Villanova - Temple Pregame

I received a note from Aaron Bracy over at Philahoops.com about tonight's game. Aaron will be at the game tonight and plans to send live updates to his blog (see above) and to twitter. Hopefully the reception is good and Aaron will be able to convey the excitement from inside the Pavilion.

Why aren't the Big 5 games all played at the Palestra anymore?
While Villanova has taken a good deal of the heat for "breaking up" the Big 5, the problems with the Palestra have been well documented over the years. The lighting is poor, the facilities are antiquated and Penn pockets all revenues from concessions. Aside from the ticket sales, the other four schools raise little revenue from playing at the Palestra (and have to pay Penn "rent" for privilege of playing there). As Aaron noted, the seating capacities at both Villanova's and Temple's campus arenas is greater than 1/2 of the gate at the Palestra. Plus each gets the benefit of a home court advantage in alternating years, something Villanova typically cannot count on at the Palestra, even when the 'Cats played their "big name" guests there in the 1960s and 1970s. The truth is each school alternates as the "host team" in the series (this year Villanova hosts) and has the choice of site, so if Temple wanted to keep up the tradition, they could schedule their matches with Villanova (and all other Big 5 rivals) at the Palestra.

The Palestra made a good deal of sense in the 1950s. The point shaving scandals that touched many teams which had scheduled their games in Madison Square Garden and "pro" arenas controlled by the Ned Irish ring (like the Philadelphia Convention Center). Villanova, unhappy with some of the scheduling practices at the downtown arena, had stopped playing there (and playing the three city schools who scheduled most of their games there) after the 1939 season. Eager for access to a larger facility however, the school opened negotiations with Penn for the use of the Palestra for their higher profile opponents. Penn agreed and Villanova scheduled a number of games during the 1950 season. The experiment was a success and Villanova continued to expand their Palestra schedule during the early 1950s...even scheduling double headers with Penn as co-host. Interestingly, the two schools did not play each other until the Big 5 contracts were signed and a City Series officially inaugurated. The Palestra was chosen because it was located on Penn's campus, and because it had a seating capacity comparable to the Convention Center. The 20,000 seat modern facilities would wait for another two decades.

Villanova and Saint Joseph's played several of their games at the Spectrum in the 1980s, but after several large gates, interest dwindled, and the schools returned to their on campus (or for Saint Joseph's, the Palestra) facilities.

If Villanova wins tonight, they will win their third City Series title in four years. The Wildcats are 22-2 in their last 24 Big 5 games, their last loss came at the hands of Temple last (played in the Liacouras Center). For more pregame information, try VU Hoops.com and Philahoops.com.

I will have the usual recap and breakdown by halves after the game.

Saint Joseph's Post Game: Holy Cow!

'Cats, Hawks...and Zebras
The fans attending the game at the historic Palestra were assured early on that the referees had brought their whistles to the game. The crew flagged the teams collectively for 19 fouls in the 1st half alone. Following common wisdom, Coach Wright pulled players who were whistled for 2 fouls. That strategy put 3 starters, Corey Fisher, Antonio Pena and Maurice Sutton on the bench...along side 6th man Taylor King. The fouls evened out a bit in the 2nd half, though the Joe's outshot Nova from the floor,'Cats went 30-31 at the line to keep pace on scoring.

The official website has the usual AP wirestory, and of course the ever useful boxscore. The breakdown by halves...

