NCAA Sweet 16 - #3 Villanova Demolishes #2 Duke, 77-54 - 1st Win over Blue Devils Since 1958 - Wildcats Return to Elite Eight! (initial recap)

To the Villanova Wildcats faithful-

It was one for the ages.

The third-seeded Villanova Wildcats demolished the second-seeded Duke Blue Devils on Thursday night in Boston, 77-54, in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.

(Let that sink in for a moment...)

A 23-point victory over Duke in the NCAA tournament.

It was among the greatest Villanova performances of the 21st century.

It was the first Villanova victory over Duke since 1958, and their first victory over Duke in the NCAA tournament, since ousting Duke from its first-ever tournament in 1955.

Villanova allowed just 54 points, the second-lowest output for Duke this season. The entire team defense clicked tonight, crushing Duke's offense and never permitting the Blue Devils to get into a rhythm - Duke shot just 26.7% from the floor (a season-low for field goal percentage). making just 16 field goals. (Thanks, March Madness Highlights on CBS College Sports Channel for that last fact.)

The statistical heroes for Villanova were Dante Cunningham (14 points, 11 rebounds), Scottie Reynolds (16 points, three rebounds), and Reggie Redding (11 points, nine rebounds, four assists).

And in the most crowd-pleasing moments, Frank Tchuisi scored four points against Duke in the final minute.

It's now very much in the realm of possibility that the Wildcats could win the entire tournament. They will face top-seeded Pittsburgh - whom they've already defeated once - on Saturday at 7 PM or so...

This is just the brief, initial recap, but I'll be exploring the various aspects of the victory in a series of posts throughout today... so check back for much, much more, later today...

You can also take a look at the other Villanova blogs included in Various Viewpoints on the right sidebar, for their takes...

Go Wildcats!

There are two ways you can contact Villanova Viewpoint. One is by commenting on this blog. Comments are encouraged. Also, you can e-mail villanova.viewpoint@yahoo.com (Important note: This is a different e-mail address than before. Please use this new one.)

With NCAA Sweet 16 Victory, Villanova Emphatically Enters Duke's Storied NCAA History

To the Villanova Wildcats faithful-

Prior to Thursday's stunning 23-point demolition of the Blue Devils in Boston, the Villanova Wildcats already held a unique distinction within Duke's storied NCAA tournament history. They had eliminated the Blue Devils from their first-ever NCAA tournament, back in 1955. On March 8 of that year, at Madison Square Garden, Villanova defeated Duke in the first round, 74-73, in what was undoubtedly a very exciting contest.

54 years later, Villanova - much to the astonishment of all observers, including this one - now has title to another entry in Duke's illustrious history:

The Wildcats are now the owners of the second-largest victory over Duke ever, in the NCAA tournament, and the largest in nearly two decades, since the UNLV juggernaut crushed the Blue Devils in the 1990 NCAA championship game, 103-73.

Let's consider the staggering level of success that Duke has had over the decades in the NCAA tournament, now including their 2-1 record and Sweet 16 appearance in the 2009 tournament (thanks, Duke media guide, for all of these attainments conveniently collected in one source):

• Duke has made 33 appearances in the NCAA tournament, and has a remarkable record of success: a record of 88-30 after Thursday's defeat, a winning percentage of .746. That winning percentage is the highest of any program. Ever. Including UCLA.
  
• Duke has made 14 Final Four appearances, which ranks below only UCLA and North Carolina, which each have 17. (UCLA, of course, won 10 national titles in a 12 year span under the legendary John Wooden.)
  
• Since 1986, Duke has 10 Final Four appearances, more than anyone else (UNC has eight).
• Duke's five consecutive Final Fours from 1988-92 are more than anyone else, outside of UCLA's 10 straight from 1967-76 under Wooden.
  
• Duke's 118 NCAA tournament games played rank fifth, behind only Kentucky, UNC, UCLA, and Kansas.
• Duke's 88 NCAA tournament victories rank fourth, behind only Kentucky, UCLA, and UNC.
• Duke's 1,879 total victories overall, rank fourth behind only Kentucky, UNC, and Kansas.
  

