Scottie Reynolds. Nothing else matters now. Villanova’s 6-foot-2 junior point guard from Herndon, Va., doesn’t need to make another shot or even play another game as a Wildcat. What he did in the final five seconds last night against Pitt — catching a pass from Dante Cunningham, dribbling the length of the floor, weaving through three Pitt defenders before dropping in a runner in the lane — will live forever. He is now on par with Paul Arizin and Howard Porter and Ed Pinckney in Villanova lore. And the ‘Cats are going to the Final Four (did we really just type that?) for the first time in 24 years because of what Reynolds did — but also because of so much more. There is much to say about Villanova 78, Pitt 76, and we’ll do our best to say it after the jump.

Was this not a game that took your breath away? ‘Nova, which has played so well in its last 2 1/2 games — ripping through American in the second half and just ripping through storied programs UCLA and Duke after that — jumped on Pitt to build a 10-point lead early. It mattered little that Pitt sophomore sensation DeJuan Blair was not in foul trouble: The Wildcats, at least in the early going, were killing Pitt by driving and kicking and hitting shot after shot from the perimeter. Hell, Shane Clark even made three early 3-pointers — and he had made just 12 all year coming in. Pitt even went to a rare 2-3 zone for a few possessions just to keep ‘Nova’s guards out of the lane. And then the Panthers battled back with a 22-10 run in the final 9:27 of the half, giving them a 34-32 lead at the break. ‘Nova, whose 3s stopped falling (they were 3-for-14 from the arc in the first half) was playing with its typical balance, while Pitt had gotten 20 points from Blair and Sam Young, its brightest lights. Critically, ‘Nova had a 20-16 rebounding edge, including a 9-4 edge on the offensive end against the best offensive rebounding team in the country. The second half was going to be a delight.

And it didn’t disappoint. After halftime, there were 13 lead changes and 10 ties. Neither team led by more than five. Like it did in the second half against American, ‘Nova began relying less on 3-pointers (just six attempts), while Pitt, strangely, was still not working the ball much inside to Blair, who nonetheless made all nine of his shots from the field.

With 8:18 left, Dante Cunningham picked up his fourth foul. Less than a minute later, the same thing happened to Shane Clark. Surely, Pitt would pound it inside against the smaller ‘Cats. But they either didn’t or couldn’t, and Pitt never really seized control of the game.

Then, with Pitt ahead 65-63, Reggie Redding was called for an offensive foul. Jermaine Dixon then hit a jumper to extend Pitt’s lead to four. Reynolds turned it over, after which ‘Nova needed a timeout. There was 3:05 left, and all appeared lost. But that’s when ‘Nova extended its trap beyond halfcourt. And Dixon got tangled near the sideline at halfcourt, only to have Dwayne Anderson take the ball away. Anderson darted the other way with what appeared to be an easy layup. But Dixon, strangely, fouled him. Anderson converted, and the lead was back to one. On Pitt’s next trip down, Young tried to get down the lane but lost his footing and traveled. ‘Nova got it back, and Redding found Corey Fisher for a backdoor layup with 2:17 left to make it 68-67 ‘Cats. Somehow, they had needed just 50 seconds to erase a four-point deficit with Pitt having the ball. Maybe this was going to happen, after all.

Levance Fields knocked down a pair of free throws to give Pitt the lead back, but then Anderson dropped in a 3 to give ‘Nova a 71-69 lead. And we feel the need to interrupt what we’re doing to simply marvel at the game Anderson had: There was that steal and 3-point play when they were down four, but there was also that clutch 3. He finished with a team-high 17 points, but in the second half he was 5-for-6 from the field, 2-for-3 from the arc and 3-for-3 from the line. A game for the ages for a guy who was little more than a role player at the start of the season.

