Charting A Course to March: Games for Saturday, 2/6

There will be must-see games early next week, but before then, let’s take a look at three more Saturday games worth catching this week. 

#2 Villanova at #8 Georgetown, 12:00 on ESPN

It was a somewhat odd win for Georgetown over Duke this past Saturday.  Their Big Three of Greg Monroe, Austin Freeman, and Chris Wright came up big, each scoring 20+ points in the 89-77 victory.  But the crazy stat from the game is that the Hoyas shot a ridiculous 72% from the field in the game.  They’ve definitely been an efficient offensive team, and Duke isn’t an amazing defensive team, but you just don’t shoot 72% very often, and when you do, you would actually hope to win by more than 12 points.  Still, it was an impressive win, but they had a letdown on Wednesday night with a loss to South Florida, who is under-rated, but a team G-Town should handle at home if they have Final Four aspirations.  We’ll learn more about them when they welcome Villanova to town.

Nova suddenly finds itself as the 2nd-ranked team in the nation, staring at a possible #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, and considering the way #1-ranked teams have been dropping, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see them reach the top pretty soon.  But to do that they’ll have to win two brutal road games in a row, with a trip to Morgantown to play West Virginia following this game.

This Nova team is pretty typical of what we’ve come to expect from them during the Jay Wright era.  At first glance, the frontcourt doesn’t appear to have what it takes to be a national power, but Wright’s system seems to work best when he has a talented, versatile, and deep group of guards, and they certainly have that this year.

Of course, the big name with Nova is Scottie Reynolds, who has taken another big step with his game this year.  Reynolds burst onto the scene in the second-half of his freshman year, putting up a bunch of big scoring games.  At that point, though, he was basically just a gunner.  It was hard to imagine that three years later he’d be shooting just under 50% from the field, and still averaging 18.5 points/game.

Since steady senior swingman Reggie Redding made his season debut (following an injury), Nova is 11-0.  He’s a strong glue-guy and team leader that brings a lot to the defensive end.  Their gang of guards also includes returnees Corey Fisher and Corey Stokes, as well as standout freshman Maalik Wayns.  Finally, there’s a lot of pressure on forward Antonio Pena to hold his own down low and give them some inside scoring.  He’s responded with a big season thus far.

#17 Temple at Richmond, 2:00 on ESPNU

Temple, the only team to beat Nova so far, followed their first loss in conference play last week with two straight easy wins and are hopefully prepared for two tough ones against Richmond and Rhode Island.  Juan Fernandez has mysteriously disappeared from the offense over the last few games, and they’ll need him to get it going again if they want to win these next two.  Are the Owls a team that can make some noise in March?  It’s road games like this that hold the answer.

As for Richmond, I haven’t seen them play.  I do know that they have a legitimate shot at making the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2004, thanks to quality wins over Florida, Missouri, Mississippi State, and Old Dominion.  They feature a veteran starting line-up, with five upperclassmen, all of whom have played significant minutes throughout their careers.  One of those starters is Delaware County native (and Springfield High graduate) Dan Geriot.  Their leading scorer is guard Kevin Anderson, at 17 a game.  One last fun fact about Richmond: they are the only team in college hoops history to win NCAA tournament games as a 12, 13, 14, and 15 seed.  If they can win this game, they’ll be well on their way to a return to the Dance, and they could very well have a better seed than any of those listed above.

#13 Gonzaga at Memphis, 4:00 on ESPN2

This is gut-check time for Gonzaga, as their seeding in the Dance could very well be decided by how they play in the next week.  They’re coming off a rare conference loss (their second in the last three seasons) to San Francisco, and they’ll get a solid Portland team on Thursday night, followed by Memphis on Saturday and the always-tough Saint Mary’s next Thursday.  The Zags have a bunch of nice wins on their resume (Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Illinois, Oklahoma, as well as Portland and Saint Mary’s in their previous meetings), but playing in a small conference, they never have much room for error.

Matt Bouldin and Steven Gray form one of the better guard tandems in the country.  And it looks like Coach Mark Few and company have found the next great Gonzaga player, as freshman forward Elias Harris has kind of come out of nowhere (actually Germany) and has been amazing.  Over their last 10 games, Harris is averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds.  He’s a springy 6-7, and he’s also hit 13 of his 28 3-point attempts on the year.  But, all in all, this team is not nearly as deep as last year’s team, which couldn’t get past the Sweet 16, though they did run into that juggernaut North Carolina team.

As for Memphis, they could really use a win here to bolster their chances of making the Field of 64, but they are solid and the Pyramid is a tough place to play.  They are led by Duke transfer Eliot Williams and his 20 points/game.