Let's go back to the first item in the list - Duke is now 88-30 in the NCAA tournament. So the fact that Villanova has the second-largest victory over the Blue Devils, of those thirty defeats, is really something.

To illustrate, let's look at a partial list of prominent teams, who have defeated Duke in the NCAA tournament over the years, but by lesser (and in most cases, far lesser) margins than Villanova did on Thursday... Of the ten teams listed below, nine of them eventually won the national championship (in some cases, by beating Duke in the title game), and the only one that didn't, lost in the national championship game by one point.

The 2009 Villanova Wildcats defeated Duke in the NCAA tournament by a larger margin than any of the teams listed below.

Of course, this does not establish, or even imply, that this year's Villanova team will win the national championship, or even defeat Pitt on Saturday, or that these Wildcats deserve to be discussed in the same contex,t as nine previous national champions. I'm trying to demonstrate the precisely opposite point. Namely, I've provided this list precisely to show how shocking, stunning, improbable (the adjectives can't really convey the effect) the final score was on Thursday evening.

Due to its incredible history, Duke has had the honor (albeit, often an unpleasant, heartbreaking one) of being eliminated in the NCAA tournament, by some of the greatest teams that the sport has ever produced. And by some act of the basketball gods, Villanova beat the Blue Devils by a wider margin in the NCAA tournament, than all of them, but the 1990 UNLV Runnin' Rebels... How did this happen?

The list:

1. The 2004 Connecticut Huskies - eventual national champions - a one-point victory in the national semifinal/Final Four.
2. The 1999 Connecticut Huskies - a three-point victory in the national championship game.
3. The 1998 Kentucky Wildcats - eventual national champions - a two-point victory in the Elite Eight.
4. The 1994 Arkansas Razorbacks - a four-point victory in the national championship game.
5. The 1989 Seton Hall Pirates - national runners-up - a 17-point victory in the national semifinal/Final Four (the team that lost to Michigan in the final on Rumeal Robinson's free throws.)
6. The 1988 Kansas Jayhawks - eventual national champions - a seven-point victory in the national semifinal/Final Four.
7. The 1987 Indiana Hoosiers - eventual national champions - a six-point victory in the Sweet 16.
8. The 1986 Louisville Cardinals - a three-point victory in the national championship game.
9. The 1978 Kentucky Wildcats - a six-point victory in the national championship game.
10. The 1964 UCLA Bruins - a 15-point victory in the national championship game.

I'll be exploring the various aspects of the victory in a series of posts throughout today... so check back for much, much more...

You can also take a look at the Various Viewpoints on the right sidebar, for their takes...

Go Wildcats!

There are two ways you can contact Villanova Viewpoint. One is by commenting on this blog. Comments are encouraged. Also, you can e-mail villanova.viewpoint@yahoo.com (Important note: This is a different e-mail address than before. Please use this new one.)

Villanova/Duke Rivalry History - Everything Up to the 1964 NCAA Tournament

To the Villanova Wildcats faithful-

Duke's basketball history is a marvelous tale, lasting over a century, filled with championships, lore, and characters that would fill volumes. In these posts, I'm trying to intersect Villanova's own unique history within it. The schools have met rarely - just ten times - but there's nothing better than seeing two great, storied programs battling in the NCAA tournament in March. So here's the beginning of the story, in Durham, North Carolina, at the dawn of the twentieth century...

Duke basketball predates Villanova basketball by 15 years. In fact, it even predates being named Duke. It was originally Trinity College, affiliated with the Methodist Church. The first game for Trinity was - fittingly enough - against Wake Forest, on March 2, 1906. It was not an auspicious beginning, however. Wake Forest won easily, 24-10.

The arrival of the sport on campus was due to the fact that a 1900 Trinity graduate, Wilbur Wade "Cap" Card, had done postgraduate work at Harvard, and New England was the birthplace of the sport. Card returned to Durham and brought the new sport with him in 1906.