But this game was not over. Young missed a 3 for Pitt, and after Blair grabbed the rebound Levance Fields gave him an errant entry pass and he was called for a travel. Corey Fisher then knocked down a pair of free throws for the ‘Cats, giving them a 73-69 lead with 46 seconds to go. Young, arguably the greatest Pitt player of all time and a guy who dazzled all night with 28 points, dropped in a 3 to cut the lead to one. Fisher then dropped in two more free throws to extend the lead back to three, after which Fields — whose clutch play in all three previous games was the reason Pitt was even still alive in this tournament — missed a quick 3-pointer (he had taken a quick 3 late in Thursday’s game against Xavier and made it).

Now, for sure, it was over, right? Well, not so fast. Redding missed a free throw — ‘Nova’s first after a remarkable 21 makes on 21 attempts — but made the second to make it 76-72. Pitt got the ball to Blair for a layup to cut it back to two, and there was a timeout. ‘Nova had Redding inbound, but for some inexplicable reason he threw the ball the length of the floor, where Cunningham had to chase it down before it went out of bounds. Cunningham tried to bounce it off Dixon, who instead corraled it and got the ball to Fields, who was fouled by Fisher in the open floor just across halfcourt.

And so Fields was at the line with five seconds to go and Pitt down two. He made the first. ‘Nova coach Jay Wright called time to ice him. He made the second. Game was tied. Redding then inbounded again, tossing the ball high to Cunningham, who quickly flipped it to Reynolds. You know the rest.

‘Nova’s 1985 national title was so remarkable because it was so unexpected. And even though the ‘Cats were near the top of the rugged Big East all year, getting to Detroit was certainly not the destination anyone had envisioned. Wright, appearing on CBS during halftime of today’s North Carolina-Oklahoma game, said even he didn’t believe this team would wind up in the Final Four until it actually got there, until the clock at Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden said 0:00 and the scoreboard had more points for the Wildcats. But that’s the kind of year this has been. Wright got ‘Nova to believe it could beat anybody by defending first and using its balance and depth to get points. That guys like Anderson and Clark stepped up in big spots, that Cunningham was so consistent all year, that Reynolds — despite frequent shooting struggles all season — was able to make That Shot … all of it added up to what we now see, to a week of reveling in what ‘Nova has achieved, and may yet accomplish further.

On a personal side note, as regular readers of this site may know, and as those who know us are certainly aware, we’re from Pittsburgh. We’ve been Pitt fans all our lives — the old Fitzgerald Field House and those ’80s Big East matchups were a big part of our initiation into the great game of college basketball. We (clearly) love the Big 5, and we’re able to marvel at what Villanova has achieved, but we’re still in complete, utter shock that Pitt lost that game. Then again, it’s something with which we’re all too familiar: dating to 1988, when Pitt was the best team in the country but it lost to Vanderbilt in the second round of the NCAAs because it didn’t foul Barry Goheen with a three-point lead at the end of regulation, all the way through the dreadful Ralph Willard years in the ’90s, to the Sweet 16 loss to Kent State (!) in 2002, to Dwayne Wade’s heroics for Marquette in ‘03, to Julius Page’s sudden inability to hit a jumpshot anymore in ‘04, to the strange loss to Bradley in ‘06 and last year’s second-round loss to Michigan State … this is what Pitt does, and has been doing for as long as we can remember. We watched from a bar in Center City, with a handful of Pittsburgh natives but surrounded by ‘Nova fans. And today, we can’t stop replaying several plays from the final three minutes in our minds, while also recalling all of those past disappointments.

But that’s us. For ‘Nova fans and for the Big 5, what a game, what a team, what a season. And it ain’t over yet.

Links: Bob Ford’s Page One column [The Inquirer]
Joe Juliano’s game story [The Inquirer]
Mike Kern’s post-game take [Daily News' Philly Hoops Insider]
Ray Fittipaldo’s game story [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
Columnist Ron Cook on Pitt’s late collapse [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
Our bio [BIG FIVE POST]
Photo credit: [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Click here to return home

Comments Off