Thoughts In Brief: Villanova

• I don’t really get the vitriol I saw to some degree. I get the anger or frustration, not the vitriol. There’s a difference. The D was infuriating, but the way some people were talking I’d have thought we already peaked or that the earlier games were entirely fool’s gold, which I dispute.
• Austin Arians is an offensive spark like few others, but on the defensive end I lose sight of him most times. That’s not a good thing.
• Keyshawn Woods and John Collins are my overall MVPs to this point, but it’s a pleasantly crowded situation given how many guys can go off.
• Today was a regression for a lot of guys, especially Bryant Crawford, but I firmly believe he is growing and improving and we’ll see more improvement than regression going forward.
• I think Brandon Childress is ahead off every other PG on the team in one aspect: his shot not falling doesn’t get in his head. I love Bryant and Mitch, but they are decidedly more engaged when their offense is working.
• Speaking off Mitchell Wilbekin, in my opinion he might be the team’s most improved player so far. He’s so much more versatile.
• I’m not encouraged per se, but I’m still fairly bullish on the team. Villanova is probably as good as anyone in the ACC and we hung with them for stretches. The problem was how well things went for them early.
• The team is really good with perimeter ball movement, really crisp, but we still are falling in love with the three too much early.
• With as much size as the team has, we need to be better rebounding.
• I was heartened to see us cut the lead by 8 or so late (but not late enough to be complete garbage time).
• I still think we’ll be a LOT better than our preseason projection.
• It really hit me today how young this team is. That’s not an excuse, I’m just saying I’ll be glad to see more of this team moving forward.

I hope this loss doesn’t beat us twice. Clemson tomorrow? Ugh. Out of the frying pan, into the magma. Yikes. Ah well.

On to the next. Go Deacs.

—SF