In a remarkably prescient article, The Chronicle student newspaper made the following report, six weeks before the debut against Wake Forest:

"It is well-nigh a certainty that Trinity is to have another game added to her list of athletic sports in the near future. The game is question is basket ball [with a space between the words], one of the most fascinating and most intensely interesting indoor sports known today.

Anyone witnessing it will never forget it. The play is extremely fast and vigorous, yet open enough for an onlooker to follow the movement of the ball and the players."

The Duke media guide, the source for this quote and many of the facts in this article, accurately notes, "The assessment still holds true 103 years later."

Despite its defeat, the Trinity team was willing to give Wake Forest another try, and so the second game ever was a reciprocal trip to Winston-Salem. But two weeks after winning in Durham, Wake Forest won the second game, 15-5, to sweep the season series, so to speak. (It wasn't all bad the first year, though, as the team won two out of three games with "Trinity Park", to finish with a 3-2 record.)

So by the time Villanova got basketball rolling in 1920-21, Trinity/Duke was a veteran program, having played the sport for 15 years. But less than a decade after inaugurating the sport on the Main Line, Villanova faced Duke for the first time.

The Wildcats had decided to make a Southern road trip, to open their season. Their first four games were @ "Montclair A.C.", @ Wake Forest, @ North Carolina State, and @ Duke. After losing to Montclair AC, they defeated Wake Forest, lost to NC State, and wound up in Durham, NC, and faced Duke on December 19, 1930. It was the season opener for Duke. Cameron Indoor Stadium did not even exist yet; it wouldn't open until 1940. Fittingly enough, the Blue Devils - as they were already known by then - were being coached by Cameron himself. Eddie Cameron had become head coach in 1926, four years earlier.

The Blue Devils had become a powerhouse in the Southern Conference (the ancestor of the modern ACC and SEC), having posted a 18-2 record the previous year. The game took place in Card Gym, the predecessor of Cameron Indoor Stadium, and named after the Trinity/Duke alumnus who had brought the new sport from New England a quarter-century earlier. And Villanova defeated Duke, 22-21, in a thriller.

In spite of what was undoubtedly an exciting contest, the schools would not meet again for another quarter-century - and ironically, it would be Duke's first-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament. The first-round battle of the much-smaller tournament took place in Madison Square Garden.

In 1955, Villanova defeated Duke in the Blue Devils' first-ever NCAA tournament game - this year marks their 33rd appearance (and the 30th for Villanova). It was the NCAA tournament first round, on March 8 of that year, and the Wildcats escaped with a 74-73 victory in what also must have been an extraordinarily exciting game... It was just as much of a thriller as the 22-21 game in Durham, a quarter-century earlier, although with far higher offensive output, obviously. There was a great deal of scoring, particularly for a game taking place prior to the introduction of the shot clock and three-point shot.

Perhaps because the NCAA battle was such great entertainment, the schools decided to meet during the ensuing regular season, 1955-56. The Blue Devils made their first visit to the Palestra to face Villanova in particular (as opposed to Penn, and other Big Five schools), on December 17, 1955.

(Note to Duke fans who might not be familiar with it - Villanova played many home games, including most of its high-profile opponents, at the historic Palestra on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, prior to the construction of the on-campus Pavilion in 1986.)

Duke won the first non-cliffhanger game in the series, defeating the host Wildcats 86-76 in another high-octane game.

The series skipped the 1956-57 season, but resumed for the next two seasons with a home-and-home series. On December 14, 1957, Villanova traveled down to Durham for the first time since the initial meeting back in 1930. This time, the host Blue Devils won, 60-53.

When Duke returned to the Palestra on December 20, 1958, the Wildcats won 74-67. Unfortunately, the intersectional regular-season series died for some reason, and would not be revived until the 1990s.

The next meeting came in the 1964 NCAA tournament, the first time the teams had met in over five years. On March 13, 1964, Jack Kraft's Villanova team defeated Providence (the Big East did not exist yet) in the first round, but fell to the Blue Devils, 87-73, in the second round. (The Wildcats did defeat Princeton, in the consolation round that existed at the time.) The Wildcat players included Bill Melchionni, Wali Jones, George Leftwich, Richie Moore, Bernie Schaffer, and Jim Washington.

