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Depaul 84 - Villanova 76
The DePaul Blue Demons took the lead with their first posession of the ball game and never looked back last night in Chicago. Depaul (5-7, 1-0 BE) got contributions across the board with notable performances from Draelon Burns, Karron Clarke and oft injured 5th Year Senior Wesley Green. The Blue Demons constantly took advantage of Villanova's sub par perimeter defense and overall out played the Wildcats.
Villanova creeped back in the second half, making Wildcat fans and even the ESPN announcers think this was the second coming of the LSU game. Once Malcolm Grant hit the floor with 8 minutes remaining I was convinced we had LSU Part2 on our hands. Unfortunately that was not the case as Villanova made costly mistakes in the final minutes and handed DePaul it's first win over a top 25 team this season.
Notable Player Evaluations:
Corey Fisher: Corey was the only player who could find his shot last night going for a career high 23 points on 4 of 10 from deep. Fisher looked determined on the floor and was trying as hard as he could to get the win for us, unfortunately we came up short. He had some great cross over moves, a fantastic 3 point bank shot off an in bounds play and some nice floaters in the lane. Corey posted an EFF rating of 18.000 and an EFF/M of .6000, way above his season average. Great game for Corey.
Dante Cunningham: Dante has a new aura of intensity and determination that he hasnt had in the past 2 seasons when it comes to finishing around the hole, blocking shots and rebounding. I love what he is doing this season. He was an absolute beast for Villanova last night and played with a fire that no one else aside from Fisher played with. Dante had two of the nastiest blocks that I have ever seen from him, if you click the ESPN box score you'll see one of them, I think it got replayed on ESPN about 5 times during the game. There was one instance where he got the rebound and went up strong for the lay in and got fouled, you could hear him screaming "LETS GO!" at his team mates. Loved that. 16 points, 5 rebounds and 2 incredible blocks with an EFF of 16.000 and .5333 EFF/M. Keep up the good work Dante!
Antonio Pena: Pena had a nice game in the minutes he played, but he was plagued by foul trouble guarding the much bigger Wesley Green. We needed him out there more, he was our next best option to defend Green inside and he was putting together a nice game before his 4th foul. Overall we saw some nice post moves from Antonio, solid rebounding and he hit all of his foul shots. 8 points, 4 rebounds in 16 minutes (just as my previous article suggested) to go along with a nice block that caused a shot clock violation. 10.000EFF and .6250 EFF/M.
Scottie Reynolds: Scottie was bothered all night by DePaul's physical defense and length. He just couldn't seem to get enough space for his jumper and missed some lay ins that he usually makes. Overall a poor game from Scottie with 4 turnovers and 4 of 12 shooting. He will bounce back, I have no worries about him. 4.000 EFF and .1250 EFF/M. Lets hope he bounces back against Pitt, we're going to need him!
Reggie Redding: Reggie had a very nice game in his Will Sheridan esque "glue guy" role. He led the team in rebounding and steals and made all of his foul shots. I liked the way Reggie drove the ball and attacked DePaul's big men so that he could get to the line. He made one really silly turnover in front of the bench, not sure what happened there. I think we are seeing why he gets so many minutes, he does the little things and seems to have a high basketball IQ. 9 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist,2 steals and 5-5 from the line to post a 15.000EFF and .5769 EFF/M for the evening well above his season average. Nice game for Redding.
Team Evaluation: Overall we just could not hit a shot and played sloppy with the ball. We got outrebounded, out hustled and outplayed by an always physical DePaul team. This was the first test for a team that has not experienced the Big East yet so I wouldn't be too worried, DePaul looks like they will be able to battle in the Big East. Hopefully Jay can motivate the troops and we can give them a payback game on Jan. 16th at the Pavillion. We posted a team EFF of 75.000 way below our season average while DePaul posted an EFF of 95.000, well above even our season average. Lets hope the young guys learn from this and bring it against Pitt this weekend.
Player Efficiency:
1.) Corey Fisher - 18.000 EFF - .6000 EFF/M
2.) Dante Cunningham - 16.000 EFF - .5333 EFF/M
3.) Reggie Redding - 15.000 EFF - .5769 EFF/M
4.) Antonio Pena - 10.000 EFF - .6250 EFF/M
5.) Dwayne Anderson - 7.000 EFF - .4667 EFF/M
6.) Shane Clark - 5.000 EFF - .1923 EFF/M
7.) Scottie Reynolds - 4.000 EFF - .1250 EFF/M
8.) Malcolm Grant - 2.000 EFF - .1250 EFF/M
9.) Corey Stokes - 0.000 EFF - 0.000 EFF/M
Other Notes: ESPN's broadcasting team was horrendous. They called Jay Wright "Jamie Wright", somehow thought Villanova was good at inbounds plays (if you're a Nova fan you know this is a big problem for us) and used the same phrases and anecdotes over and over again. The broadcast was not an enjoyable one for more reasons than Nova losing, if I ever hear Doris Burke say, "hes a live body", again I'm going to go crazy, she must've said it about 15 times during the game about the same 2 players.
Lets "Wright the ship" and show Pitt what we're really made of.
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