Posted: Thursday, January 21, 2010, 3:39 AM | 18 comments |
 

Is this Villanova's best ever team?
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Which is Villanova's best ever team?
2009-10 (Reynolds, Fisher, Stokes, Wayns)
2004-05 (Ray, Foye, Sumpter, Fraser)
1984-85 (National Champions)
1970-71 (Porter, Siemiontkowski, Ingelsby)
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Dick Jerardi was at the RAC last night to cover Villanova-Rutgers for the Daily News.

In his game recap, Jerardi made an assertion that should get us all talking:

This is Villanova basketball, 2009-10. You could make a really good argument that 1 through 11, this is the most talented team in Big 5 history.

Well now. I suspect that Chuck Daly and Harry Litwack would have something to say about that, not to mention Kenny Durrett.

And I'm not even sure this year's Wildcats are better than the Ray-Foye-Sumpter-Fraser squad of 2005.

Yeah, you heard me right. I've long believed that had Curtis Sumpter not blown out his knee in Nashville, that Villanova team would have made the Final Four. They certainly wouldn't have had to play North Carolina before the national semifinals. And the '05-'06 team would have been even better had Sumpter not torn his ACL a second time.

Is this year's 'Nova squad better than last year's, which did make the Final Four? We can probably agree that it is. What about the 1985 national championship team? We can probably agree that these Wildcats are better than those as well.

But let's go back a bit farther into the history books. How would this year's Villanova team compare to the 1971 squad, which was was really one of the all-time greats?

Sure, the game was different back then. But wouldn't it be something to see Antonio Pena and Scottie Reynolds face Howard Porter and Hank Siemiontkowski in their primes?

Now we're talking.

So I put the question to you: Which team is Villanova's best ever?

Have your say in the poll and the comments.

Wednesday recaps

Temple 77, Xavier 72: Box score | Enhanced box | Mike Kern | Kevin Tatum | Photos
Villanova 94, Rutgers 68: Box score | Enhanced box | Dick Jerardi | Joe Juliano | Photos
La Salle 76, Penn 57: Box score | Enhanced box | Bernard Fernandez | Ray Parrillo | Photos
Drexel 78, James Madison 57: Box score | Enhanced box | Mike Mazzeo | Brendan Quinn | Notebook
Posted by Jonathan Tannenwald @ 3:39 AM  Permalink | File Under: Drexel | | La Salle | | Penn | | Temple | | Villanova | 18 comments
18
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:11 AM, 01/21/2010
    It COULD be, but Jay's team is a work in progress. These games leading into mid February will be good to get the freshman playing solid BB. They've already shown they can play at a high level, but need to work on the fundamentals Jay stresses. Play smart but still maintain aggressiveness, and relentless Defense. It seemed today that Rutgers was let back in (under a 20 point deficit), because Wright was letting his inexperienced bench players get a lot of time. They made a decent number of mistakes (4 turnovers for Yarou), sometimes had poor shot selection, and played too fast and out of control at times. Yet, they still scored 47 in both halves, and that shows the dangerousness that lurks if this team matures the way we can expect them to with Jay Wright as the coach. So, yes, the COULD be the best team in Nova history, but there's a lot of games to play.
    — beren682
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:59 AM, 01/21/2010
    This team does not have the five best players but it does have the ten best players of any Nova team.
    — bluebellious
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:31 AM, 01/21/2010
    In his game recap, Jerardi made an assertion that should get us all talking: This is Villanova basketball, 2009-10. You could make a really good argument that 1 through 11, this is the most talented team in Big 5 history. How can you start with a quote and then completely ignore the fact that he said "best team 1 through 11?" Bluebellious makes a good point(s). This team has exactly 1 "scrub" on the roster making it impossible to "clear the bench" in blowouts. If you want to go back to 1971 why don't we compare Taylor King to Farmer Joe McDowell.
    — lax1724
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:13 AM, 01/21/2010
    I think we need to wait for a complete season before we compare teams.
    — Ramon
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:12 PM, 01/21/2010
    Ramon, you are totally correct, judge the team based on their accomplishments, not based on 18 games. Jay has put together a seriously deep team. Equal, interchangeable parts. Georgetown learned that in a hurry. Scottie, Corey and Malik are interchangeable, only experience seperates them. Corey, Cheek and Redding are interchangeable, with Cheek on his way to being the best of the three. Taylor King could be a monster soon. 20 fouls to give in the paint with our big guys. 20 fouls in a Tourney game is incredible! If TEAM is a collection of great parts, this TEAM may be the best ever. Winning the Big East tourney would be nice. Returning to the Final Four would be better. Making a run for the big prize would be OMG! Let's talk again on April 6th!
    — RJM16
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:19 PM, 01/21/2010
    Chuck Daly is not going to say anything.
    — Rollie
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:25 PM, 01/21/2010
    It's the deepest team, and that's not much of a question. We have three McDonald's All-Americans COMING OFF THE BENCH (and Mouph was a Jordan All-American, for what that's worth). Wright is a genius.
    — nikolijobes
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:08 PM, 01/21/2010
    That 71 team would hav won the national championship if Steve Patterson hadn't played the game of his life for UCLA. As it was, they only lost by 6 and it was tight all the way through. But it's hard to compare teams from that era, when they didn't allow traveling and carrying the ball and there was no 3-point shot, to teams from the current era. I think that 04-05 team was the best; no doubt if Sumpter hadn't gotten hurt.
    — nellar
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:44 PM, 01/21/2010
    Clearly a TBD question. IF Mouph begins to play as advertised, then the answer is "probably". The NCAA tournament will be the litmus test.
    — intheweeds
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:40 PM, 01/21/2010
    I reserve the right to retain my vote until April.
    — vuhoops.com
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:58 PM, 01/21/2010
    Mostly good comments. RJM summed it up well. From 1-11, I can't remember a deeper Nova team. Let's hope they all get adequate playing time - an unusual worry for a Nova fan.
    — Paul Short
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:50 AM, 01/22/2010
    This is probably the deepest team. The '71 team starters were probably the best team but lost Ed Hastings to a knee injury so Ford had to play out of position. They dismantled a Penn team ranked 2nd or 3rd in the regionals. As Nellar points out it took a game of his life by Patterson to get UCLA its title. Could they beat today's team? We'll never know and one can only speculate whether those players could stay with today's players who are faster and better conditioned. But it's fun to consider the possibilities.
    — bjphilfan
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:56 AM, 01/22/2010
    The game is much faster paced today and the kids are stronger. I doubt those 1970's teams could hang in today's game. Ever watch a game from back then? They don't play the swarming, up tempo defense they play today. I read Ed Pickney's book...in it he mentions that during the summer he was "off"...doing whatever and not really working on his game. Today's players are working on their games constantly and in AAU teams in the summer.
    — Big5fan


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About Jonathan Tannenwald
I fell in love with the Big 5 at first sight upon moving to Philadelphia in 2002. At various points in my journalistic career, I've covered all six of the region's Division I teams. During that time, I've eaten many soft pretzels from the Palestra's concession stands, which is how this blog got its name.

I write primarily about the University of Pennsylvania and the Ivy League, but I also cover the other basketball and football teams across the city from time to time. In the spring, you'll find coverage of the Penn Relays here.

In addition to all of that, I write Philly.com's soccer blog, The Goalkeeper.

You can contact me by email by clicking here.

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