Check back for more posts, both on the history of Villanova/Duke, and a comprehensive preview of Thursday's Sweet 16 contest, at around 10 PM in Boston...

You can also take a look at the Various Viewpoints on the right sidebar, for their takes...

Go Wildcats!

There are two ways you can contact Villanova Viewpoint. One is by commenting on this blog. Comments are encouraged. Also, you can e-mail villanova.viewpoint@yahoo.com (Important note: This is a different e-mail address than before. Please use this new one.)

Villanova/Duke Rivalry History - March 19, 1978 - NCAA Tournament East Regional Final

To the Villanova Wildcats faithful-

This week - in addition to previewing the Sweet 16 contest between the Villanova Wildcats and the Duke Blue Devils - I'll be looking back at the ten previous games in which Villanova has met Duke.

Other entries in the Villanova/Duke Rivalry History -

You can read about the November 14, 2000, Preseason NIT meeting at Cameron Indoor Stadium...

You can read about #14 Duke wrecking the then-CoreStates Center debut, defeating #4 Villanova, on December 14, 1996...

March 19, 1978 - NCAA Tournament, East Regional Final (Elite Eight) - Providence, Rhode Island - Duke 90, Villanova 72

This was the third time - and until this week, the most recent - meeting between the two schools in the NCAA tournament. It was a remarkable confluence for the Big Five, as Villanova defeated La Salle, 103-97, in first round action at the Palestra. Travelling to Providence, the Wildcats narrowly got past Indiana in the second round, 61-60, before facing Duke there.

For their part, the Blue Devils had eked out a 63-62 victory over Rhode Island in Charlotte in the first round, behind 25 points from Mike Gminski. On St. Patrick's Day, they also had gone to Providence, where they had topped Penn (then a power), 84-80, with a pair of Blue Devils scoring 21 points. And so the Wildcats and Blue Devils met in the equivalent of the Elite Eight.

On March 19, Duke had no trouble getting past the Wildcats, 90-72. The Wildcats on the team included, inter alia, Alex Bradley, Keith Herron, Reggie Robinson, Rory Sparrow, and one Robert Rigsby (better known to the Villanova Wildcats faithful as "Whitey" Rigsby, the team's radio color analyst). Jim Spanarkel (also, now well known as a color analyst) led Duke with 23 points, as they advanced to the Final Four. In addition to Spanarkel and Gminski, the other Duke standout on that team was Gene Banks.

This was under Coach K's predecessor, Bill Foster; Coach K arrived in 1980-81. Foster took the Blue Devils past Notre Dame in the national semifinals in St. Louis, but fell to Kentucky in the national championship.

Check back for more posts, both on the history of Villanova/Duke, and a comprehensive preview of Thursday's Sweet 16 contest, scheduled for around 10 PM in Boston...

You can also take a look at the Various Viewpoints on the right sidebar, for their takes...

Go Wildcats!

There are two ways you can contact Villanova Viewpoint. One is by commenting on this blog. Comments are encouraged. Also, you can e-mail villanova.viewpoint@yahoo.com (Important note: This is a different e-mail address than before. Please use this new one.)

Villanova/Duke Rivalry History - December 10, 1997 - Top-Ranked Blue Devils Crush Wildcats at Cameron, 94-66

To the Villanova Wildcats faithful-

This week - in addition to previewing the Sweet 16 contest between the Villanova Wildcats and the Duke Blue Devils - I'll be looking back at the ten previous games in which Villanova has met Duke.

Other entries in the Villanova/Duke Rivalry History -

You can read about the November 14, 2000, Preseason NIT meeting at Cameron Indoor Stadium...

You can read about Duke destroying the CoreStates Center debut on December 14, 1996...

The Wildcats had scheduled a home-and-home series with Duke, and the Blue Devils had made the trip to the then-CoreStates Center the previous season, during the 1997-98 season, described in the link above.

