Jayvaughn Pinkston – Rush The Court

Rushed Reactions: #6 Villanova 68, #18 Butler 65

Walker Carey — Sun, 15 Feb 2015 04:45:05 +0000

Walker Carey (@walkerRcarey) is an RTC Correspondent. He filed this report after Saturday night’s game between Villanova and Butler in Indianapolis.

Three Key Takeaways.

Darrun Hilliard Blew Up Butler on Saturday (USA Today Images)

Darrun Hilliard picked a great night to turn in a career-best performance. Villanova’s leading scorer took his game to another level against Butler, finishing with a career-high 31 points on 9-of-16 shooting (8-of-13 from three) to go along with eight rebounds. Hilliard really got things going in the second half, as he hit 5-of-7 from three and 5-of-5 from the charity stripe in the game’s second stanza. He [...]

Frontcourt Stability Keying Villanova’s Success

Eric Clark — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 16:01:46 +0000

Villanova hasn’t advanced past the round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament since 2009, the year Jay Wright’s club lost to eventual champion North Carolina in the Final Four. Since that pinnacle season, the Wildcats have endured their worst campaign in the Wright era (13-19 in 2011-12) and have won only two more NCAA Tournament games. But since the start of last season, Villanova has returned to form thanks to the durability and improvement of its two frontcourt cornerstones, senior JayVaughn Pinkston and junior Daniel Ochefu.

JayVaughn Pinkston was 10-of-10 from the free throw line in Saturday’s win over DePaul. (Credit AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Pinkston [...]

Big East Weekend Wrap: Vol. V

Justin Kundrat — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 21:31:14 +0000

The Big East Weekend Wrap will cover news and notes from the weekend’s games.

What is basketball, or any sport for that matter, except for a continuous stream of results and changing expectations? We only know as much about a team as their body of work, and with that, we attempt to make judgments about their future performances and outcomes. With more data comes more information and hopefully, more informed opinions. The Big East got off to an incredibly hot start in its first six weeks, but the last few days of action have brought most of its teams back down to earth. [...]

RTC Rewind: Drubbings, Drama, and Misfortune in Michigan

Henry Bushnell — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 21:01:06 +0000

If you’re a fan of the sport, you know the feeling: of the impossible-to-keep-up-with, full slate of games; of the constant twists and turns; of the incessant storylines. It’s the feeling of conference play. It’s the feeling of a mid-January Saturday. It’s the feeling of a day on which college basketball is king. In an awkward, premature way, that’s kind of what this past Saturday felt like. It didn’t have the same intensity. It didn’t have the same weight or meaning. But, if you were so inclined, you could have plopped yourself on a couch and let college basketball gloriously [...]

Villanova Doesn’t Need a Star; It Has a Team

Justin Kundrat — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 20:15:11 +0000

Save for a few hiccups and misfires on the recruiting trail, Jay Wright has kept Villanova in tournament contention throughout his entire 14-year coaching tenure with the team, a track record matched by few. Many remember his success from the tenacious four-guard lineups in 2005 and 2006 or the Scottie Reynolds-led final four team in 2009, and while recent years have been filled with early tournament departures, the Wildcats have continually remained in the picture. His success can be attributed to a number of factors, but above all its his adaptation to changing personnel. While the team has made the NCAA tournament in nine [...]

Rushed Reactions: Seton Hall 64, #3 Villanova 63

Brian Otskey — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 20:55:31 +0000

Brian Otskey will be reporting from the Big East Tournament all week.

Three key takeaways from Seton Hall’s dramatic Big East Quarterfinal upset of Villanova.

Villanova’s chances at a top seed took a major hit. Seton Hall isn’t a terrible team but because of some bad losses and a weak non-conference schedule, its RPI is well outside of the top 100. This is only Villanova’s fourth loss of the season, but it means that it won’t be playing any more games until next week after the brackets are announced. The Wildcats are light on big-time wins so their resume will be looked [...]

Takeaways from the Big East Opening Day

George Hershey — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 18:24:02 +0000

What an opener for the new Big East. The league had two overtime thrillers, there was an upset, and all three of the new members impressed. Here are some takeaways from a great day of hoops.

St. John’s vs. Xavier

St. John’s is great in transition, but struggles mightily in the halfcourt: The Johnnies rushed out to a big lead in the first eight minutes, in large part to their transition offense. They scored their first seven points in transition off of turnovers or running after rebounds. Throughout the game it was evident that the halfcourt offense was not working well and [...]

