ESPN Men's Basketball

VILLANOVA, Pa. -- At first it looked harmless, like Isaiah Armwood actually was trying to pull Mouphtaou Yarou away from a potential fracas.

On replay, however, it was viewed otherwise. As Armwood, the Villanova sophomore, wrapped his arm around Yarou, he hit Nasir Robinson in the left eye.

“A cheap shot,’’ Robinson called it.

A technical Jim Burr ruled it.

Another day at the office, Pittsburgh declared.

Pitt always has been the sort of team that prides itself on taking an opponent’s best punch and responding. The Panthers typically mean that in the figurative sense.

Apparently they can take the literal body blows, too.

“He reached around Yarou and extended his arm,’’ Robinson said. “It was definitely intentional, a cheap shot. But that sort of stuff happens every day in practice. We get bloody noses, black eyes, you name it. It doesn’t matter. We just let the refs call it and keep playing.’’

Handling friendly fire is one thing. Walking onto a campus 14 hours into its fevered pitch and handling a punch to the face in a heated game that featured three technicals, 43 fouls, and so many floor burns and loose-ball dives that you were waiting for the coaches to call for their cut men, is another.

Yet Pitt absorbed the hits and kept on coming, not only keeping its composure but running on a post-punch 15-4 streak that ultimately proved the difference in a 57-54 victory against Villanova.

The Panthers, who halted the Wildcats’ 46-game win streak at the on-campus Pavilion, now stand atop the sequoia of conference perches, 11-1 in the Big East.

Which will mean what, exactly, on Monday?

Not likely a spot atop the rankings.

When the conversation tracks to who ranks among the nation’s best -- a conversation sure to take on a rowdier tenor after Ohio State’s loss at Wisconsin -- it rarely loops around to the Panthers.

Most everyone agrees that the Big East is the best conference in the country and no one will argue that the Panthers aren’t the best in the Big East.

But in 14 weeks of poll voting, the best team from the best league has yet to receive a single vote.

“I think it’s time for us to be in the conversation among the elite,’’ Brad Wanamaker said. “But really, we want to be in the conversation among the elite at the end of the season, not now. When they start talking about the national championship, that’s when we want to be talked about.’’

Ah, but therein lies the chronic rub with the Panthers, the dirty little secret that maybe has kept voters from casting their ballots in Pitt’s favor.

The Panthers have won at least 10 conference games in each of the past 10 seasons and have won 211 games since Jamie Dixon took over as head coach for the 2003-2004 season -- the fifth-most among Division I teams.

For all of that success, Pitt has no Final Fours appearances during that time. The Panthers were tantalizingly close two seasons ago, making it to the Elite Eight before Nova's Scottie Reynolds quashed the Panthers’ dream in one coast-to-coast dash.

Other than that, it has been during the Sweet 16 or earlier rounds that Pitt leaves the party.

And so fairly or not, the Panthers have been labeled a team built to withstand the rigors of the Big East but not necessarily built to win it all.

This team, though, might be different.

“This is as tough and as good a team as they’ve had,’’ Villanova coach Jay Wright said.

Pitt seems to have a knack for losing key players at critical times. Mike Cook, Levance Fields, Jermaine Dixon are among the who's who to have missed stretches during their careers.

Now the Panthers can add Ashton Gibbs to the list. The junior, and most improved Big East player a year ago, is sidelined with an MCL injury in his left knee. He sat nattily dressed in a suit on the bench while his teammates played a game that was more akin to a brawl.

In the past, the Panthers sort of looked to survive without their star, finding a way to piecemeal their way to enough success while their injured player mended.

This time Dixon sent a much simpler message: relax.

“We’ve emphasized that since day one, that there’s no need to do anything differently,’’ Dixon said. “We’ve practiced without him, played without him. We don’t have to make it more than it is.’’

Echoed Wanamaker, “We were confident. We knew without Ashton somebody would have to step up but that didn’t meant someone had to fill Ashton’s shoes. We just had to go play our game.’’

