Friar Family: Tim Welsh to Hofstra

The off season coaching carousel continues with former PC Head Coach Tim Welshheading to Hofstra University to take over the reigns.  He will replace former coach Tom Pecora who left to take the Fordham job.  Welsh has signed on for a five year deal with the Pride, and a press conference will be held tomorrow to officially introduce him.

As most all of us know, Coach Welsh spent the last couple years working with SNY/Comcast/ ESPN as both a studio analyst and a game commentator.  He was well liked in those positions, but wanted to get back into coaching.  His name had been linked with the Seton Hall job earlier on and the Siena job more recently; however, Welsh has found his home in Long Island with Hofstra.

We wish Tim Welsh all the luck in the world.  Sure Hofstra is a couple steps down from the BIG EAST, but it was a launching pad for such coaches as Jay Wright.  Welsh has great success on the Mid-Major level with Iona so maybe that will translate over to Hofstra.  Who knows maybe, Welsh does well at Hofstra and finds himself back in a major coaching position.  But anyway, while we liked Welsh as a TV analyst we are happy that he has gotten himself back into the coaching game.  Good luck, and we will check in to see how he does next season.

Pregame: Providence College at Villanova University

Opponent: Villanova University Wildcats / Est. 1842 / Villanova, PA / Enrollment(UG) 6,300 / BIG EAST

Ranking: AP- 4 |  ESPN- 5

All-time Series: Friars 34  |  Wildcats 50

Location: The Wachovia Center [21,600] Philadelphia, PA

Date: Saturday February, 13

Time: 2:00pm

Coverage: ESPN U

What you should know about the Wildcats: The Wildcats come into the game with only one BIG EAST loss, to Georgetown.  They are an impressive 21-2 overall and have a lot of young talent.  Granted the Wildcats have just begun the first difficult part of their schedule this year, however, they are a legitimate power this year.  As always Jay Wright has the cats playing guard heavy in his one-in four-out offense, which has been working out just fine for them.  Antonia Pena is showing improvement and works well as the big down low.  Highly touted freshman Mouph Yarou, has been less than impressive in the limited time he has received, but the other freshman have been playing well.

The key to the Wildcats is Scottie Reynolds.  Reynolds is not overly impressive with his athleticism, or jumping ability.  At 6’2″ he has decent for a point guard, but where he will get you is with his basketball IQ.  Of course we all know about his SAT Scores, but on the court he is a clever player.  He pushes the ball in transition and creates opportunities for his teammates.  He also draws a lot of fouls.  Granted most of them he is actually the one committing the foul by leaping into a defender or going lowering his shoulder to drive into them on breaks, but to his credit he knows what calls he can get and he gets them.  He is a very talented outside shooter and gets the big shots when the team needs them.

The rest of the threats, and there are a lot, are capable of having a big night every night.  There is Corey Fisher, whose game can be a little rough around the edges at times, but can light up the scoreboard.  Like Reynolds he can drive and create, and is really great in transition.  Sorey Stokes can stroke the three and has added other dimensions to his game.  Duke transfer Taylor King can also play inside and out, and has great range on his three.  Pena has been doing a nice job replacing Dante Cunningham, but after him the big man options are questionable.  Sutton and Yarou not that impressive, and while Armwood has shown flashes, he is undersized and still has a way to go.  The freshman that do impress; however, are Maalik Wayns and Dom Cheek.  They both have good nights and bad, but those two have a lot of potential.

PFB Perspective: Yet another game against a top opponent.  Villanova is a very good team with a lot of scoring options, and considering we really aren’t into defense… it could be a long game.  But than again we could hang tight, we did against Georgetown.  If we were to hang tight this is what would need to happen:

1.  We would need to work the ball inside and out.  Too often in the Georgetown game we didn’t explore our options penetrating and posting.  We just dribbled around the perimeter.  Georgetown ran over Villanova because they allowed their bigs down low do create wide open three point opportunities for the Hoya shooters; and the Hoya shooters had an absolute field day.  Speaking size we match up with the Wildcats pretty decently.  Size is something they are not big on (no pun intended).  We can match up with their size, so we have to take advantage of working the ball inside to open up outside opportunities.

2.  Rebounding and getting into transition. Villanova isn’t tall but they are scrappy on the boards.  There rebounding numbers are just slightly below ours.  But if we can clean up on the defensive glass and push the ball in transition we could stay in the game.  Also Greedy was unable to get any monster put backs on the offensive glass, in large part due to Georgetown’s great size inside.  Hopefully with the smaller Wildcat lineup he will be able to be himself on the boards.