The following year, when Villanova had to go to Cameron Indoor Stadium for the return game, it was ugly. It would be the first time Villanova had played at Cameron since 1958 (since the other games with Duke since then, had been in the NCAA tournament). But the Wildcats had lost Jason Lawson, Alvin Williams, and Tim Thomas to the NBA, and were hopelessly overmatched.

On December 10, 1997, the top-ranked Blue Devils easily annihilated the Wildcats at Cameron, 94-66. Wildcat players who rounded out the lineup in both Duke games in that home-and-home series included Malik Allen, Brian Lynch, T.J. Caouette, John Celestand, Howard Brown, Rafal Bigus, Jermaine Medley, and Zeffy Penn.

According to the Duke Chronicle, with the headline of No. 1 Duke adds 'Cats to list of victims, 94-66....

Last year when the men's basketball team beat Villanova, it was a big upset. This year, it was a big bore.

Six players scored in double digits as the Blue Devils did as was expected, dismantling the Wildcats 94-66 in Cameron Indoor Stadium Wednesday night. Duke (9-0) won the opening tip, took a 7-0 lead and never looked back. Villanova (2-3) played a strong second half, but by that point, the game was lost.

Tough Duke defense in the first half forced 14 Villanova turnovers for 17 Duke points and limited the Wildcats to 37 percent shooting from the floor, helping the Blue Devils take a 52-26 lead into the locker room...

[Elton] Brand contributed six rebounds, four blocks and a team-high 15 points, while Shane Battier added seven boards of his own. As a team, the Blue Devils rebounded evenly with the Wildcats, but Duke struggled in trying to contain the 6-foot-10 forward [Malik] Allen.

Allen had 17 points and 16 rebounds on the game, and particularly hurt Duke in the second half, when the Blue Devils only outscored Villanova by two points. The Wildcats racked up 15 offensive boards and forced 10 Duke turnovers in the half...

Epilogue

It was a rebuilding year for Villanova, which finished with a losing record, and missed postseason play completely, for the first time in five seasons. (The Wildcats have not had a losing record or missed both the NCAA and NIT, since then.)

For Duke, it was a far different story. The Blue Devils were the top seed in the South Region, and went to the Elite Eight. They continued their memorable rivalry with Kentucky by being unable to hold a large lead against those Wildcats, falling 86-84.

Check back for more posts, both on the history of Villanova/Duke, and a comprehensive preview of Thursday's Sweet 16 contest, scheduled for around 10 PM in Boston...

You can also take a look at the Various Viewpoints on the right sidebar, for their takes...

Go Wildcats!

There are two ways you can contact Villanova Viewpoint. One is by commenting on this blog. Comments are encouraged. Also, you can e-mail villanova.viewpoint@yahoo.com (Important note: This is a different e-mail address than before. Please use this new one.)

Villanova/Duke Rivalry History - December 14, 1996 - #14 Blue Devils Wreck Then-CoreStates Center Opening, Defeating #4 Wildcats, 87-79

To the Villanova Wildcats faithful-

This week - in addition to previewing the Sweet 16 contest between the Villanova Wildcats and the Duke Blue Devils - I'll be looking back at the ten previous games in which Villanova has met Duke.

Other entries in the Villanova/Duke Rivalry History -

You can read about the November 14, 2000, Preseason NIT meeting at Cameron Indoor Stadium...

December 14, 1996 (regular season) - #14 Duke 87, #4 Villanova 79, @ the CoreStates Center college basketball debut, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The new Philadelphia Flyers/76ers venue, the then-CoreStates Center, opened its doors for the 1996-97 season. Of course, Villanova had occasionally used the old Spectrum for games against Georgetown, Syracuse, and the like, but they wanted a big splash for their first game in the "new building". And what better way to mark the first college basketball game in the glittering venue, than by inviting a program of Duke's prominence?

(The old Spectrum witnessed its final game recently, as it is scheduled for demolition in the near future. In addition, \the Wildcats played a nostalgia game against Pittsburgh earlier this season, on January 29, as a tribute. It was the first time they had played there since the 1996-97 season, when they were unable to book the "new building" more than three times, and thus had to play twice in the "old building". There were five games in South Philadelphia that year, as a result.)