And in arguably two of the toughest environments they’ll face this year -- at backyard brawl rival West Virginia and at "College GameDay" juiced Villanova -- the Panthers did exactly that.

This game was ugly, brutal and mean, just the way Pitt likes it. At times, the fans were crazy that the officials were blowing the whistle too much and others, angry that they were letting too much go.

When Robinson all but tackled Corey Fisher on a fast break, the play itself resulted merely in a foul call. It was the jawing after that earned the pair a double technical.

That’s sort of how it went all night, with bodies flying and shots not falling, a thing of beauty to those who prefer their basketball served with a side of hand-to-hand combat.

Not until the final minutes did there seem to be any fluidity, and naturally when it arrived, it came from the most nonsensical of sources.

In a game where the two teams would combine to shoot 4-of-25 from beyond the arc, a guy who took five 3-pointers all season drained one like it was nothing. Antonio Pena's 3 with under a minute got the Wildcats within three and after Pena stripped Wanamaker, Villanova -- burned by Rutgers on a 4-point play at the buzzer a game ago -- had a chance to at least force overtime.

Dominic Cheek missed a 3 from the baseline but Maurice Sutton corralled the rebound and passed it out to Maalik Wayns. Falling and eventually landing on his backside, Wayns drained the 3.

But it came a split second after Jim Burr already ruled the shot was after the buzzer. The game was over.

“We made too many mistakes in the second half,’’ Wright said. “I just think they were just physically older and tougher than us. It seemed like every time there was a loose ball in this game, we’d both get a hand on it but in the end, they’d end up ripping it out of ours.’’

Not just absorbing the punch, but delivering the knockout.

Welcome to Saturday. Or, at least for college hoops fans, Saturday as it should be. There's no baseball, college football, NFL playoffs, or any other popular-but-inferior (kidding!) sport to distract the casual fan from the hoopy goodness you and I have been enjoying for two months now. No, it's just college hoops, and what better way to welcome in the sports tourist than with two huge conference games featuring two ranked league contenders apiece?

Yes, I'm talking Villanova-Syracuse and Ohio State-Illinois, both of which deserve the recap treatment. So, without further ado:

No. 7 Villanova 83, No. 3 Syracuse 72: Well, this was a surprise.

It's not so much that Villanova's double-digit win was surprising in and of itself, though it was; at this point, any double-digit win at the Carrier Dome must be greeted with some measure of shock. Syracuse entered the game having lost exactly five home games in the past two and a half seasons, the last coming Feb. 14, 2010, when Louisville legitimately shocked Jim Boeheim's team in Syracuse. The Orangemen haven't lost often in recent seasons, and they certainly haven't suffered many of those losses at home.

But more surprising than the win itself was the way Villanova got it. Jay Wright's team didn't just solve Syracuse's famed 2-3 zone. The Wildcats shredded it. The Cuse entered Saturday's top 10 matchup with the stingiest zone in the Big East, one that was allowing a mere .95 points per possession to conference opponents. Villanova scored 1.58 points per trip on offense Saturday afternoon (per scacchoops.com). That's a crazy number for any game -- Villanova came into Saturday averaging 1.13 points per trip against Big East foes -- let alone one against this rangy, athletic Boeheim zone.

With the exception of some late press-break trouble and a 9-0 Syracuse run in the closing minutes, believe it or not, this Villanova team made Syracuse's elite defense look downright pedestrian. Impressed? Of course. Surprised? That too. A few more assorted thoughts follow:

