Philly Shootout - St. Joe's v. Nova

[xubball93]

St. Joe's @ 'Nova in their version of the Crosstown Shootout, 8 pm on ESPN2

[jdm2000]

Halftime score:

St. Joe's 35
Villanova 26

Let's Go St. Joe's!

(They still use a bunch of illegal screens)

[OX09]

Joe's is looking solid so far. It seems their offense is just starting to click. They'll be dangerous by the time the conference schedule rolls around (compared to how they've looked to this point).

[golfitup]

Kerry Kittles! He of the one sock up, one sock down variety.

[waggy]

Reynolds has traveled two times. Neither was called.

[GoMuskies]

SJU blew that six point lead quick.

[waggy]

Why does Villanova get all the seats behind St. Joes goal? I thought these games were played on neutral courts. I guess this is at 'nova.

[dethwing]

SJ with a 1 point lead, 16.9 to go. Shooting a 1-1...and misses the first!

[golfitup]

Ugh, way to blow it St. Joe's.

[Kahns Krazy]

What is that smell? Oh, St. Joes crapped their pants.

[Bmuskie]

You hate to see a game end that way. A Referee's call with less than 5 seconds that could have gone either way. Even if it is the correct call you will forever have fans on one side or the other questioning it and you never want to see that. Then you have St. Joe's who can't even get an inbound pass in on two tries with less than 5 seconds to go. That was just poor coaching at the end. Your players have to know that 4 seconds is plenty of time to inbound get to the other end and get at least a shot off. And then finally St. Joe's not making their free throws at the end to ice the game. Poor Poor job at the end of the game by Mr. Martelli and the St. Joe's hawks.

[X Factor]

That blocking call with 4.8 seconds left was the correct call. Martelli didn't have a good play though after the free throw. They had plenty of time.

Would've been a really good win for the Hawks and the A10.

Xavier is carrying this league on it's back.

[waggy]

Yeah, I think a team won earlier this year with a lot less time remaining than 4.8.

[xudash]

Anyone watch that mess?

Pathetic.

That is the kind of game that a program must win when it has such a clear control of fate at the end if it wants to be well regarded over time.

I don't care that Govens was so proficient behind the arc to help get them to that point. The fact is that he choked on a 1/1 that would have forced a Nova 3 pointer to tie it with about 10 seconds left.

Govens misses and it actually got worse from there as the game muddled towards a 59-56 ending. Nova probably thinks they're the cocks of the walk, but they don't look like #12.

Adding to our fun in and around the A10, Fordham...................loses again.

[Masterofreality]

Choke job by Govens. 78% from the line, uhhhhhh except at winning time.

I thought that both teams looked like crap. Hell, you guys think that Xavier hasn't been impressive? How about the lousy play of alleged #12 Villanova?

[wkrq59]

XFactor, you are dead right. They replayed it twice and each time you can clearly see the St. Joe's player trying to slide in and his feet were moving at the point of contact. Damned easy call.
I can't believe Martelli didn't have his kids cut off the baseline and stop the ball at the top of the key.
Both times that Villanova guard drove and they let him get to the rim. He got fouled legitimately both times.
St. Joe's had at least 15 chances to put that game away by forcing the ball inside to Nivvins and have him put the shot up. Hell, they couldn't stop him. They had to foul him and he can make fts. But their guards are selfish.
And Martelli spent most of the night bitching at the refs..primarily at Jim Burr. And Burr listened to him and let him get away with walking on the floor twice when he should have teed him up.
Oh, and in memory of John Chaney's tirade, those screens are both illegal and flagrant. I saw one big white kid step in the way of a defender and move with him till he hit him and then as they damn near bumped heads, he brought his locked hands up under the guys chin with enough force to pop his head backwards. AND THERE WAS NO CALL. I hope Burr doesn't work the Duke game. He and Higgins are too damned old and can't keep up with the play.
Sickening, almost as bad as the pass interference call penalty committed by the Saints defender on the Bears receiver in the end zone in regulation that was not called. Watch for the rerun on the NFL channel if you can. Unbelieveable.:D

[X-band '01]

Why does Villanova get all the seats behind St. Joes goal? I thought these games were played on neutral courts. I guess this is at 'nova.

St. Joe's (and, for that matter, the other Big 5 schools) get an allotment of 200-250 tickets for Big 5 games played at Villanova. St. Joe's and La Salle have to play their "home" Big 5 games at the Palestra because their own gyms are too small otherwise (in other words, this is how Villanova decided to rejoin the Big 5 in the early/mid 90s). Temple plays their Big 5 games at home. Penn plays all their home games at the Palestra anyhow, but I'm not sure how their seat allotment works for the Big 5 series.

That said, I hope Sean Miller has a tape of this game ready for his team. Given some critical missed FTs and the botched inbounds play with 4.6 seconds left, that could just as easily have been Xavier losing a critical game later on in the season.