Thoughts on the UCLA Game and a Look Ahead to Tennessee
Joe is a guest writer for NovaBasketballReport and will be publishing articles throughout the season.
Aside from the big performances of ‘Nova’s three starting guards, the storyline of last night’s game was the coming out party of Mouphtaou Yarou. Many asked how Mouph would handle playing against a frontcourt with size and skill, and he answered loudly by scoring 13 points grabbing a career high 16 rebounds. He was aggressive on the glass and was a defensive presence. He looked fluid and showed several nice moves in the post. We are finally seeing the skilled post game that recruiting analysts raved about in high school.
Of course we cannot ignore the show put on by the trio of Maalik Wayns, Corey Fisher, and Corey Stokes, who combined for 61 of the team’s 82 points. Enjoy Wayns while you can. If he wants to get to the tin, there is nothing stopping him. He was a little out of control at times but he will learn with experience when to be aggressive and when to pull it out and run the offense. His stats should have even been more impressive as several times he hit players under the basket for easy buckets that were missed. Corey Fisher scored a career high 26 for his hometown crowd. ‘Nova’s backcourt is as good as it gets. Fisher and Wayns have silenced concerns of whether the two small guards can play together. Stokes is showing off his improved handle and scoring more frequently at the rim.
The ‘Cats went with the hot hands on Wednesday night, allowing the bench to score only six points. This should not be a concern as ‘Nova’s bench has shown that they can score when they need to. Villanova only committed 7 turnover on the night and won the rebounding battle 46-43. Defensively the Wildcats were impressive, keeping the Bruins from getting in to any kind of offensive rhythm. Mouph did a good job of keeping Josh Smith (can someone get him some bigger shorts) in check.
On Friday, the ‘Cats will play the Tennessee Volunteers for the NIT Preseason Championship. Tennessee’s biggest weapon is Scotty Hopson, who carried the load for his squad when they struggled in their semifinal matchup against Virginia Commonwealth. Aside from having the best haircut in the land, the 6-7 junior guard has plenty of length for his position and will be a handful to match-up against. He recorded his first career double-double with 18 points and 11 rebound against VCU. Look for Stokes to get the defensive assignment along with some splashes of the equally bouncy Armwood.
VCU hung with the No. 24 Vols for most of the game but did not half enough to push them over the top. The Vols are a long and athletic team but have a glaring weakness with the lack of depth at the ball handling position. If ‘Nova presses effectively, they could force a ton of turnovers against the Vols. Tennessee is a great rebounding team and finished with 54 rebounds against VCU. ‘Nova’s big men will need to stay out of foul trouble to keep things fair on the glass.
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