The amount of that settlement has been reported as high as $20 million and as low as $11 million, but in either scenario WVU would be allowed to walk away and join the Big 12 conference in 2012. One factor affecting the settlement value is whether or not the Big East can find a replacement in time to fill the spots WVU’s departure would leave on the conference schedule.

The Big East has a duty to mitigate it’s damages in this case, and the best way to do that would be to have a new member join for 2012 instead of waiting until 2013. That, however, is not currently the plan for any Big East member.

To that end, WVU officials have been calling the Big East’s new additions to plead with them to enter the league a year sooner than anticipated, according to CBS Sports’ Brett McMurphy. If a replacement program isn’t found, the settlement amount is likely to be notably larger. Boise State is considered the most-likely school to fast-track membership, but the timeline is unfavorable to do so.

If a replacement cannot be found, the football schools may have to resort to playing home-and-home series in the fall to fill their empty slots. The Star-Ledger’s Tom Luicci reported that Syracuse and Rutgers are bracing to do just that next season. The second meeting between the two teams would apparently not count in the Big East standings.

Regardless of the price, WVU will likely find a way to pay their way out. If the number is too large though, the Big 12′s outgoing interim commissioner, Chuck Neinas, has suggested that his conference could be willing to help the Mountaineers scrape together the fee.

“It would be an internal matter for our Board of Directors to determine,” Neinas said. “If West Virginia makes a request, we’ll take it to the board.”

The Big East was always unlikely to prevail in obtaining a court order to force WVU to play the next two seasons in the Big East conference. Their monetary damages awarded in a trial, however, could be astronomical. It also could be less than whatever settlement amount West Virginia is currently offering.

One thing that likely won’t be a factor is the ultimate value of the next Big East television contract. Despite the fact that WVU’s departure, along with Pittsburgh and Syracuse, is likely to affect the ultimate value of the conference to broadcasters, the conference bylaws anticipate member withdrawal, meaning those future damages are not something that will likely be charged against the departing members.

If WVU departs the Big East early, Syracuse and Pittsburgh will likely also reach deals to depart as of the 2013 season. The Big East would have a hard time keeping either school bound to the 27-month exit notice after allowing another to depart.

The ACC schedule has already been set for 2012, however, so it would seem unlikely that the Panthers and Orange would make a move on short notice. One Pittsburgh blogger, Paul Zeise of the Post-Gazette, has suggested that the Panthers would attempt to escape for the 2012 season regardless:

Steve Pederson is making the media rounds today on the heels of the ACC meetings (hopefully those of us who are lowly ink-stained types will get our chance to talk to him tomorrow) and the one thing that is clear is he is far more optimistic about Pitt (and Syracuse’s) chances of playing in the ACC in 2012.

With the ACC planning to go to a 9-game football schedule in order to accommodate the new members, however, it seems unlikely that they would be willing to buy their way out of non-conference games to accommodate a new, expanded schedule at this point — though it would likely create a few opportunities for Big East schools to pick up the ACC’s cast-off opponents.

On the basketball side, however, the early departures likely just mean a greater number of home-and-h0me series in 2012. In a 15 team league, a team would play every other member one time and then have four teams they would play twice.

Temple to Conference-USA?

On Wednesday morning, CBS reported that the Temple administrators were “stunned” that the Big East was inviting Memphis over them, and had believed that they would receive the next invitation to join the rebuilding conference. While the administrators were scratching their heads on North Broad, however, Conference USA was busy scrambling to pick up the pieces of their own conference.

According to the CBS report, C-USA officials immediately called Temple after hearing that Memphis was going to withdraw, to gauge that university’s interest in joining a rebuilt C-USA or, more-likely, a new conference comprised of former C-USA and Mountain West schools.

The two conferences will be accelerating their merger discussions in the coming weeks, but there appears to be some reluctance to pull the trigger. If they did merge, they would form a 15-team all-sports conference with 16 teams in football, since Hawaii will only join on the gridiron. Adding Temple would bring the football number to 17, which likely means at least one other school — possibly Florida International — could also be recruited.

