Villanova 77, North Carolina 74

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#101      
HoustonIllini
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G1ei24
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G1ei24
 
#103      
Obelix
I think I sound like a broken record, but height is not that important, the critical thing is skillset and ability to play the position. Hill and DJW, for example, have more than decent height at PF (especially DJW). But they are both much better suited to play SF. Same with Finke, he is a stretch PF right now, not a C.

The other major parameter is overall and complementary talent. Villanova has great PGs (Arcidiacono and Brunson) both playing along each other very effectively, two great court generals who can also interchange at the PG/SG in the same lineup. In the frontcourt they have a very highly skilled 6'11"true C who really transformed his body adding strength. All three arguably among the best at their positions in college basketball. You add Hart and Jenkins at forwards, both highly ranked and talented players. Who cares about Jenkins' height?

Kenny Battle was the best PF in Illini history and one of the best in college basketball at the time at 6'6". But he was a PF, not a SF. And the surrounding talent on that team was great, masking even other positional gaps. If we had such great talent at PG and C as Villanova, even playing DJW at PF would't have mattered. You play DJW at PF (not his natural position) and have major gaps at PG and C, it is a different story.
 
#104      
IlliniBrave75
Obelix said:
If we had such great talent at PG and C as Villanova, even playing DJW at PF would't have mattered. You play DJW at PF (not his natural position) and have major gaps at PG and C, it is a different story.
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I agree with much of what you say. We seem to have major extremes on this board...either every player who has come in can be moved over to play PG or That guy can't play PF because he isn't 6'8"/6'9"and 250lbs!

I look at the guys in last years class (AJ, DJ, and Kipper) and it seems that Groce is moving towards length and versatility.
 
#105      
NScale
6'6" Illini Greats

Originally posted by Obelix >>Kenny Battle was the best PF in Illini history and one of the best in college basketball at the time at 6'6".

Nick Weatherspoon at 6'6", in my day.
 
#106      
CARPET
Best Game I ever saw or bet on. Can't stand NC to begin with.

Nova is going to be strong again next year- Mark that down.
 
#107      
Illinijose
Definately a lot of small line-ups, but I still like having two bigs with SF and guards who can rebound. Villanova won yesterday but NC has numerous oppurtunities inside, some they took advantage and many they didn't.

I don't care for my PG covering the opposing center/PF following one pick which was often the case yesterday. The hi/low game was there for NC yesterday, but it is a guards game and they didn't take advantage.

Good thing is that Illinois can minimize their big shortage possibly with talented and athletic wings.
 
#109      
JSpence
IlliniInOK said:
I've got a buddy who is from NC, and he has multiple posts complaining about the officiating. It's very hard not to make a comment along the lines of "How did you feel about the officiating in '05?"
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Personally, I was thrilled to see UNC get hosed on one call or no-call after the other. That NEVER happens. Sure, they had calls go their way, but not nearly their fair share.

UNC would get called for a ticky-tack here and a 'gotta call something' there, while Nova occasionally got a free pass to hack them up for minutes on end. I thought it was awesome, even if it makes me a jerk.
 
#110      
Se Il Illini
Greensboro said:
IMO; don't you think he was able to play PF(inside) on defense better than UNC PF was able to play SF on offense?

Villanova looked outmanned underneath on the boards in particular... but Villanova including Jenkins did a very effective job defensively covering UNC big; better than UNC bigs did chasing Villanova bigs and opening up the court for Villanova guards to maneuver. Point being I don't think Villanova's success has anything to do with how traditional of a PF Jenkins was. But they did a very good job on UNC bigs, good enough that it didn't offset how much better Villanova guard play was.

In a separate note, if you look at roster & listed sizes, Villanova was bigger at 3 of 5 positions (1,2,5) for most of the night.
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I think your point about the size difference at the guard position is important. Arcidianaco was used in the post on several occasions in the first half. It was noted on the national broadcast that Villanova was taking advantage of a size mismatch. This is just smart basketball and Jay Wright is a very good coach. Offensively, Villanova has players who are multi-dimensional. In the second half, Arcidianaco drove to the lane on multiple occasionans. Instead of shooting a runner, he came to a jump stop, ball faked and scored over the Carolina defender, who bit on the fake. That is pretty old school stuff and is result of good offensive coaching. I have only mentioned one player, but it appeared to me that all their players were really fundamentally sound on offense.
 
#111      
ATL Chief
That side by side video of Jay Wright saying "Bang" as the shot goes up...Pretty cool.
 
#116      
Dayman
Did anyone notice how much nova switched every screen and fronted the post? I love this style of defense and hope we try it. When you aren't big you can't let your guy catch it down there. I think we have the kids that would be well suited to this rather than the so called normal way of playing defense
 
#117      
freebird6
Dayman said:
Did anyone notice how much nova switched every screen and fronted the post? I love this style of defense and hope we try it. When you aren't big you can't let your guy catch it down there. I think we have the kids that would be well suited to this rather than the so called normal way of playing defense
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That's a tough sell to a group of fans that rely and espouse a traditional "big Banger" down low. I like the style and it fits JG's methodology of X ing out (switching) bigs down low and interchangable 2s 3s and at times 1s and 4s on D. But we see it can work and Wright is a master at getting kids to sell out on D and keep their man in front of them.
 
#118      
illini8507
Isn't that pretty much how we beat purdue? We are capable, we just didn't have the depth this year to do it consistently and still have fresh legs. We did see it in spurts
 
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