The greatest programs: No. 13, Villanova
Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:02 AM
Filed Under:
Greatest hoops programs
Any mention of Villanova basketball always circles back to the 1985 national champions. It just can’t be helped.
That Wildcats team pulled off one of college hoops’ most memorable upsets, beating defending national champion Georgetown, a squad analysts had been trying to place among the all-time greats. The ‘Cats made 90 percent of their field-goal attempts in the second half, and shot nearly 80 percent for the game, a remarkable feat on the national stage.
It could go on and on (in fact, more later). But that’s the point. Villanova has more hoops lore than just than ’85 team.
-
‘Nova will hit 1,500 wins next season, placing it ahead of UConn and Michigan State, while its .634 win percentage is higher than Cincinnati and Georgetown.
-
The Wildcats’ 29 NCAA tourney berths are 10th most all-time.
-
They’ve won more than 60 percent of their games in the Big Dance, better than Illinois and Arkansas.
-
Villanova’s second only to St. John’s in total NIT wins and it’s produced a healthy number of NBA players.
The ‘Cats are another example of sustained excellence (they’re one of two programs to play in the Big Dance in each decade) and recent success to pair with a strong tradition. Add it up, and Villanova is No. 13 on the list of the greatest college basketball programs.
So, instead of focusing only on that ’85 team, let’s start at the beginning. After all, ‘Nova may have one of the biggest NCAA tourney wins, but it also has the first.
Under coach Al Severance (whose 413 wins are the most in school history), the Wildcats snagged that first win (it was against Brown), played in four NCAA tourneys, helped establish Philadelphia’s Big Five tradition in 1955 (and played some classic games against former Palestra co-habitant St. Joe’s in the process) and featured the best player to ever put on a Wildcats uniform, Philly native Paul Arizin.
Arizin, who died in 2006 at the age of 78, played for La Salle High School in Philly, served in the Marine Corps and enrolled at ‘Nova in 1946. The story goes that Severance saw the 6-foot-4 Arizin shooting jumpers in the gym and promptly got him on the team.
Is the story true? Who knows? What matters is that Arizin was amazing. He torched Navy for 85 points in 1949 – still a Philly-area record – and was revolutionary with his one-handed jump shot, a skill few players featured then.
"It came by accident," Arizin would recall many years later in an interview with The Christian Science Monitior. "Some of our games were played on dance floors. It became quite slippery. When I tried to hook, my feet would go out from under me, so I jumped. I was always a good jumper. My feet weren't on the floor, so I didn't have to worry about slipping. The more I did it, the better I became. Before I knew it, practically all of my shots were jump shots."
After Arizin, Villanova continued to produce good players, notably Larry Hennessy and Bob Schafer. And ‘Nova continued its winning ways under new coach Jack Kraft, who guided the team to its second Final Four berth in 1971 behind the brilliant play of three-time All-American Howard Porter.
‘Nova’s “Iron Men” finished the season 27-9, crushed a previously unbeaten Penn team 90-47 in the NCAA tourney and gave UCLA a scare in the championship game, losing 68-62 – the closest any team came to dethroning the Bruins during their seven-year title run. The “mesmerizing” Porter was named the tourney’s most outstanding player, a rare feat for a player from the runner-up.
Yet it wasn’t a happy ending. Porter had signed a contract with the ABA’s Pittsburgh Condors during his senior year. That rules violation cost Porter his MOP and the NCAA vacated ‘Nova’s Final Four appearance.
(Porter later drifted into a failed NBA career and drug use, but by ’89 he had cleaned himself up. When he died from injuries sustained during a beating in Minneapolis, memories of Porter detailed the life of a supremely gifted player who never did quite recover from that error in his senior year.)
Rollie Massimino took over the program in 1973, started to thrive in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s (notably with cool Rory Sparrow at the helm). His teams won five Big East regular-season titles, thriving during the league’s initial years.
But nothing ever came close to ’85.
Seeded eighth in the first year of the NCAA tournament’s expansion to 64 teams, the Wildcats beat Dayton (at Dayton), stunned top-seeded Michigan, scooted past Maryland and No. 2 seed UNC before surprising Memphis State in the Final Four.
With Big East rival Georgetown looming in the championship, Massimino’s squad had already lost two close games to the Hoyas, but were “nearly perfect” in their 66-64 victory. (For perspective, the Hoyas were no slouches themselves. They made 55 percent of their 53 field-goal attempts, hardly a poor performance.)
The game turned Massimino into a ‘Nova icon, made Final Four MOP Ed Pinckney into an NBA lottery pick (talking about the win “never gets old” for him) and established the Wildcats as one of the memorable hoops underdogs.
(For a fabulous recap on that season and what followed, click here.)
Under Steve Lappas and current coach Jay Wright, Villanova has been one of the consistent title contenders (Big East player of the year Kerry Kittles was a personal fave), most recently with the 2005-06 squad that featured a three-guard attack of Randy Foye, Allan Ray and Kyle Lowry that was ousted in the Elite Eight by eventual national champ Florida.
With star guard Scottie Reynolds (no scoring slouch himself), ‘Nova is the premier hoops destination in Philly, a hoops hotbed all its own. (Indeed, if Massimino had paid more attention to the Philly prep players, he might still be at ‘Nova).
Phillys a town that loves its pro teams, but Villanova is a college where the rules don’t apply, says Soft Pretzel Logic’s Jonathan Tannenwald. Credit for that goes to Wright, a natty dresser and even better coach.
“Kids want to play in that kind of environment,” Tanenwald says.
And that kind of environment makes for great hoops.
Coming next week: No. 12 on the list of greatest programs.
No. 14: Illinois.
No. 15: Michigan State.
No. 16: Georgetown.
No. 17: Arkansas.
No. 18: Ohio State.
No. 19: St. John's.
No. 20: UNLV.
No. 21: Texas.
No. 22: Notre Dame.
No. 23: Temple.
No. 24: Oklahoma.
No. 25: N.C. State.
