Villanova, Villanova, Villanova!

My word - all I did was mention in passing that we played Villanova on Saturday, and my hits have gone through the roof.



You crazy Catholics - wadda ya love your school or something? I wouldn't know anything about that sort of thing. We Methodists have no such mania (and ignore all my posts about UT that might lead you to believe otherwise). Anyway, had I known it would be such a draw, I would've given you a more than just that the game was exciting and we won, and oh yeah, anyone see some kid from Kansas want to melt into the court last night?

Okay, just in case any of you come back, here's a little more. Villanova is a great basketball team. They're always in the tournament, and I always advance them pretty far into the bracket. Getting to play a great team like that during the season is SO much more fun than just playing the rinky dink teams we slaughter. Villanova was #3 going into the game, and we were #8. We've lost two games so far - Duke and Tennessee. Duke, you can't feel bad about - they're a freakin' machine. Tennessee hurt. So, this was another Duke-like game in that it was a highly ranked team with a strong history of putting out supah basketball teams. We were on our home court, which is always a plus, and the students are finally back, so we had the arena packed, and everyone was pumped.

All was going well, with a competitive game, and then something bad happened - we lost Brad Buckman. Again. He's having a real problem with injuries this year, and we were without him when we lost our other two games. (cringe) I believe it was an ankle injury. He looked dejected when he came back to the court - at least that's how it looked from the lofty perch where I was sitting. Anyway, we all tried not to panic. We're not a one-person team and we still had Gibson, Aldridge and Tucker. And besides, it's halfway through the season - time for the freshman to stop thinking of themselves as freshman. Get in there and knock around!

In the end, it was a tight game that came down to the last seconds. Our free-throw shooting had been crap all day, but finally came on at the end, when we needed it to. And we were able to get a really satisfying win, that's all the more confidence-boosting for being against a team such as Villanova. I'm sure we shall all dance again (if not with each other) in the Madness in March!!