So on Saturday afternoon, December 14, 1996, many Villanova students took a respite from their exams to travel by a flotilla of chartered buses, down to the Center in South Philadelphia, for the historic occasion.

Duke was obviously a program of great prestige, having been to numerous Final Fours and not far removed from back-to-back national championships in 1991 and 1992. However, the Wildcats featured one of their most talented teams, the last year of the Steve Lappas-era nucleus (minus Kerry Kittles and Eric Eberz) of Jason Lawson, Alvin Williams, and Chuck Kornegay - but bolstered by the single-year appearance of Tim Thomas. (Duke fans - you may remember Kornegay from his time at NC State, from which he transferred to Villanova.) As a result, the Wildcats were ranked #4 nationally, higher than the Blue Devils, who were ranked #14 in the poll.

Duke wrecked the opening-day party, unfortunately, hanging an 87-79 defeat on the Wildcats at the Center. According to the Duke Chronicle, which covered the contest:

A great deal of the credit for the win goes to the Duke backcourt of [Jeff] Capel, [Trajan] Langdon and junior Ricky Price. The trio scored 49 of the Blue Devils' points and hit a combined 7-for-12 from the three-point arc. Their outside shooting was necessary due to the much larger Wildcat frontcourt which often prevented the Blue Devils from getting the ball inside. Villanova outscored Duke 34-20 in the paint, but the real battle was further out on the court-while the Blue Devils finished the game with a sizzling 52.9 three-point percentage, the Wildcats only managed a meager 23.1%...

Villanova kept Duke's lead within 10 for the first few minutes of the second half, but following a jumper by senior center Greg Newton at the 17:17 mark to put Duke up 48-37, the Wildcats remained in a double-digit debt to the Blue Devils for nearly 15 minutes. Villanova managed to narrow the gap in the last minutes of the game by committing eight fouls in the final 2:20 in an attempt to regain possession of the ball, but it was not enough.

You can also read the AP story.


Epilogue


Of course, given its #4 ranking entering the game, it was a strong Wildcats team, one which eventually qualified for the NCAA tournament as a #4 seed and played - ironically - not very far from Durham- in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where Wake Forest was the host. But the Wildcats were unable to make it past the second round. They defeated #13 Long Island, before falling to #5 California in the second round. (The Cal squad featured future NFL legendary tight end Tony Gonzalez, who went on to stardom for the Kansas City Chiefs.)

By Duke standards, 1996-97 was a solid, but unspectacular, year. The Blue Devils still had not fully recovered from the disastrous mid-'90s collapse triggered by Coach K's health. As a result, Duke had missed the 1995 tournament completely- its first absence in a dozen years, since 1983. They had also lost in the first round of the 1996 tournament, as a #8 seed, to #9 Eastern Michigan.

The 1997 Blue Devils returned to form, qualifying as a more Duke-like #2 seed, and played their first two rounds in nearby Charlotte, North Carolina. But they really struggled, escaping #15 seed Murray State by just three points, 71-68, in the first round. In the second round, they were upset by #10 seed Providence, 98-87. Capel was the star, scoring 25 points against the Racers in the first round and 26 against the Friars in the second.

Check back for more posts, both on the history of Villanova/Duke, and a comprehensive preview of Thursday's Sweet 16 contest, scheduled for around 10 PM in Boston...

You can also take a look at the Various Viewpoints on the right sidebar, for their takes...

Go Wildcats!

There are two ways you can contact Villanova Viewpoint. One is by commenting on this blog. Comments are encouraged. Also, you can e-mail villanova.viewpoint@yahoo.com (Important note: This is a different e-mail address than before. Please use this new one.)

ReViewpoint: Looking Back at the Last Villanova/Duke Contest - Preseason NIT, @ Cameron, Nov. 17, 2000

To the Villanova Wildcats faithful-

This week - in addition to previewing the Sweet 16 contest between the Villanova Wildcats and the Duke Blue Devils - I'll be looking back at the ten previous games in which Villanova has met Duke. Today we'll take a look at the most recent meeting between the Wildcats and Blue Devils. It was nearly nine years ago, at Cameron Indoor Stadium, in the Preseason NIT.

