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Sports

Villanova Basketball Media Day 2010

Antonio Pena

October 28th, 2010

The Villanova men’s basketball team held a Media Day practice at the Wells Fargo Center today and Independent Philly was there to speak with coaches and players and catch the beginning of practice.

Villanova heads into the upcoming season ranked #6 in the Associated Press pre-season poll. Gone are Scottie Reynolds and Reggie Redding, leaving seniors Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes, and Antonio Pena to lead the team.

Corey Fisher

Corey Fisher said that it’s been a change without Scottie around. Reynolds and Fisher were roommates and Fisher commented that now there isn’t someone waking him up first thing in the morning (althought they still speak often via Skype). “I’m excited like my senior year of high school,” he said, “it’s my time to lead this team”.  He was anxious for the first pre-season game to come saying that the guys were sick of playing each other every day and fouling their own guys and they were excited to take it out on another team.

Mo Sutton

Big man Maurice Sutton commented, “I think we have a lot more talent than last year”. He could be right. The exceptional Sophomore class (Dominic Cheek, Mouphtaou Yarou, Maurice Sutton, Isaiah Armwood, and Maalik Wayns) has a solid year in Jay Wright’s system under their belt, and the team has added talented Freshmen JayVaughn Pinkston and James Bell.

Maalik Wayns

Maalik Wayns has a lot of NBA buzz surrounding him heading into this season but he doesn’t seem phased by the talk and is just ready to play ball, “I’ll do whatever I need to do for my team to win…rebound, score, pass, play defense”.

Wayns also made the change to a different jersey and will be sporting #2 this season for the Wildcats. When asked about it he said that a friend of his was hurt this year and couldn’t play and he was wearing it to honor him.

One thing is for certain, this is a dangerous Villanova team that has three talented seniors and an abundance of underclassmen talent to go with it. Villanova plays its first pre-season game on November 2nd at the Wells Fargo Center, and their regular season opens on the Main Line November 12th against Bucknell.

 Please check out our videos and photo gallery from Villanova Basketball Media Day:

 

Sports

Villanova Dukes It Out With James Madison To Earn The Wildcats A 14-7 Victory

Aaron Ball
On a picture-perfect day for football, the Villanova Wildcats hosted the Dukes of James Madison in a Colonial Athletic league homecoming contest on the Main Line. The Wildcats began the day with a record of 4- 2 after last week’s convincing win over the Maine Black Bears.
 
Flying Wildcats
Villanova Head Coach Andy Talley
Drew Dudzik Just Gets the Pass Away
The Dukes of James Madison came into the game with an identical 4 -2 record. Coached by Mickey Matthews, the Dukes started out their season 3- 0, including a 21 – 16 win over nationally ranked Virginia Tech of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Since then, the Dukes have posted a win over Towson and lost to league rivals Delaware (13- 10) and last weekend, to New Hampshire (28 -14). Matthews is the winningest coach in JMU history, and led the Dukes to an NCAA championship in 2004.
 
Ball Squared

Eric Loper Makes a Flippin Good Tackle
Chris Whitney Gets Hit as He Throws
After a scoreless first period , Villanova got on the scoreboard by driving 80 yards in 15 plays for a touchdown, which came on a 7 yard pass from Chris Whitney to Norman White. Nick Yako converted to make it 7 -0 . The drive featured two fourth down conversions. The first came on a fake punt by Dom Scarnecchia on 4th & 9 at mid-field. Scarnecchia scampered 23 yards for a first down to the JMU 27. Later in the drive , Whitney hit White on a 4th & 8 pass for a 13 yard gain to the JMU 12 yard line.
 
Touchdown Villanova!
Griff Yancey
Dorian Wells
A few minutes later, with 1:19 to go in the half, the Cats scored again on a 54 yard pass play from Whitney to Mikey Reynolds. The drive covered 71 yards in 4 plays.
 
Chris Whitney on the Run
Fred Maldonado
Drew Dudzik
Whitney finished the first half completing 13 of 17 pass attempts for 159 yards and the 2 touchdowns. White caught 7 passes for 73 yards and Reynolds caught 3 for 75 yards. Both teams missed a field goal in the first half which ended with the Cats on top 14-0.
 
JMU Touchdown
JMU's Griff Yancey
JMU came out in the second half and scored its lone touchdown on its first possession . The score came via a 2 yard run by Kavon Seaton. The Dukes drive took 9 plays to cover 73 yards. JMU totally dominated the third quarter holding onto the ball for 12 minutes; Villanova had the ball for only 6 plays during the third quarter.
 
Tough Yardage
QB Chris Whitney Scrambling Away From Defenders
In the 4th quarter Villanova threatened, driving 67 yards from their 28 yard line to the JMU 10 yard line. However Nick Yako missed for a second time on a 23 yard field goal try (wide left). Nova had another drive late in the fourth quarter to the JMU 2 yard line, but a Whitney fumble on 4th down and 1 was recovered by JMU.
 
James Pitts
Terence Thomas on the Tackle
On its last drive JMU drove into Villanova territory and as time expired  Drew Dudzik’s pass was intercepted by James Pitts in the Cats end zone to preserve the victory.
 
Kerby Long with the Reception
Scott Noble Carrying for JMU
The Cats gained 209 yards rushing on 47 carries.  Angelo Babbaro led the way with 72 yards on 13 carries. Aaron Ball chipped in 56 yards, also on 13 carries, becoming the second leading rusher in Villanova history behind  only the great Brian Westbrook. Lawrence Doss added 33 yards on 5 carries. Whitney, who did not complete a pass in the second half (0-2),  finished 13 of 19 for 159 yards and two touchdowns. Norman White had 7 receptions for 73 yards.  Linebacker Marquis Kirkland had 10 tackles to lead the defense.
 
JMU Gang Tackling
For the Dukes, who were held to 87 yards rushing on 32 carries, Scott Noble led the way gaining 39 yards on 14 carries. Drew Dudzik passed for 213 yards on 22 completions in 32 attempts, with the one pick by Pitts on the game- ending play.
Matt Szczur, still nursing an ankle injury, did not dress for the Wildcats.
 
Matt Szczur Did Not Dress
Villanova  next hosts the Richmond Spiders on Saturday, October 30th in another CAA conference match.
 
On the local front, Temple & Penn also posted wins. Temple shutting out Buffalo and the Quakers beating Yale.
 
 
Article by Stephen Miller 
{All photos credits for this article appear courtesy of Michael Green Photography: www.mpgreenphotography.com}
Before the football game the Villanova Men’s Basketball team held its Blue/White Scrimmage game for fans.
To see photos of the game, please follow this link: