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That’s a Bad Loss for Villanova (Plus, Some Thoughts on Main Line Stereotypes)
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Georgetown won the battle for the Patagonia vest, knocking off Villanova 78-64 in the Big East tournament quarterfinals:
It’s a bad loss for Nova, who beat Georgetown twice in the regular season, once by seven points and once by 15 points. This time, they shot just 38% from the floor and 7-29 from three. They couldn’t get much to fall. They were also hammered on the glass, outrebounded 42 to 19 while giving up 14 OREBs in the process. The injured Matt Hodge wasn’t exactly Reggie Evans on the glass, but he did pull down 3-4 rebounds on average and added some size to the lineup. Without him, it’s Duke Brennan and a bunch of guards, and Nova was already an imbalanced, guard-heavy team to begin with. They’ve been thin in the frontcourt from day 1.
Still, the Cats finish 24-8 and will make the NCAA tournament in Kevin Willard’s first year. That’s a great season coming out of three mediocre Kyle Neptune years. The issue with March Madness seeding is that Nova didn’t have any quality wins. They went 0-4 against UConn and St. John’s and their other four losses were to BYU, Michigan, Georgetown, and Creighton. Not a lot of “bad” losses in there, but no “great” wins either, so they’re looking at maybe an 8 or 9 seed after this loss. That lines them up for a second round game against a top seed if they advance.
Quick aside:
I was at the Pavilion a few weeks ago. First time in a while and I was paying close attention to the crowd. There were some rich-looking kids there, of course, but the vibes were good and it didn’t seem overly-douchey, not the way that Temple and St. Joe’s fans would have you think. Temple and SJU fans would have you believe that every single Villanova fan is a humongous douchebag, but I just don’t think it syncs up. There’s plenty of money on the Main Line, and a bunch of out-of-state kids who come to Nova, but, in my personal experience, the Villanova rich types aren’t half as snooty as old white southern money, or the WASPy New Englanders. You wanna feel like a piece of shit? Go spend some time in the Bible Belt. Those people look at us like we’re complete trash and want absolutely nothing to do with us. I also think there’s a north/south thing going on, where the white money down there thinks we’re a bunch of yanks. It’s like we lack refinement or class or something. It’s hard to describe, but in the few years I lived down there, it was PALPABLE.
*I will say that the middle-aged women at the Pavilion all look like the type to yell at Kylie Kelce in Margate. They all look like the lady who works at the Main Line chocolate shop.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com