• Syracuse's zone might have been shredded, but the Orange didn't play poorly on the offensive end. On a tempo-free basis -- Boeheim's team scored 1.39 ppp Saturday -- they were downright excellent. What was the difference? For one, Villanova simply made more shots. The Wildcats shot 50 percent from the field, including an 11-of-24 mark from beyond the arc. Syracuse, by contrast, was 43 percent from the field overall and made only 10 of its 26 tries from 3.
• And, as they so often do, free throws changed the game. Villanova got to the foul line at a much higher rate (48.0 percent to Syracuse's 19.4), which is an advantage in and of itself. But when you make 22 of 24 from the foul line, as Nova did, that advantage is exponential and difficult to overcome. (It should be noted that a chunk of those free throw attempts came late in the game when Syracuse needed to foul, but the Wildcats still made them count, and the free throw disparity existed before the game was in last-ditch-comeback mode.)
• Villanova might have the perfect blueprint for Syracuse's zone. The Wildcats are a balanced team with a host of capable ball handlers and big men who can comfortably operate from the high block. Syracuse loves to extend its zone, trap guards, force long skip passes, and jump in passing lanes. They collapse on interior passes and use their length to challenge post shots. But when you've got guys like Maalik Wayns and Corey Fisher -- who can not only handle those traps but split them, creating odd-man advantages and open shots -- as well as swingmen like Corey Stokes and forwards like Antonio Pena and Mouphtaou Yarou, you can get into the zone, break it down, get layups and open looks, and your life is that much easier.
• Syracuse's poor perimeter shooting continues to be an issue. The Cuse have been winning in spite of their low (32.6 percent) 3-point field goal percentage for much of the season. That's because Syracuse's defense is tough, its transition game is great, and its athleticism is such that it can get interior looks for Rick Jackson and Kris Joseph almost at will. But when an opposing offense is taking your defense apart, you have to be able to keep pace -- especially when you need to put together a late rally -- and if you can't hit shots from long range, it's hard to do that.
• What about the Big East? Where does this game put Villanova (which lost at Connecticut on Monday) and Syracuse (which lost at Pittsburgh) in the context of their conference? I think you might downgrade Syracuse just a notch; if this defense doesn't carry Boeheim's team, the Cuse will struggle to keep pace with Pittsburgh in the conference chase. You might also be inclined to upgrade Villanova (and maybe, by extension, UConn), because away wins against elite Big East teams are very difficult to come by.
• Overall, though, I'm not sure this game moves the needle much. We still have three bona fide contenders for the Big East crown -- Pittsburgh, Villanova and Syracuse -- a potential outside challenge from UConn, and a host of teams (Louisville, Georgetown and the rest) that will win their share of games against the top three before the year is out. Syracuse could use some work on offense, and it did not have the best pair of defensive outings in its past two games, but overall, the conference picture looks pretty constant for now.

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No. 1 Ohio State 73, No. 22 Illinois 68: If you pegged this game as the first loss of Ohio State's season, you weren't alone. Thousands of orange-clad Illinois fans -- and, as if you care, yours truly -- were right there with you.

It certainly had that feel, didn't it? A tough environment. A ranked conference opponent. An apparently vulnerable No. 1 coming off a couple weeks of unimpressive performances, including a four-point escape at Michigan and three-point home wins against Minnesota and Penn State. All the warning signs of a No. 1 upset -- which would have been only the third in Illinois hoops history, a stat I had trouble believing when CBS put it into my brain -- were there.

Instead, we got another impressive performance from Ohio State, another comprehensive game from freshman Jared Sullinger, and another example of why this Buckeyes team is now your undefeated No. 1 in the first place: They're really, really tough to beat.