The teams remaining that would be combined, include Southern Miss, Marshall, East Carolina, UAB, Tulsa, Rice, UTEP and Tulane from C-USA and Wyoming, Air Force, Colorado State, UNLV, New Mexico, Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii from the MWC.

Temple could also decline and hold steady with Atlantic-10 and MAC affiliations for the time-being. A football-only move to C-USA or the merged league may even be a possibility if the Owls don’t think that UNLV, Tulsa and Southern Miss will be strong enough draws in basketball.

Prior to the Big East’s expansion moves, a move for Temple to Conference USA might have been an easy decision, but now, it becomes a referendum on where the school’s athletics department is heading. The hybrid CUSA/MWC conference would still offer a better football product than the MAC, but could be a downgrade in basketball competition for the Owls (not that it hurt Memphis to make so many trips to the tournament). The wildcard, however, is money and how much of it the new conference could offer.

“All I know is they have great basketball tradition, I’m happy about that,” Villanova head coach Jay Wright said on the addition. “Personally, I look at what’s best for Villanova, and I think as long as Villanova is in a good conference, with good basketball schools, we’ll be fine. And they’re a good basketball school.”

ESPN’s Stats and Research department ranked Memphis Tigers’ Basketball the 14th most prestigious program in modern college basketball in 2008. They play their home games at the FedEx Forum, an NBA arena, and draw major crowds for Conference USA games. In fact, their attendance last season was bigger than every Big East school except Louisville.

Memphis has made 23 appearances in the NCAA Tournament in basketball, reaching the Final Four three times and playing in the 1973 and 2008 title games. The Tigers’ football team, though it is considered among the nation’s worst in recent seasons has earned bowl bids in five of the last nine years.

The Big East will be the 5th conference affiliation for the seemingly-nomadic Tigers. They were first affiliated with the Missouri Valley Conference in 1966 and left to become a founding member of the now-defunct Metro Conference in 1976. They then became a founder of the Metro-breakaway Great Midwest Conference in 1990 before merging that conference with the Metro in 1995 to form Conference USA.

Memphis will now join the Big East in all sports.

They will join with Central Florida, Houston and SMU as full members, while Boise State, San Diego State and Navy (in 2015) will become football-only additions to the conference. Memphis makes up for some of the basketball star-power that will be lost when Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia leave the conference.

“Over the past decade, the University of Memphis has demonstrated an unwavering commitment of competing at the highest level in college sports,” Big East commissioner John Marinatto said in a statement.

“The University has positioned itself for long-term success by upgrading facilities and investing wisely in various areas of the athletic department including coaching and administration.  We are confident that the addition of this outstanding athletics program located in a top 50 media market and in the heart of the nation’s largest conference footprint will further propel the Big East and the University of Memphis to even greater levels of success in the future.”

Memphis athletics director R.C. Johnson has previous experience with the Big East when he was with Temple University in the early 1990′s. Johnson didn’t believe that that portion of his resume had much effect on today’s announcement, however.

“The Temple relationship was a long time ago,” he noted. “I don’t think that really had any bearing.  As John just alluded to, there are a lot of changes.  When I was at Temple, Tranghese was the commissioner and John [Marinatto] was not in the office at the time.”

“Several years ago we asked Michael [Tranghese] to come in and look at our facilities, kind of analyze where we were with the idea that someday we might have an opportunity to become a member of a BCS conference, and he did that.  We had him in a couple times, asked him to be a consultant, which he did for us.  But that was about two, three years ago.”

The Big East will have 17 full members, including Memphis, which means that the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden might also be expanding. A 17-team bracket remains a possibility, though no discussions have been had about instituting basketball divisions.

“Our membership will get together and we’ll analyze all of the possibilities of a 17-team postseason championship,” Marinatto stated. “We’ll initially present what we have to our athletic directors at an upcoming meeting and then we’ll make our recommendations to our presidents.”

According to a Big East release, the moves will boost the conference’s television reach to more than 31 million homes — nearly 28 percent of all U.S. television households. The conference will have thirteen members located among the top 30 television markets with 17 of them in the top 50.

