Holy War Recap; Odds and Ends

Again, apologies for the lack of content up here lately. Sometimes other things pop up that make blog updates fall a bit lower on the list of priorities.

Before going into the game, just a quick thought. How nice was it to have Bill Raftery (pictured to the left) on the play-by-play last night? In my opinion, he's the best in the business.

The Hawks played a hard-fought game last night against Big 5 rival Villanova at a sold-out Palestra. The Hawks fell to the Cats 97-89 in a high-scoring affair. In his postgame comments, Hawk coach Phil Martelli said, "Not all losses are losing experiences," and that quote does a lot to sum up the game. While the Hawks did not win, and winning is the ultimate goal, there were a number of positives to take out of the game.

The strengths and weaknesses of this team were apparent to all last night. Guard play, in the form of Darrin Govens and freshmen Tay Jones and Justin Crosgile was a strength. Govens had 19 points, while Jones and Crosgile contributed 16 and 12 respectively. It was one of Govens' best games in his four years on Hawk Hill. What Hawk fans saw out of freshmen Crosgile and Jones, especially in the second half, is hopefully a sign of things to come. Junior forward Idris Hilliard had a monster game, putting up 22 points and 7 rebounds. While guard play was a strength, the frontcourt, aside from Hilliard, was a glaring weakness. Todd O'Brien and Bryant Irwin combined for only 4 points and 9 rebounds in 37 total minutes. The Hawk frontcourt was without freshman forward Carl Baptiste, who was unable to go due to injury

Next year, the Hawks will be receiving help in the frontcourt in the form of Plymouth-Whitemarsh senior CJ Aiken. I should have an article up on Aiken in the coming day or two.

Dick Jerardi's article from today's Daily News is linked below. There is post-game video of Jay Wright, Tayor King, and Phil Martelli on the page as well.



Jerardi Article on the Holy War.



After the Hawks game ended last night, I flipped over to the Kentucky-UConn game. We keep hearing about how good John Wall is. Guess what? He's better than you thought.