• For all of OSU's perimeter weapons, that toughness starts in the post, which means it starts with Sullinger. The freshman put up another classic line Saturday, scoring 27 points and grabbing 16 rebounds in a full 40 minutes on the floor. But perhaps most impressive was Sullinger's free throw shooting. The big man, who is shooting about 73 percent from the line this season, made 13 of his 15 foul attempts Saturday. You probably don't need me to tell you just how lethal that is. Sullinger is so good at getting early position on the block, and so strong once he's there, that you practically have to foul him if you don't want him to get two easy points. But what good is fouling if Sullinger makes his free throws? Big Ten coaches of the world: You are now free to slam your heads repeatedly against your desks. (As if you weren't already.)
• Sullinger isn't the only player that played 40 minutes for Ohio State on Saturday. That honor also went to Jon Diebler and David Lighty, both of whom played every available minute at Illinois. Buckeyes coach Thad Matta appears to have already settled on a seven-man rotation. Forward Dallas Lauderdale is still a starter, but he's averaging 18.7 minutes per game. Instead, Matta goes early and often to freshman Aaron Craft, whose 31 minutes also cut into the playing time of William Buford, arguably OSU's best all-around perimeter scorer, because Craft is the only thing resembling a point guard that the Buckeyes have.
• This rotation also features spot duty -- Saturday, that meant 12 minutes -- for highly touted recruit Deshaun Thomas. Thomas is like a secret weapon: He doesn't get on the court all that often, but he's dangerous when he does. Unlike a lot of bench players, Thomas isn't remotely hesitant to shoot the ball; he has the highest usage rate of any Buckeye when he's on the floor, which basically means "he takes a lot of shots." You saw that in the second half Saturday. With the game tied at 50-50 and 9:34 remaining, Thomas hit the first of two quick 3-pointers -- one of which came on a wide-open fast break -- and then scored on a nice post move over Illinois freshman Jereme Richmond with 5:35 remaining. By the time he left the game, Thomas had scored a quick eight points, Ohio State built a six-point lead, and the Buckeyes would never trail again.
• If you're a particularly positive Illinois fan, you might actually be encouraged by this home loss. Why? Because your opponent -- the ruthlessly efficient No. 1 team in the land -- played relatively well. Your best player, Demetri McCamey, did not. And not only did you lead for much of the second half, you had a chance to win the game in the final seconds. That's not so bad, is it?
• And boy, did McCamey ever play poorly. It's safe to say that Illinois won't win too many games when McCamey goes 2-for-11 from the field, 1-of-5 from 3, and has nearly as many turnovers (four) as assists (five). It was fitting, then, that Illinois' final chance to tie the game came on a poor decision by McCamey, when the guard passed up a long three to enter the ball to Mike Tisdale in traffic. Tisdale lost the handle, and the game was over. McCamey has been brilliant all season long, so this is nothing to worry about. Everyone has bad games. Unfortunately for Bruce Weber's team, McCamey picked this day -- with a winnable upset of the No. 1 team on the table -- to have his ugliest game of the season. (And yes, as a few commenters below have pointed out, much of the credit for McCamey's bad day goes to Aaron Craft, who played a stellar on-ball defensive game.)
• Another encouraging sign for Illinois: After facing transfer rumors last week, freshman forward Richmond continues to play well. Richmond scored 18 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field and added 10 rebounds, three of which came on the offensive end. Richmond is one of the few players on Illinois who can bang down low and get easy buckets in the paint; unlike Illinois' guards and true forwards, he's not really an inside-out player. If Richmond can add that sort of offensive production to a team that is still a bit too reliant on the long two-point jump shot, he could change the face of Illinois' attack. This loss was not without its silver linings.

Hey, wait a second. Did I just spend 1700 words recapping two games? Yes. I did. The day's first fixtures were just that good.

But here's the best part: This day isn't even close to over yet. I hope your couch groove is ready. Mine certainly is.

PHILADELPHIA -- With about two minutes left in the first half, Mick Cronin lost, in order, his cool, his jacket and nearly his mind.

Two minutes into the second half, Cincinnati lost its big man.

And so it followed suit that the Bearcats, in their first real show-me game of the season, lost to Villanova 72-61.

The irony in this loss is Cincinnati answered the question that dogged its 15-0 start.

Yes, the record is inflated by one of the weakest schedules (rated 324th) in the country, (a byproduct more of down years from Xavier, Dayton and Oklahoma than it is cowardice from the coaching staff) but the Bearcats can play.

They are not top-four elite in the Big East but they are good enough to be in the mix, with a scrappy backcourt, a mountain on the boards in Ibrahima Thomas and most important, a thinned-down Yancy Gates, who is finally playing with both the intensity and ability his high school career promised.

They turned a 19-point deficit into a seven-point ballgame -- a testimony to both their feistiness and Villanova’s basketball narcolepsy -- and were in a game that statistically they had no reason to be in.