The Big East’s plan for expansion, of course, is based on a goal of having 12 football programs and a championship game in that sport. Memphis would help the conference reach that number, giving them 11 football teams when they come in. A few years after, in 2015, the Big East will add Navy as the 12th football member.

Memphis’ athletics department has invested in their facilities and programs in hopes of finding a major conference home. Despite rumors of Big East interest since the early-2000′s, however, they have been left on the sidelines.

“This is an exciting day for Tiger athletics,” said Johnson.  “Many years ago we set as a departmental goal the task of being the best that we could be in every athletic endeavor.  With today’s invitation to join many of our friends in such a prestigious conference means we have achieved one of our top missions.”

Few people are assuming that Big East expansion is over, however. While the official goal is 12 football teams, in reality, further expansion is needed to ensure a certain level of stability. Doing so without becoming an unmanageable collection of voices and mouths to feed, however, may be a challenge.

John Marinatto would not commit to any future expansion, however, and insisted that the Big East would wait until 2015 to have a conference championship game.

“Our stated goal over the past 4 or 5 months has been that we want to have a 12-team football league with two division and obviously with an annual championship game,” Marinatto confirmed.

“We haven’t talked about accelerating that. We knew that the Naval Academy’s ramp-up period would take 3-years before we could wrap up their contracts — both scheduling and as well as the television. So we are not planning, right now, anything to accelerate the championship game. As far as it is right now, a championship game will occur when Navy joins the league in the 2015 season.

“We’re obviously pleased that we fulfilled our primary objective, but we’re always going to be vigilant and we’re going to continue to do whatever is in the best interests of the conference. So you never say never, I guess, but we’ve reached our goal and we’re pleased that we’ve done that.

“But we’re always gonna, obviously, continue to evaluate opportunities as time goes on.”

Marinatto declined to comment on whether any of the new Big East members would be available to join the conference in 2012, or whether that discussion had been had. Any response, he said, was too closely related to the WVU lawsuits.

Temple was not included in the current round of expansion, prompting questions from the media and others as to why that occurred.

“There were a lot of reasons that we explored Memphis, including among others central time zone,” Marinatto responded to that question. “We’ve created, as you know, this very unique situation with regard to the West Division.  We needed a school that would fit into that West Division.

“Geographically the school is located in the heart of our conference, in the heartland of America.  All of those things were contributing factors in us determining ultimately that this was the best decision to make.”

Temple administrators were apparently surprised by the move, and they were expecting to receive a Big East invitation over the Tennessee school. The Owls were previously Big East members in football-only in the 1990s through 2004. They are now on the radar to join either Conference USA or the merged CUSA/Mountain West conference that has been talked about after CUSA officials called them yesterday to gauge interest.

It is unknown if Temple would be interested in that move.

Big East is “open” to football playoff

Asked about the potential of college football moving away from the BCS and toward a four-team playoff model for crowning its champion, commissioner Marinatto wouldn’t rule anything out. The mini-playoff that has gained some steam in the media has also recently gained traction as a talking point among conference leaders.

“We’ve actually had the discussion of what was publicly discussed in the last couple of days,” Marinatto said, referring to the proposal to institute a ‘plus-one’ playoff for FBS football.

Expansion hasn’t allowed the Big East much time to settle on a position in that regard, but with 12 football teams lined up for the future, that discussion will be forthcoming. Any change to the way FBS football crowns its champion could have a monumental impact on college football in general.

“Our membership hasn’t had a chance to sit down and talk about that with everything else going on.  I think we would be open to that concept at this point.

“We haven’t fleshed out the details of what that would mean, how it would be figured.  It’s probably very premature for us at this stage anyway before our colleagues and I get together later on in February to talk about all of the prospects.

“As we’ve stated in the past we’re open to all of the things that are on the table and being discussed today.  Once we actually sit down and talk about the details, we’ll determine what our formal position is.”