Opponent	St. Joseph's
	1st	2nd	Game
Pace	38.2	41.4	79.5
	Offense				Defense
	1st	2nd	Game		1st	2nd	Game
Rating	107.4	135.4	122.0		99.5	123.3	111.9
eFG%	48.6	61.9	53.4		43.5	61.1	51.7
TORate	21.0	19.3	20.1		15.7	24.2	20.1
OR%	48.0	30.0	42.9		26.1	33.3	28.9
FTA/FGA	24.3	147.6	69.0		54.8	77.8	65.5
FTM/FGA	13.5	142.9	60.3		35.5	66.7	50.0
ARate	50.0	72.7	59.3		58.3	84.6	72.0
Blk%	2.7	14.3	6.9		9.7	3.7	6.9
Stl%	16.1	4.9	10.3		12.8	9.5	11.1
PPWS	0.99	1.57	1.26		0.97	1.38	1.17
2FG%	52.2	43.8	48.7		45.0	50.0	46.9
3FG%	28.6	80.0	42.1		27.3	46.7	38.5
FT%	55.6	96.8	87.5		64.7	85.7	76.3
%2FG	58.5	25.0	39.2		47.4	23.5	33.7
%3FG	29.3	21.4	24.7		23.7	41.2	33.7
%FT	12.2	53.6	36.1		28.9	35.3	32.6

The Wildcats don't particularly like playing in the Palestra, despite the collegiate atmosphere and the respect the staff and players have for the traditions of the Big 5. The lighting is tricky and the sightlines can be deceiving at times, almost favoring close-in shoot making to long range shooting. The Historically, shot efficiency at the Palestra has been an issue; seeing an eFG% of 48.6 for the 1st half was not surprising (though a bit above normal), but the 61.9 in the 2nd half was surprising (see orange highlights above). The 'Cats are not usually that efficient at the Palestra. The pace was surprising too. Saint Joseph's averaged 70.4 overall coming into this game. At the Paradise Jam (against BCS competitiion) they took possessions down to 68.5, fairly typical for D1 games so far this season (the average per Ken Pomeroy is 68.6). 79.5 is where Villanova likes to play, leaving little time for Coach Martelli's offense to develop a shot opportunity. The 1st half seemed fairly typical of a Villanova-St. Joseph's game -- offensive/defensive efficiencies were about where one would expect 107.4 vs 99.5 (a good defensive number). Why did the 2nd half turn into a run-n-gun match? After all it did not "feel" like an up-and-down half. I suspect the Palestra may have had a zebra infestation -- quick glance at the FTA/FGA for both teams (see yellow highlight above) shows the Wildcats took about 1.5 free throws per field goal attempt, while the Hawks took 3 free throws for every 4 field goal attempts. The striped ones could not keep those whistles out of their mouths. Note free throws continue to be the second largest component in Villanova's scoring.

Notes & Observations
1. Taylor King logged a career high 20 points, and fell a single rebound short of recording his first double-double. King took a major-impact 38.3% of the squad's shots when he was on the floor, scoring at a very efficient 60.0% rate -- volume and efficiency. He is a sophomore. He is going to be fun to watch the next 3 years. Two first half fouls limited his play to 27 minutes.
2. Antonio Pena missed his 5th double-double by 3 rebounds. Villanova's #4/#5 went 5-8 from the field and 5-6 from the line to score 15 points. He too was limited by 2 1st half fouls, and did a tremendous job on the offensive boards.
3. Reynolds stepped back from volume-shooting, converting 4 of 5 field goals attempts (2-3, 2-2) for an effective field goal rate of 100, but a shot% of only 10.8 -- so how did he record 22 points? The senior guard made Saint Joseph's pay at the line as he went 12-14 from the stripe. Scottie now has, by my very unofficial count, 1765 points. At this pace he should cross the 1800 point line (and pass Gary Buchanan at #10 on the All-Time list) before the end of the month. Expect a "Milestones" sometime in the second week of February, if all proceeds without incident. Savor this time Nova Nation, players like Scottie don't pass this way often. We have been very lucky to have had two in this decade.

Ref Notes
The crew included Tim Higgins, Bryan Kersey and Mike Roberts. The game broke 50 fouls, and challenged the George Mason game for most whistles blown this season, falling 2 short. Some of the fouls called in the last 3:30 (about 5) were change of possession fouls, but made no headway as the 'Cats hit 10 of 10 free throws and maintained their 8 point cushion through the end of the game. In a perverse turn, the crew also called 4 fouls on Villanova during the same 3:30 period. Corey Fisher and Garrett Williamson were DQ'd.