Here’s the caveat: If the Bearcats want to move out of their overcrowded residence in the middle of the pack and towards the top of the league, they need to have a group therapy session on how to keep their composure.

“You can’t leave an arena in the Big East thinking, ‘We could have won,’’’ Cronin said. “I’m not saying we would have won, but we could have won. To play in this league, you have to play smart.’’

And the Bearcats didn’t -- not long enough, anyway.

They sent a Villanova team that shoots 76 percent from the free-throw line to the charity stripe 20 times in the first half and their coach went gonzo (or maybe more accurately, Gonzo) when his team was already losing its cool.

His team down nine and playing far too fast, Cronin went bananas when Nova's James Bell wasn’t called for a foul on an offensive rebound.

He screamed his rage at referee John Cahill, earned a technical, had to be restrained by his assistants, tore off his jacket and glared at Cahill while Corey Fisher sunk the freebies.

“I’m not going to comment on the officials at all,’’ Cronin said. “You’re not going to get me in trouble.'’

Two minutes into the second half, Cincinnati made bad things worse. Ibrahima Thomas, the 6-11 big man who, together with Gates gave the Bearcats a terrific size advantage, was whistled for a push-off on a made Gates bucket. As he came down the other end, he was whistled for fouling Mouphtaou Yarou, complained about it and earned a technical.

That was three fouls in 20 seconds and the end of Thomas, who fouled out with the technical. (For the record, Cronin sort of commented on the officiating, saying "Thomas got that foul. Well, a foul was called on Thomas for standing up straight.")

It doesn’t matter whether they were the right calls or the wrong calls -- and, for the record, they weren’t reprehensibly egregious.

Big East games are like hand-to-hand combat, physical survivals of the fittest, and tend to be called tightly. Calls are going to go against you. Shots aren’t going to fall. You’re going to end up, like Gates did, with a band-aid over half your eyeball and not necessarily reap the reward for the effort with a foul call.

The teams that win in this conference know how to handle all of that and keep playing.

The coaches that win time their meltdowns a little better, too -- picking a moment where their emotion can serve as motivation instead of piling on a team already in disarray.

“We all complain to the refs and then we can go back and look at the film and realize they could have called 50 fouls,’’ Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “But it’s so intense, you just get caught up in it.’’

Cronin criticized himself -- not for the technical but for not putting his team in any real dogfights early. He thinks his team suffered a bit of culture shock early, made fat by too many easy games that they lost their heads when the frenzy of a tight game hit them square.

His players concurred.

“I think we got caught up in all the fouls being called in the first half,’’ Rashad Bishop said. “After the first half, we got into the mentality that this is the Big East. Nothing is going to be easy.’’

Here’s the kicker. After Thomas was sent to the bench, the Bearcats settled down and the Wildcats lost their poise.

Cincinnati completely turned the table on Villanova, using a half-court trap to force turnovers and get the Wildcats in foul trouble. By game’s end, Wright’s entire starting lineup was playing with four fouls and the Wildcats were actually whistled more than the Bearcats (35 to 33).

Twice the Bearcats cut it to seven and ultimately ended up leaving Villanova feeling far better than a team that shot 2-of-20 from behind the arc would normally have the right to feel.

“I think we’re real good,’’ Bishop said. “We came to Villanova, got down early and fought back. That showed a lot of maturity. That’s the kind of game where, last year, or usually we would have given up and we didn’t.’’

Maturity. That’s the word Bishop used.

An interesting choice considering the way the first half went.

“Yeah,’’ Bishop conceded. “That’s something we have to work on.’’

NEW YORK -- Scottie Reynolds got Villanova back to a Final Four with an epic, game-ending layup to beat Pitt in the 2009 Elite Eight.

The shot will forever be etched in Nova lore.

But Reynolds' influence on the Wildcats is now gone and it shows.

A trio of Villanova guards -- Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes and Maalik Wayns -- don’t mean any disrespect by this, but they feel they leaned too much on Reynolds last season. They looked for him to constantly bail them out of a bad situation.

Now they’ve all moved on.