3.  Don’t foul. For anyone who sees Villanova play, it is a apparent that a large part of there offense comes from the charity strip.  To their credit they know how to get the calls and will attack a player when he is out of position… and they are one of the best teams in the county in terms of free throw percentage.  By not going for Scottie Reynold’s little pump fake and dive into the defenders body, and not bailing Corey Fisher out on tough transition conversions we should be able to keep the game relatively close.  We need to play intelligently.

4.  Last is protect the ball.  Villanova likes to extend the pressure in the half court.  Their guards will often pressure the dribbler well beyond the three point line.  Our guards have to stay calm and collected and keep their head up looking for passes.  When you bring that much pressure 35 to 40 feet from the basket their are people open underneath… we just need to find them and limit our dribbling.  Turnovers will kill us.

Links:

Friars.com

Men’s Basketball Game Notes Vs. No. 4 Villanova

ProJo.com

Villanova a tall order for Friars

Preview capsule: PC at Villanova

ESPN.com

Providence – Villanova Preview

Friarblog

Q + A with Chris from “I Bleed Blue and White”

I Bleed Blue and White

…Keep your enemies closer (Providence)

VU Hoops

Putting away Providence

Villanova: Mouphtaou Yarou Out for the Year with Hep B [Updated]

In reading other blogs around the BIG EAST we came across this story on a very good Villanova blog, ibleedblueandwhite.com.  6’10″ Freshman Mouphtaou Yarou is likely gone for the season with Hepatitis B.  Mouph, a top 25 recruit originally from Benin, Africa had had questions about his real age swirling about down the main line earlier this season, but they seem to have been resolved.  He left the team in Puerto Rico during the tournament and has not played since before the tournament.  He was seen on the bench in Villanova’s victory over Big 5 Rival LaSalle but was dressed in a suit.  The story was originally reported by Fox Sports by Jeff Goodman.

Hepatitis B is a viral infection most common in parts of Asia and Africa.  The transmission of Hep B results from exposure to infectious blood or body fluids containing blood, most commonly unprotected sex or the sharing of unclean needles.  The most common symptom is liver inflammation and vomiting, but if not treated it can lead to much worse.  There is no set treatment for Hep B because in most adults clear the infection spontaneously within a couple of weeks to several months.

Coach Jay Wright said that Mouph would not be able to go for the Drexel game tomorrow night, and that he realizes he could be out for the season.  Currently Yarou is being cared for by Villanova team physician Dr. Furman.

First and most importantly, we wish the big guy well.  It doesn’t matter if Mouph played for UConn we would still hope for his speedy recovery.  We had been trying to follow this story since Mouph left the team in Puerto Rico.  There was a lot of speculation of what was wrong, but all that was certain was that he had a viral infection.  Fast foward to this past week, we watched most of Villanova get past LaSalle on ESPN, and there was Mouph on the bench in a suit.  Now he thought to be out for the remainder of the season with Hep B.  An odd story but, we wish him well and a speedy recovery.

Now for the impact on the Wildcats.  Today the Wildcats moved up to #3 in the rankings.  A lofty ranking for sure, especially considering that compared to teams like Duke and Syracuse (last year was a different year), who have been putting the hurt on much better competition, they have not done much to justify themselves, and have not been overly impressive in the games they have won (really escaping in a couple of them).  They did not really challenge themselves in their OCC and like we said in the power rankings part of the weakness of their schedule is due to the Big 5 (and City 6) has being a bit of a joke.  Yes, last year the Big 5 put teams into the NCAA but Temple and St. Joe’s have already lost to DePaul and St. John’s and LaSalle may be better, but they aren’t that much better, and a win over Penn is equivalent to a win over Brown, except Brown has actually won a game at this point.  Villanova started the season with a lofty ranking, but has done little to justify it, there best OCC game will come against a Maryland team that has been falling short of expectations.

Maurice Sutton, has been good so far, but is not ready to be a big in the BIG EAST just yet.  And Antonio Pena has made great improvements but when he has to square up against Ater Majok, Greg Monroe, and Samardo Samuels we don’t think things will go so well.  Nova relies on guard play but the key to their success last year was standout Dante Cunningham.  This year without him, and without the presence of a big like Mouph (freshman or not) we don’t see them hanging on to that high ranking, or winning the BIG EAST once BIG EAST play starts.  Just look at the rebounding numbers LaSalle put up against them.  We know Reggie Redding will be back from his marijuana suspesion for the BIG EAST, but is it enough for Villanova to hang in there and win the BIG EAST, is it enough for them to even finish of the West Virginia’s, Syracuse’s, and UConn’s?  Let us know what you think?

And once again, we wish Mouph all the best.