Independent Philly Photo / Jacob Miller

Villanova fell behind by what seemed an impossible-to-overcome 19 points in the second half. It seemed even worse when Maalik Wayns went to the locker room with a left knee injury. Wayns wouldn’t return, but the Wildcats would, with JayVaughn Pinkston taking over with 28 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Wildcats all the way back to a 74-72 victory over the last-place Friars.

In the final few possessions, it seemed like Pinkston was everywhere for the ‘Cats. He scored the team’s last 9 points and had 6 offensive rebounds, including a couple of his own balls, put back for a score. Pinkston also had 2 assists, 2 blocks, a steal and managed to go 34 minutes without  turning the ball over. He missed one early free-throw, but connected on the other 8.

“For him to go 8-for-9 from the foul line — and they were all big free throws — just shows you how hard he’s worked,” coach Jay Wright told reporters after the game. “You know, you just get special kids sometimes. He’s so coachable, it’s amazing, just whatever you tell him to do, he’s just got the greatest attitude.”

New student-section favorite Maurice Sutton also played a major role in the comeback. After Nova took the 2-point lead, Providence would have the ball again with 18 seconds on the clock. Coming out of a time-out, Gerard Coleman drove to the rim and was blocked by Sutton, leaving little time to find another shot. Bryce Cotton then missed on a rushed 3-pointer at the buzzer to allow time to expire with Nova ahead.

Cotton had nailed six 3-pointers in the first half, scoring 18 points, but was shut down in after the intermission.

“Cotton, he got hot in the first half, but we just stuck to the game plan,” junior guard Dominic Cheek said afterward. “We adjusted more to him, like when the ball got more to his side we denied them a bit more.”

“We extended it a little bit,” Wright added later. “We were concerned early about extending it too much on those guards because they’re so good off the dribble, and we extended it in the half-court. ”

Villanova went into the half trailing by 14 points. Cotton’s production from deep being a large part of the reason why. According to Jay Wright, however, the Wildcats had a little help during the break from a friend.

“Mike Nardi came in and talked to them at half-time,” Wright volunteered after the game. “When the coaches were meeting, Nardi came in and talked to them, and I didn’t know until after the game, because when we all got together the guys all said, ‘hey Nardi, thanks man,’ and ‘great job Nardi,’ so then I asked.

“They said he came in and told them we weren’t playing Villanova basketball.”

The ‘Cats didn’t immediately get back on track in the second half, though, as the deficit increased to 19 points on a LaDontae Henton jumper with 14:05 left in the game. Henton scored 13 points in the game.

Sutton responded shortly afterward with a crowd-pleasing dunk. James Bell assisted the play for one of his 8 assists on the night. Sutton played 14 minutes, and that dunk was his only score of the game. He also contributed two blocks.

Dominic Cheek was 4 of 8 from downtown and his hot streak was key to the ‘Cats comeback. With the ‘Cats down 61-57 with just over 6 minute left, Cheek nailed a corner-3 on an assist from Ty Johnson.

One possession later, Cheek nailed another triple, this time assisted by James Bell, to tie the score at 63.

Providence then went on another mini-run to take a lead again, getting their lead back to 5 points with 3:14 left on the clock. The Villanova defense then came alive. A quick look at the play-by-play from that point on shows fouls and turnovers from Providence met by Pinkston scoring buckets for Nova.

“When you get down 18- to 20, you know from experience, and players know it from experience, that the only thing you can do is fight to the last second,” Wright explained about his team’s thought process. “That’s the only way you have a chance. Anything less than that and you’ve got no chance. So there’s a good period of time where you’re just saying like, ‘don’t give in, don’t give in, just play it to the last second.’

“Then I thought when we got it to four, I think it was like 3:53, I was thinking, ‘we can do this, we can definitely do this.’”

Wayns sat out for the bulk of the second half, which meant that instead of dominating the team’s minutes as he normally does, Villanova’s younger players would have to step up. The team responded well to that situation, however.