Big East M5: 12.30.13 Edition

Dan Lyons — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 13:20:09 +0000

Big East teams have wrapped up non-conference play, and with the start of conference games on the horizon with five straight games scheduled throughout Tuesday, writers are beginning to file their mid-year reviews of the new-look league. IndyStar‘s Zak Keefer cites conference winning percentage, true road wins, and the current RPI numbers in defense of the Big East. Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard also finds value in that last statistic: “[We have] six teams in the top 50. Rankings [the Big East has just one team, #8 Villanova, in the Top 25] don’t really matter. The RPI does matter.” Not everyone [...]

Feast Week Mission Briefing: USC in the Battle 4 Atlantis

Connor Pelton (@ConnorPelton28) — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 18:03:54 +0000

With Feast Week tipping off over the weekend, we’re outlining the roads ahead for prominent Pac-12 teams involved in neutral site events this week.

What They’ve Done So Far: USC opened its season with one if its toughest non-conference games, a road trip to Logan to face Utah State. Things didn’t go in head coach Andy Enfield‘s debut as the Aggies blitzed the Trojans from the start and got the 78-65 win. Since then, however, USC has won four in a row, including a 14-point victory against regional rival Cal State Fullerton. Junior guard Byron Wesley has shined the brightest in Enfield’s up-tempo offense, averaging 19.8 [...]

RTC Big East Microsite Week in Review

Dan Lyons — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 15:40:40 +0000

Happy holidays everyone! Feast Week is upon us, and the Big East has been performing pretty well across the board so far this season. There appears to be a lot of parity in the conference, and a few surprise teams like Xavier and Providence look like they may be real contenders this season. Let’s jump into the previous week of action.

Power Rankings

Xavier is Creeping up the Power Rankings Behind Semaj Christon

10.) DePaul (3-2), LW (10): DePaul looks like it might be a solid step up from where it has been the last few seasons, but last night’s game against Wichita State shows [...]

Introducing the RTC Big East Preseason Power Rankings

Dan Lyons (@Dan_Lyons76) — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 18:10:33 +0000

College basketball is back! Seven Big East teams open their seasons tonight, including a few big match-ups like St. John’s vs. Wisconsin and Georgetown vs. Oregon. There is no better time to unveil the Big East microsite’s preseason rankings, with comments and analysis from our group of Big East writers:

Marquette tops Rush the Court’s preseason Big East rankings.

10. DePaul

Dan Lyons – With Cleveland Melvin and Brandon Young heading into their senior years, this might be DePaul’s best chance to get out of the Big East basement, but I’m definitely taking a wait and see approach with the Blue [...]

Morning Five: 10.23.13 Edition

nvr1983 — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 12:01:45 +0000

Yesterday, the NCAA released its long-awaited report on its investigation into the alleged violations committed at Miami. While those involving the football program were the primary focus of the national media, in many ways the ones involving the basketball program were more interesting and we don’t just say that because we are a basketball site. The men’s basketball program was hit with a reduction in three scholarships (total) over the next three years, but otherwise escaped harm. If you want to hear our take on reducing scholarships, check out Mike DeCourcy’s column on why the idea is idiotic. In addition, [...]

Big East M5: 10.21.13 Edition

Dan Lyons — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 12:20:41 +0000

New York Times writer Zach Schonbrun experienced a sense of relief among the various schools at last week’s Big East Media Day in Manhattan. After many seasons played under the shroud of conference realignment, culminating with the awkwardness of last season’s farewell tour for Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame, the Big East is now a settled, basketball-driven league focused on private schools in metropolitan markets. While the conference’s new members — Butler, Creighton, and Xavier — are all located in the Midwest, they fit into the league quite well culturally. St. John’s head coach Steve Lavin actually thinks the new schools fit [...]

Season In Review: Villanova Wildcats

mlemaire — Mon, 06 May 2013 22:31:30 +0000

After an incredibly disappointing 13-19 finish to last season, coach Jay Wright was starting to hear murmurs of discontent from a Wildcats’ fan base that had watched their team slowly fade into obscurity following a 2009 run to the Final Four. Entering this season the pressure was on Wright to prove that he could get the program headed in the right direction again, and he rose to the challenge… barely. The Wildcats finished 20-14 on the season and 10-8 in conference play, which was good enough to slot them eighth, but they made the NCAA Tournament on the backs of [...]

Big East NCAA Tournament Capsules: Villanova Wildcats

mlemaire — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:01:01 +0000

The Wildcats earned an at-large bid to the Big Dance despite getting blown out in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament by the eventual champion Louisville. They earned their at-large bid largely on the back of their home wins over the three best teams in the conference at their road win at Connecticut but still had to sweat out Selection Sunday thanks to some terrible losses early in the season to Columbia and Alabama.

Jay Wright Has His Team Dancing Once Again, But For How Long? (H. Rumph Jr./AP)

Region: South Seed: #9 Record: 20-13 (10-8 Big East) Second-Round Matchup: vs. North [...]