“Ever since Scotty’s freshman year, he had the ball in his hands,’’ Stokes said. “The team relied on Scotty. He was one of the greatest players in Villanova history. I don’t want to take anything away from him, but we can all score. It doesn’t matter who has the ball. Coach [Jay Wright] feels comfortable with either me, Maalik or Fish with the ball in his hands.’’

And so the baton has been passed from Reynolds to the trio of Stokes, Fisher and Wayns. The Villanova guards dominated the ball in an 82-70 NIT Season Tip-Off semifinal victory over UCLA Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden. The Wildcats will play Tennessee in Friday's championship. The three guards combined for 45 of the Wildcats’ 62 shots. They made 17. And didn’t hurt that they were a combined 22-of-24 at the free throw line. Fisher finished with 26 points, Wayns with 19 and Stokes with 16.

Nova has Mouphtaou Yarou inside (13 points and 16 boards vs. UCLA) and if a Villanova student code of conduct committee gives suspended freshman forward JayVaughn Pinkston a chance to play sometime this season (he’s facing simple assault charges for a punch on another Villanova student at a party earlier this month), then there will be even more balance. Wright said earlier Wednesday that the committee could hear Pinkston’s case next week. He is allowed to practice with the team but can’t represent the university and sit on the bench.

Seeing Pinkston in practice Wednesday, it was clear that he would have a major impact on this squad at both ends of the court. But instead of waiting on the legal case, the team will wait on the school's verdict since this was a student-on-student crime.

For now and the foreseeable future, Nova will be driven by its guards, much like it was on that 2006 Elite Eight team led by Randy Foye, Allan Ray and Kyle Lowry.

“That’s our offense,’’ Wayns said. “That’s the way coach Wright tells us to play. We’re not where those guys were [Foye, Ray and Lowry] since they’re all pros. But we’re aggressive and we’re giving our team the best chance to win. Last year, if things got bad we turned to Scottie. We leaned on Scottie. Now it doesn’t matter since any of us can make a play.’’

UCLA’s trio of Malcolm Lee, Lazeric Jones and Jerime Anderson had their moments, but weren’t in the same level on a consistent basis as Nova’s guards.

The Wildcats don't have the one star like Connecticut’s Kemba Walker. A more appropriate comparison might be the tandem of Brad Wanamaker and Ashton Gibbs of Pitt or Georgetown’s Austin Freeman, Chris Wright and Jason Clark.

“We’ve had more time together,’’ Fisher said of his senior classmate Stokes. “Maalik played with us last year too. We had time to watch Scottie and learn from him and we’ve had time to gel.’’

What Villanova has this season -- something that was lost at times last season in falling flat against Saint Mary’s in the second round of the NCAA tournament -- is a cohesion among the guards.

“We’ve got great chemistry,’’ Stokes said. “We’re always together off the court and it translates on the court. It should be like this the whole year.’’

For the next month or so, our friends at The Mag are previewing one high-profile school per day for their Summer Buzz series. For the sake of all that is synergistic, yours truly will be attempting the same, complementing each comprehensive Insider preview with some adjusted efficiency fun. Today's subject? Villanova . Up next? Tennessee.

Throughout former All-American Scottie Reynolds' tenure at Villanova, the Wildcats had a familiar defensive tendency. They fouled. Correction: They fouled a lot.

The thing is, for the first three years of Reynolds' tenure, it didn't seem to matter. In 2006-07, 2007-08, and 2008-09, Villanova always ranked below the Division I average -- including two seasons far below it -- in opponent free throw rate. But those same three years saw the Wildcats post adjusted defensive efficiency rankings of Nos. 18, 34, and 15, respectively. How? By taking care of the other three defensive factors (opponents' offensive rebounding percentage, effective field goal percentage, and turnover percentage) well enough that a few free throws here and there didn't make much difference.