“I think it bodes well for our future,” Wright claimed. “I’ve been looking for any kind of situation to get Tyrone Johnson some positive minutes. He’s just behind, but we think he’s going to be good. It was great to get him on the floor, I think that’s going to be really good for us, and the other guys get confidence in him.”

Vincent Council, who leads the Big East is assists had 7 tonight and scored 17 points for the Friars. It could have been worse, however, and Jay Wright credited two freshmen with shutting down the Friar’s top scorers late in the game.

“[Johnson] did a really great job on Council in the second half, Tyrone did, he really did. I think for our young guys, it’s going to give them a lot of confidence. I think Ash Yacoubou did a great job on Cotton in the second half for a short period of time.

“Ty was guarding him straight up most of the night and even on that big shot he hit at the end, Ty made him pull up.”

Wright felt that Johnson was very effective on defense, but also praised the way that his freshman guard ran the offense without Wayns on the floor. Specifically getting the ball inside to Yarou, who scored 17 points and had 8 rebounds, and to Pinkston.

Independent Philly Photo / Jacob Miller

Pinkston, he said, had worked hard to get to where he is and earned his role on the team.

“He works out extra,” Wright noted. “Lon Record our strength coach does extra conditioning with him, he comes in and shoots extra, he’s just really a pleasure to coach. Its tough in our society today. Its so simple, if players just listen and do what coaches ask them to do, if they’re talented they’re going to. But it just doesn’t happen that way.

“This kid is, he’s a throwback. I’m so thrilled for him.”

Villanova will potentially need Pinkston to continue his strong play if Wayns misses any more time on the court. Wright didn’t know the nature of the injury other than to say that it was his left knee and that he ‘tweaked’ it in the first half. The trainers took a look at it and decided to be cautious, but noted that his ACL was intact. He will undergo an MRI tomorrow.

Nova is now off until February 15th, when they will travel to the Times Forum in Tampa for a re-match with the South Florida Bulls.

JayVaughn Pinkston’s game-winner

Mo Sutton’s block to seal the win

UPDATE – 2/8, 3:30pm – Villanova release on Maalik Wayns:

WAYNS UNDERGOES MRI; EVALUATION THURSDAY

VILLANOVA, Pa. – Junior guard Maalik Wayns, whose left knee was injured in last night’s 74-72 victory over Providence, underwent an MRI examination this morning. He will be fully evaluated by Villanova Team Orthopedist Dr. Rob Good of the Main Line Health System on Thursday.

An update on his status is expected after the evaluation tomorrow.

During the Friars’ most recent outing, they took a lead into half-time against West Virginia and played to a draw at the end of regulation. They lost when Darryl Bryant, nailed a 3-pointer with about a second left on the clock, giving the Mountaineers an 87-84 victory.

Vincent Council, a junior guard, has been trying to fill the void left by the graduation of MarShon Brooks on the scoreboard. Council has averaged 16.1 points per game, grabbed 4.3 rebounds and dished out an average of 7.7 assists. He is the offensive driving force behind the Friars attack.

Bryce Cotton, a sophomore guard, is Council’s sidekick, scoring 15.3 points per game, 2.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists, while leading the team in 3-point percentage at 41.8%. Two other players have averaged a score in double-digits, sophomore guard Gerard Coleman with 14.2 ppg and freshman forward LaDontae Henton with 13.8 ppg and a 39.2% success-rate from beyond the arc.

Other than Henton and Cotton, no Providence players have been able to consistently make their shots from deep.

Those two players may be enough, however, to make the Wildcats’ defense struggle. Villanova really hasn’t done a good job of guarding the perimeter for 40 minutes in any of their games this season. Certainly not in the last few.

Offensively, Villanova is still looking for a second option after Maalik Wayns. The talented guard has been the only consistent threat to score on the Villanova roster, with a number of players performing well, but none consistently. Mouphtaou Yarou recorded a double-double against Pittsburgh, but has also had games where he was a statistical non-factor. Along with Dominic Cheek, his development has been a disappointment to Jay Wright so far.