In the Preseason NIT, in what would be coach Steve Lappas's ninth and final season at the helm in the Main Line, the Wildcats travelled to Cameron Indoor Stadium, on November 17, 2000. Villanova had advanced by defeating Fairfield, 101-85, at the Pavilion. They faced a Blue Devils squad, that would become the eventual national champions, four months later.

Duke got past the Wildcats, 98-85. The Blue Devils led 51-40 at halftime, and ultimately forced a horrific 29 turnovers (not a typo). Villanova outrebounded Duke, 31-23, and the Blue Devils committed 19 turnovers of their own.

However, center Michael Bradley had a monster game for 'Nova; it was the beginning of his brilliant, All-American season, after transferring from Kentucky. After the season, he would opt to forgo his final year of eligibility, having played two years at Kentucky under Rick Pitino, a single year at Villanova, and having graduated (due to having to sit out the 1999-2000 season).

When Villanova did not turn over the ball, the Wildcats shot well, hitting 62.1% of their shots. (Although what really hurt was the poor accuracy from three-point range, as Villanova hit just 23.1% of those shots.) Bradley finished with 28 points on 12-16 shooting, as well as eight rebounds. Shooting guard Gary Buchanan scored 11 points on 4-9 shooting, while forwards Brooks Sales and Aaron Matthews added 10 points apiece.

The diminutive combo guard Jermaine Medley started at the point, scoring five points, dealing five assists and committing seven turnovers; he was spelled by guard Derrick Snowden. Also coming in off the bench, were sophomore forwards Ricky Wright and Andrew Sullivan, and freshman guard Reggie Bryant (who subsequently transferred). Unfortunately, the team also permitted the Blue Devils to shoot well, hitting 59.3% of their shots.

Looking at the Duke side of the box score, here were the key contributors for the once and future kings of college basketball, the Blue Devils, as half a dozen reached double figures:

1. Center Carlos Boozer had a game-high 29 points on 9-15 shooting, six rebounds and five steals.
   
2. Forward Shane Battier played all 40 minutes, had 18 points on 7-13 shooting, and seven rebounds.
3. Forward Nate James had a dozen points and four rebounds.
4. Guard Mike Dunleavy, Jr., scored 16 points on 6-8 shooting and four rebounds. (Ironically, Dunleavy's brother Baker, would eventually become a valued practice player for the Villanova Wildcats.)
   
5. Point guard Jason Williams had a double-double, with 13 points, 10 assists, and five steals.
6. Off the bench, guard Chris Duhon added 17 points on 6-8 shooting, including 4-6 from beyond the arc, along with four assists and two steals.

Epilogue:

Duke was awarded the top seed in the East Region come March, and reached the Final Four along with ACC rival Maryland, Arizona, and defending national champion Michigan State. In the national semifinal, Duke made an astonishing, historic comeback from an enormous deficit against the Terrapins, to advance to the title game against Arizona. The Blue Devils triumphed on Monday night to give Coach K his third national championship, and his first since he won back-to-back titles in 1991 and 1992.

The Wildcats, for their part, were a bubble team that went 8-8 in the Big East, defeated West Virginia in the conference tournament opening round, but fell short against Boston College and probably came up just that one victory short of an NCAA bid. After nine seasons as head coach, Lappas would depart for Massachusetts, after the Wildcats ended their season at Minnesota, in the first round of the NIT. Jay Wright, the former Villanova assistant under Rollie Massimino and then the head coach at Hofstra, was introduced immediately afterwards. The rest is history.

There have been no meetings since then - until Thursday.

Check back for more posts, both on the history of Villanova/Duke, and a comprehensive preview of Thursday's Sweet 16 contest, at around 10 PM in Boston...

You can also take a look at the Various Viewpoints on the right sidebar, for their takes...

Go Wildcats!

There are two ways you can contact Villanova Viewpoint. One is by commenting on this blog. Comments are encouraged. Also, you can e-mail villanova.viewpoint@yahoo.com (Important note: This is a different e-mail address than before. Please use this new one.)