Then, in 2009-10, the wheels came off. Villanova's defense wasn't abysmal, but in allowing 94.0 points per 100 possessions it ranked No. 62 in the country. For much of the season, we assumed Villanova would compete for a Final Four spot. Even during a late-season swoon, most assumed 'Nova was better than they were playing. In the end, though, maybe they weren't. Maybe their defensive deficiencies were just too much to overcome. The offense, after all, was pretty darn good.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying this much: Scottie Reynolds might be gone, and the Wildcats will usher in a new wave of talented players, but the foul woes that plagued Villanova are likely to remain.

After all, the Wildcats were fouling long before Reynolds arrived. (And Reynolds, to his credit, had the lowest fouls committed per 40 minutes mark of anyone on 2009-10's team.) Only once since 2004-05 has a Jay Wright-coached team ranked in the top 200 in opponents' free throw rate. That year was 2005-06; Villanova ranked No. 198. There may be something systematic at work here.

More pertinent, though, is the increased visibility of a suite of Villanova players who committed their share of fouls last season. There's Corey Fisher (3.7 fouls committed per 40 minutes) Antonio Pena (4.9), Maalik Wayns (4.9), Mouphtaou Yarou (6.3) and Maurice Sutton (7.8 [!]). Isiah Armwood gets a pass for his limited usage last season, but even he committed 6.6 fouls per 40. Read together, those tallies look less like foul averages and more like the collective GPAs of valedictorian candidates at one of those high schools that gives extra GPA credit for A+ grades and advanced placement classes. ("What was your high school GPA?" "7.4!" Uh, what?)

The point is, there are still plenty of foul-prone players on this team. Some of them have major roles already. Some of them will be expected to step in. Either way, they're likely to keep committing fouls.

Naturally, that doesn't doom Villanova's season. Quite the contrary: If Villanova has shown one ability in Wright's tenure, it's that his teams are often able to overcome their willingness to send opponents to the line so frequently.

There is plenty of good news about this Villanova team, too. With a glut of big men ready to step in and take on larger roles -- especially senior forward Pena -- the Wildcats could be as balanced as any team Wright has ever coached. They might not need to rely on stellar guard play. They might not need the individual brilliance of a player like Reynolds.

And perhaps most importantly, a bigger and more balanced Villanova lineup -- one that can score without playing three or four guards -- could help the Wildcats cut down on those fouls. The Big East is a big conference; being bigger can only help. That goes for shoring up the defensive glass, too.

Whatever the improvements, though, it's hard to imagine a young team that commits as many fouls as the 2009-10 Wildcats did getting anywhere near the Final Four. Villanova remains talented. They might be more balanced than ever. But unless they morph into the nation's best offense (unlikely given Reynolds' offensive efficiency) or figure out a way to create more turnovers (possible, I guess), or learn to keep opponents of the glass (doable, especially with more size and depth), they're on track to suffer through the same issues as 2009-10's impressive but ultimately disappointing team.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Quick postgame thoughts after Villanova’s 73-70 overtime win over Robert Morris Thursday at the Dunk:

• Villanova couldn’t have played worse and won an overtime first-round game. Couldn’t have played worse and still won.
• Villanova seemed out of sync until overtime. Not sure if it was the benching of Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher or the re-emergence of Taylor King but the Wildcats never could get in a groove.
• Reynolds didn’t make a 3-pointer until the final 70 seconds of overtime. The 3-pointer gave the Wildcats a six-point lead and it came with one second left on the shot clock.
• Villanova couldn’t find Robert Morris’ Karon Abraham for most of the game as he continued to keep the Colonials either out front or in the game. But they did a great job of hiding him on the final possession and preventing him from getting off a potential game-tying shot.
• Abraham is the star of this game, a real find as a freshman for RMU coach Mike Rice. Abraham made deep 3s, got to the line and found a way to the hole. Another gem was the defense turned in by Dallas Green. He had a few blocks and defensive stops that were key in putting RMU in position to possibly win.
• Rice had a right to be a bit upset over some of the calls. This is a once in a lifetime kind of deal for a 15 seed to pull off an upset like this over a 2 and a major power like Villanova. The Colonials were so close but couldn’t win it overtime. You could sense it was going to go against RMU in overtime. Villanova flipped the switch to win the game.
• The crowd had a nice moment giving both teams a standing ovation, especially the Villanova fans. It was a class act. Rice also went over to the crowd to clap for the RMU fans giving a great effort themselves.
• Villanova may have found its inside game with Mouphtaou Yarou. But it’s still not a strength.
• I still don’t understand why Reggie Reading didn’t just score the ball and put Nova up five instead of trying to dribble out the clock. He gave RMU another possession and a chance to tie the game.
• Stats to remember: Reynolds was 2-of-15 shooting and just 1-of-8 on 3s. But he was 15-of-16 at the line. Very strange numbers.

