THINKS THE EAGLES STOLE ONE
Last March, Villanova lost to eventual national champion Kansas by 15 in a Sweet 16 game at Detroit's Ford Field. The Wildcats probably would have lost had it been played at the Pavilion. Now they return to Ford Field, this time to play North Carolina in Saturday's national semifinals. The experience left its impressions.
"It helps that we've been there, but we didn't shoot too well there," said assistant coach Doug West. "I know we did have a long walk from the locker room. That took some getting used to. And no one was used to playing on a [raised] floor like that. The NCAA does what it has to do, but it takes away from the interaction with the players. It really does. You don't feel like you're part of the game, because you're always looking up . . .
"It's the same for everybody. But it [stunk], actually."
Dwayne Anderson at least saw one advantage.
"I remember when we first walked in for practice, everyone just looked around," he explained. "It's crazy. It's a stadium. So many seats. It's like a boxing ring, where they lift you up. That's the atmosphere. It's different. Some probably won't like it.
"[The locker-room walk] was a bit of a stretch. Definitely too long. But you don't even have to stretch when you get to the floor. That's the warmup."
Head man Jay Wright sees the surroundings as a necessary evil.
"The court thing was strange," he admitted. "I didn't like it as a coach. You feel like you're standing up there, on a Broadway stage, and you're not in the play. You're just in the middle of it. I think we'll be more prepared this time.
"It's funny. They talk to you about [using a stool]. You've got a choice. I don't sit down anyway. I'll tell you, it's tough not being able to talk to your team. I talk to them all the time. And some of the guys sitting behind our bench heard some of the things I said, which I really didn't want. So I've learned that, too.
"It's a little rough, but you know what? If you don't have 70,000 people watching you, you don't have those things. That's pretty cool. So if we've got to put up with that to play in front of 70,000, we'll take that."
Villanova has been selected to play in the third annual O'Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off Nov. 19-22 at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico, in the cosmopolitan Hato Rey district of San Juan. The field will include UAB, Dayton, George Mason, Georgia Tech, Indiana and Kansas State, with the eighth team to be announced later. *
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