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The Big East has set an NCAA record with five teams from one conference in the Sweet 16. The East Region has two teams including Pittsburgh and Villanova. Of the 10 games played by the five remaining Big East teams 8 of them were won by double digits with an average margin of victory of 18.6. We should just take out the “ig” and call the conference the “Beast”.
The Villanova Wildcats were the most impressive of the five teams in the second round annihilating UCLA 89-69. They very easily could win this region as they’ve already beaten Pitt by 10 points earlier in the year. Head Coach Jay Wright has now led Nova to the Sweet 16 in four of the last six years and has the upscale college outside Philly (in Radford, PA). He has another great recruiting class coming in next year and has rebuilt the Villanova program into a national powerhouse. The question now is how long will he stay there.
Jay Wright joined Mike Missanelli on ESPN Radio Philadelphia on Monday to talk Villanova hoops and how he was heartbroken that Philly native Gerald Henderson went to Duke instead of Villanova.
On how they’ll change their habits with a game starting at 9:50 pm:
“We’ll start tomorrow night (Tuesday) keeping guys up later. I’m trying to get on a later clock. Eat breakfast later because we need them to be wide awake from about 10-1 in the morning on Thursday night.”
“We’re going to have our film session at 11 o’clock at night and keep them awake and then put them to bed at like 12:30.”
Do you see Duke as a similar team to you guys?
“Yeah, I do. I think they spread the floor and really space well like we do. They’ve got a lot of very skilled players like we do. Defensively, they try to be very aggressive, more in the half-court kind of like we do. They are, they’re very similar teams.”
On being a hot coaching name in college and the NBA ranks:
“I don’t even want to look at other options. I want to be at Villanova and I don’t see any reason why I won’t be at Villanova no matter what college offers or NBA offers come. As long as you have your people in place, I have a great AD, a great president, so I hope to be here a long time.”
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