Apologies for the lack of C/F after the St. Joe's debacle - I was catching a flight to San Francisco and just didn't have the time - although I'll readily admit that I also had zero will power after the event that we shall no longer mention this season.
I know some of you were able to catch the game on TV last night, and I'll appreciate all the feedback you can provide in the comments if any of my assumptions are off. You see, I'm going purely off the box score and various reports on Twitter since I'm back at my parents' house in CT and couldn't see the game on the tele.
Following this post coverage will be pretty sparse here at TNB as we hit a little bit of a holiday hiatus - the only other planned post I have right now is an OOC recap before we open Big East play against the Huggy Bears on the 28th.
Cheers & /Facepalms are after The Jump.
Cheers to...
Maalik Wayns - As a former (I emphasize the former heavily) athlete, I know how much it sucks to play when you're sick. This was a game where Leek could have easily taken a night off - after all it was American, and they were missing their best player. But he answered the bell with 12 points, 9 assists and 2 steals. Kudos.
Tyrone Johnson - Deputizing for Wayns was the freshman, and he performed admirably as well. I'm not uber-confident in Johnson as we roll into the Big East, but this was as encouraging performance as you could ask for. 8 points, 5 assists and just 1 turnover.
JayVaughn Pinkston - As Esteban noted in the game recap, JVP was the best player on the floor for long stretches. He's rounding into form at the right time - especially since the rough ' tough Big East is his wheelhouse in terms of style of play.
Markus Kennedy - I will continually request that this man receives more PT until he actually gets it. I know, his conditioning is the main thing. It has to be, because he's excelling whenever he is out there. 6 points and 7 rebounds in just 17 minutes. Huzzah!
Dominic Cheek - Not a crazy good performance by any stretch, but he gets props for just being under control and executing. Baby steps back to a high-level for Cheek-O.
C/Facepalms to...
Surprisingly, nobody.
/Facepalms to...
Mouphtaou Yarou - Just 20 minutes, and he didn't look good. Just 3 points against a woeful opponent on 1-6 shooting. Let's hope the cobwebs are busted out because he's going up against a big WV team in a week and we'll need him to be at a much higher level.
James Bell - The ultimate 'meh' performance. 6 points and 4 rebounds. 2-5 from the floor, all of which were from behind the arc. That's just not good. Get to the rim Tahj, you're the best goddamn athlete on the floor!
Tweet of the Game
Brian Ewart, who noted that Cheek and Wayns combined for just 4 attempts from long-range. That resulted in a 21 point walk. Coincidence. Of course not. Do you think Jay Wright realizes this? Unfortunately, probably not based on the previous weeks' results.
Game Thread Comment of the Game
KFuchs02 gets our nod - only because I believe you're a new face around the game threads, and showing up at a game thread and providing means to view the game (even if it didn't work for me and my parents' shoddy internet) during the holiday season deserves a round of applause.
As mentioned, we'll have our OOC recap up in the coming days, so check back for that. We'll do our best to keep up with breaking Villanova news as well. But other than that, have a safe and happy holidays 'Nova Nation!