You can easily see why Villanova won by just looking at the boxscore.
- Corey Stokes and more surprisingly Dominic Cheek shot a perfect 9-9 from three tonight. Just an insane performance from those two. Stokes has been lights out over the last couple of games, but you don't appreciate his shot until you see it live. He should have a 10 year NBA career just because of his shot.
Villanova were able to get Stokes and Cheek open by having Maalik Wayns drive the lane and kick it out to the open player when Jawanza Poland or Shaun Noriega collapsed to help out. And if they weren't open, Wayns created contact and went to the line for a couple. Wayns had avery good game from the point, with 9 assists and 16 points. Wayns went an impressive 10-12 from the line for the bulk of his points.
- Although his first half performance left a lot to be desired, you had to feel good about Noriega hitting those 3's in the 2nd half, even getting a 4 point play. He does a good job sticking out his legs like Reggie Miller and creating contact during his follow through. Heath has said that Noriega has been tearing it up during practice lately, and he might be the zone buster we've been lacking for the past decade.
- What has gotten into Anthony Crater over the past couple of games? After going for 14 against UConn, Crater follows up with an impressive 8 assist, 7 point, 4 rebound game. More importantly, Crater only forced 1 turnover tonight. We've been waiting for Anthony to turn the corner over the past couple of years, and if this continues against Louisville and Cincinnati, I'll feel good about the point for next season. Plus did you see those alley oops to Hugh Robertson? Had flashbacks to Chris Howard and Mike Mercer last season when they came together.
- Speaking of point guards, good to see LaVonte Dority get some crunch time minutes out there tonight. Not much scoring wise, but the two assists were good to see, and he did well against Nova's press while out there. Hopefully we see more of him in the coming weeks.
- Augustus Gilchrist had another double double tonight, finishing with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Just a tad off with his mid range jumper, but Gus got Antonio Pena and every other post put up against him in foul trouble early in the first half.