Happy Monday, 'Nova Nation! And I do mean that. I'm completely over Saturday. In fact I was never really that upset to begin with, because when that game was announced it was always going to be really tough to win it. Villanova is 8-2 sporting two losses to Top 5 teams. That's really not a bad way to go through the out-of-conference schedule especially considering that they looked really good against Virginia's defense (though not so great against their apparently elite offense - maybe the defense does have a long way to go after all).
What's more interesting is that i's very likely that Villanova is the lowest ranked team from the Big East this afternoon. Xavier is a deserved Top 10 team and I'm hard-pressed to argue Butler given the beating they put on Purdue. Providence is iffy, even though they've looked pretty darn good. But that might just make Villanova underrated all of a sudden.
And historically, that's been a really good motivation tool for this program. Can't wait for NYE!
And now, the "news."
Xavier is on the way up, Nova is probably underrated, and what is going on with Georgetown? | Banners On The Parkway
Are the Wildcats really fourth in the Big East pecking order?
For Leitao, DePaul's challenges remain the same | Daily Herald
Leitao has to remind himself he left DePaul.
New Mexico loses to Rice after technical with 0.1 seconds left | CBSSports.com
If a team loses a game in a more brutal way than this the rest of the season, I think you'll be hard-pressed to find it.
Italy Plans To Fix Tall, Awkward Basketball Kid With Pasta | Deadspin
Robert Bobroczkyi is a 7-foot-6, 184-pound Romanian, and of course, he plays basketball. Bobroczkyi’s only 15 years old, however, so he’s being treated delicately as he stays at a hoops academy in Rome. Growing boys need their food, and since Bobroczkyi is a towering, growing boy, he needs even more food.
College football's short-lived bowl games | FOX Sports
At Municipal Stadium, invariably described as "cavernous," about 15,000 fans froze in the 80,000-seat stadium to watch Kentucky defeat Villanova 24-14. (What is it with Villanova and obscure bowl games?)