  
  Abraham scored 23 points and made five 3s.

PHILADELPHIA -- Getting ready for Villanova-Georgetown here at the Wachovia Center. The Hoyas have taken the last five from the Wildcats.

I'm curious to see a few matchups today, starting with the backcourt. This should be a typical Big East game, one where the guards bring the entertainment value. Austin Freeman is coming off an electric night against Connecticut, and Chris Wright leads the scoring for Georgetown, but they haven't been dealt a hand quite like Villanova presents. Scottie Reynolds has absolutely taken over since the calendar flipped for Villanova, but he's not alone. Lightning quick Corey Fisher and equally speedy Maalik Wayns, alongside Corey Stokes, give the Wildcats a significant advantage in depth.

The other spot to watch is under the hoop, where Antonio Pena will have his hands full with Greg Monroe. Pena has taken over the spot vacated by Dante Cunningham more than admirably, but will have his hands full with Monroe. This could be the first time Villanova really needs rookie Mouphtaou Yarou, who just returned after a frightening battle with Hepatitis B.

The Villanova-Maryland matchup in D.C. tonight lost a little of its luster after the Terps were taken out by Cincinnati and Wisconsin. But as the season progresses, those are going down as losses to good teams, so it could be foolish to count out Maryland against the Wildcats. The Terps started the season in the Top 25 with good reason.

Meanwhile, Villanova hasn't played a legit road game this season and is still without the services of senior guard Reggie Redding (suspension) and Mouphtaou Yarou (illness). The Wildcats remain a fairly young team, with role players taking over as leaders and freshmen playing valuable minutes.

Antonio Pena, a career understudy, has been playing lights out, averaging 13.4 points and 10.3 rebounds, but Landon Milbourne, Jordan Williams and the athletic Cliff Tucker could give the Wildcats some trouble in the frontcourt.

How well Villanova defends will make all the difference. Jay Wright was pleased with the Cats' effort in their last game but that was against Drexel. No offense to the Dragons, but that isn't the same as slowing down a Maryland team that has scored or hovered near 80 points in five of its first seven games.

Scary news out of Villanova today that freshman Mouphtaou Yarou is out indefinitely with Hepatitis B. Certainly the primary concern is the Wildcat big man regains his health from a scary disease that can affect liver function.

But losing Yarou for quite possibly the entire season also will impact Villanova's attempt to return to the Final Four. The biggest question mark for a talented Villanova team is in the frontcourt, where the Wildcats are trying to replace Dante Cunningham and Shane Clark. Junior Antonio Pena has been a surprising bright spot. Pena is averaging 12.5 points and 10.5 rebounds through the first six games, putting up incredibly productive numbers after serving as Cunningham's understudy.

But after Pena, the Wildcats are very thin. Duke transfer Taylor King isn't a post-up player and Maurice Sutton, while a serviceable backup, hasn't been asked to contribute much in his career. Rookie Isaiah Armwood, too, is a good role player off the bench.

Villanova has experience winning without a big man. The Wildcats went to the Elite Eight with four guards and an undersized center in Will Sheridan in 2006. The guards in place now -- Scottie Reynolds, Corey Fisher, Maalik Wayns and Corey Stokes -- are talented enough to carry the Cats, but asking them to do what Randy Foye, Allan Ray, Mike Nardi and Kyle Lowry did is a pretty tall order.

How Pena continues to develop -- and his ability to stay out of foul trouble -- will be critical, especially in the always physical Big East.