VCU Rams knocks Villanova Wildcats out of NIT Tournament

‘Nova Nation has been hearing it all (this) season. While it never felt like this, the 2023-‘24 Villanova Wildcats were the nation’s “best free-throw shooting team”; according to numerous in-game announcers for Fox Sports 1 & ESPN. More often than not, such claims were supported by the mere mention of the fact that the Wildcats led the nation in free-throw make-percentage. Sinking over 81 percent of their free-throws before tipping-off against VCU, that number (alone) represents a fraction of the story. Here’s the other part:

Of the nation’s 362 Division-1 programs, only 31 of them have attempted less free-throws than the 2023-‘24 Villanova Wildcats. For a (blue-blood) program that prides itself on exceptional guard-play, shooting the 331st most free-throws of all Division 1 teams is unacceptable. What’s more? Villanova’s (unexceptional) ability to get to the charity stripe was predicated on front-court play (and not its back-court). Entering round 1 of the NIT, ‘Nova’s best player, Eric Dixon, was responsible for over a quarter (or 135) of his team’s (501) free-throw attempts; not to mention his 118 made free-throws were closer to 30 percent of his team’s total (of 408) in that category.

Simply, Villanova’s offense consisted of Dixon, Dixon, and more Dixon. Oh, and just because Eric Dixon is a very good free-throw shooter (at over 87 percent) doesn’t mean Eric Dixon’s team is very good at shooting free-throws.

In the spirit of short and sweet, the 1-seeded Villanova Wildcats hosted the Rams of VCU @ the(-ir) Pavilion and gave ‘Nova Nation one final show; one final bad show.

Not unlike the ‘Cats’ struggles in their Big 5 losses to Penn, Drexel, and St. Joe’s earlier this season, Villanova was thrown for a loop by VCU’s match-up zone; failing to dribble-penetrate, (to) move-the-ball, and take care of it on their way to 13 turnovers and just 61 points. As VCU stayed true to their original (and good) game-plan, ‘Nova’s Mark Armstrong stayed true to who he is as a player at this stage of his development; bringing the ball up for the ‘Cats time and time again in an utterly confused fashion. Unable to adapt to a (defensive) game-plan that wasn’t changing, Mark was a lost soul on the court for Villanova; dribbling without a purpose 30-feet from the basket, turning the ball over 4 times, and proving he has very little “feel” for the game.

With 2:34 left in the ballgame, VCU had a 2-possession lead over Villanova, 64-58, when ‘Nova’s Eric Dixon missed the front-end of a 1-&-1 (foul-line trip) before the ball was knocked out-of-bounds and declared ‘Nova-basketball. Tasked with inbounding the basketball (and) from underneath the opponent’s basket, Mark Armstrong showed us why his learning-curve is (virtually nonexistent or) a straight-line; earning his team an extremely costly turnover by way of a 5-second violation after the sophomore-guard failed to inbound the ball (or call time-out) in the allotted time.

With 70 seconds left, ‘Nova was trailing by 5, 61-66, when VCU promptly inbounded the basketball and struggled mightily to advance the ball across half-court; almost incurring a 10-second violation before the Rams’ head coach wisely intervened by signaling for a timeout just-in-time. Once time was called, 60 seconds were left in the game and 21 seconds were left on VCU’s shot clock; but since VCU hadn’t advanced the ball across half-court (yet), they had to draw up a play to get them on the other side of the half-court line in just 1 second. Again, ‘Nova was down-5 with 60 secs left including 21 secs on VCU’s shot-clock.

While a quick VCU turnover or a ‘Nova steal coming out of the timeout would’ve been an ideal situation for the home team, objective number 1 was making sure VCU didn’t score. With a minute left, ‘Nova being down 5, without the ball, and 21 secs left on VCU’s shot clock, ‘Nova wasn’t in a position where they needed to gamble. They were (however) in a position where they needed to make sure that VCU did not score the basketball; so that they could (presumably) grab the defensive rebound (with roughly 40 seconds left) before bringing the ball down the floor and attempting to cut VCU’s lead down to 3 or 2 PTS.

Coming out of the pivotal timeout, VCU was clearly prepared and ‘Nova was anything but (that); as VCU’s Toibu Lawal caught the inbounds pass all by his lonesome on the other side of half-court after slipping a screen near mid-court and taking-off towards the basket. Once Lawal received the pass, the rest was a foregone conclusion; a windmill-jam a few seconds later that was enough to give VCU a 7-point lead (-and the eventual win).

After Lawal’s breakaway jam, ‘Nova Nation unleashed its boos throughout the Pavilion. I’m sorry, Kyle Neptune. But your late-game coaching performances have been far from impressive.

How on Earth was Villanova not prepared to protect their own-basket down-5 and with a minute left?

How on Earth did Kyle Neptune not call timeout when Mark Armstrong clearly was having trouble inbounding the basketball with his team down-6 and 2:34 left?

How on Earth am I still talking about this team?

Something needs to change. If it’s not gonna be Neptune, then he’s got one more season to show us he’s worthy of the job. One more year, Kyle. One more year to make the tourney. If ya fail….

You’ll be headed back to the Bronx (to coach Fordham).