tune in and watch,” he declared.

So the coaches are very optimistic there will be no hangover from the split of the conference. Instead, many teams are poised for big, successful years.

“In this league, I think we have some teams that can have great years,” Wright said.

So there will be fun basketball on a fun network, with many aspects to be covered and many resources to cover them? At the very least it should be fun, if not elite.

What exactly is this “New” Big East?

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At first glance, Villanova’s conference would seem the same. The name, for one, would suggest so, as would the post season conference tournament still being at Madison Square Garden, having a few Saturday dates with Marquette and Georgetown in the conference portion of the schedule, and a trip to the Carrier Dome at Syracuse.

But this is not the same Big East of old, or even the same Big East from three months ago, as more than half of the members are now gone.

In the 2013 Big East championship game, Louisville of course rallied from the 16-point deficit to win the conference crown over Syracuse. To put in perspective just how different the conference now is, neither of those two teams are still in the league. In fact, only one of the four semi-finals teams from the tournament last year, Georgetown, will even be in the conference for 2013-14.

The final semifinalist participant, Notre Dame, will be leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference, along with Syracuse, as well as Pittsburgh. Defending national champion Louisville, along with Connecticut, Cincinnati and South Florida will bolt for the new American Athletic Conference.

Left behind them will be seven members of the “Old” Big East, all of which happen to be all Catholic institutions, DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall and of course, Villanova.

Aside from being all Catholic institutions, however, they all had something else in common: they do not support and fund FBS football programs at their institutions. This was the breaking point for the conference, which very well may have been reaching this tension point in the years leading up to the realignment, as schools and athletic programs started looking out for what was best for themselves as athletic programs as a whole.

A major factor in schools positioning themselves has to do with media coverage, and in recent years the sports media world has seen the emergence of several new networks, including the CBS Sports Network, NBC Sports Network and FOX Sports 1. They join other networks, including powerhouse ESPN on the market for coverage, and it only added more money for the taking.

On the networks’ end, leagues, programs and athletes that offered high-quality collegiate football in addition to basketball were most desirable for identifying the best conferences to invest in entertainment. Conferences, not just the Big East, made their attempts to align the best collection of competition for entertainment, and schools with football programs where sought after.

For confirmation of how crucial the media and network relationship is for the conference, look no further than the (old) Big East hiring Michael Aresco as commission. Aresco, who now serves as Commissioner of The American, was brought over from previously serving as Vice President of Programming of CBS Sports to lead and oversee the league. Conferences began collecting every resource that could position them best in the hunt for a media deal.

So the move started with Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame, all three schools with football programs, especially Notre Dame, with a degree of pedigree, leaving for the ACC. This came after the Big East rejected a contract offer with ESPN for media rights, hoping to negotiate for more money. The deal would have likely kept at least Pittsburgh and Syracuse around, but the instability forced them to look elsewhere.

On the day after the death of original Big East founder Dave Gavitt, ‘Cuse and Pitt split for the ACC. The other football schools soon followed and the American Athletic Conference was formed.

Back in the Big East, the “Catholic 7” teams moved on and began re-shaping the Big East. The conference formally announced the new structure in March of 2013, shortly after the Big East tournament. Settlements were made, and the league got to retain the league, name and tournament location.

In as new Commissioner is former WNBA President Val Ackerman. Out and off to The American is Aresco, who will serve as the new conference’s commissioner. Gone too is the previous arrangement of ESPN carrying the games, as FOX Sports 1 steps in as the conference’s new network.

Most importantly, the seven have since been joined by new members Creighton, Butler and Xavier. Those three schools transferred into the program, officially, on July 1, the same day the American conference-bound schools left. Creighton comes as a former member of the Missouri Valley conference, while Butler and Xavier come from Atlantic 10 conference. Of the ten total “New” Big East teams, Butler is the only non-Catholic school to be a member of the new conference.

And so, the last six teams to make the Final Four out of the Big East have left, including two of 2013’s Final Four participants. Gone now too are the last five National Champions to come out of the Big East. The last of the remaining teams to make a Final Four was Villanova in 2009, and the last National Champion of those remaining were the Cats in 1985.

But joining is a team in Xavier that has made the NCAA tournament 11 different times since the turn of the millennium. Here now is the two-time All-American first team member, Doug McDermott, who many identify as the best player in the conference. Finally, there is Butler, a team that has made two trips to the National Championship game since 2010, which marks more championship game appearances than Villanova’s most senior member, James Bell, has in combined minutes of NCAA tournament games experience.

Some is the same, but much is different. The changes and new ways of the conference will undoubtedly have an effect on Villanova, as it will for any team in the conference. How exactly will it? Time will be the best way to determine that.

Meanwhile, there is a lot to look forward as we approach the start of games in the new conference. For a preview of what to expect, including what those around the league are saying about the conference, stay tuned to Philahoops for a breakdown and preview of what to expect.