James Bell and JayVaughn Pinkston have both performed well in the last few games, with Pinkston scoring in double digits in 8 of 10 games since January 1st — including 3 double-doubles. Bell, for his part, has scored in double-digits in each of the last 5 games, starting with the Seton Hall victory. Bell also had a double-double against Louisville and leads the team with 36.7% shooting from 3-point range.

Villanova needs a more balanced attack and an answer for defense on the perimeter, and that is what the ‘Cats are trying to find when they talk about “getting better,” this season. Nobody will magically transform into a sharpshooter before the end of the season, nor will any player learn to take defenders off the dribble overnight. Instead, the ‘Cats need to meet the more reasonable goals of playing competent defense and offense that can survive without Wayns on the court.

A win for the Wildcats would be their 14th over the Friars at the Pavilion and push them up into the group of four teams with 4-wins on the season. They wouldn’t have to win out in order to finish the season at .500 in the league, but they would in order to finish above that mark. That is about what it would take for the Wildcats to climb up to the middle of the Big East pack.

The game will tip-off at 8:00 p.m. eastern from the Pavilion at Villanova and coverage will be provided by ESPN3.com and locally on WPHL-17.

Update: February 7 (Game Results) … With the Cat’s 74-72 victory over Providence, we congratulate seven VUHoops readers who took medals in this round.  Gold Medal:  marty1029 (75-71), earning 5.0 points; Silver Medal: bhank (77-71), earning 3.0 points; Bronze Medals: barry class of 57 (72-69), Gorms (78-71), Jim89 (73-68), LouBevi (75-68), and Steph (70-73),   earning 1.0 point each.   Our updated leader board is provided below.

VUHoops vs. Vegas:  Based on the average predicted scores of the VUHoops Crowd and the posted Vegas line, we would have had a DOUBLE WIN by picking Providence +8.0 points (WIN) and the Under (WIN).  The details follow.  With the loss, we drop to are even for the season.

Leader Board

Update: February 7 (Game Time) A total of 45 VUHoops readers posted predictions, with 5 (11%) picking the Cats to lose.  As a group, the readers see ‘Nova winning by a 6.0 points, 79-73, implying an over/under of 152.0.  The Vegas odds makers pick ‘Nova to win by 8.0 points and set the over/under at 154.5 points, implying a final score of 81-73.

Scatter Plot of Predicted Scores

Window Opening:  February 6, 8:30 PM … The window is now open for our readers to post their predicted final scores for Tuesday’s game against Providence at the Pavilion (8:00PM, WPHL17) in the 16th round of our Closest to the Pin Contest.  Scott0220 has retaken the lead and now stands alone in first place; click here to see our full leader board.

Villanova (10-13, 3-8) is unranked in the AP and ESPN/USA Today Coaches Polls but is ranked #81 by Kenpom.com.  The Cats have a RPI of 94, a SOS of 4, and score an average of 73.6 PPG while giving up an average of 72.1 PPG.

Providence (13-11, 2-9) is unranked in the AP and ESPN/USA Today Coaches Polls but is ranked #117 by Kenpom.com. The Friars have an RPI of 137, a SOS of 104, and are scoring an average of 71.0 PPG while giving up an average of 68.7 PPG.  The table below sets out their Big East wins and losses so far this season.

Be sure to read our game preview tomorrow.  Good luck!

Special Note: When posting predictions, be sure to:

• Use a consistent handle / ID so that we can keep an accurate running leader board over the course of the season. Obviously, score predictions posted by anonymous readers cannot be accepted.
• List your predicted score for Villanova first, followed by the score for the opponent (e.g., Cats 100, Friars 75)

Phil Matusz worked with Lacrosse and Baseball teams as an assistant strength coach (credit: Lacrosse Playground)

Justus Galac helped the 2009 Villanova Wildcats win a national championship from his office in the weight room, but his successor helped them win it on the field. Phil Matusz was a senior captain who anchored the defensive line on that team, and after graduation joined the Wildcats as an assistant strength and conditioning coach. So when Galac left the program for the bright lights of New York (or, more accurately, Florham Park, New Jersey), the football program didn’t have to look very far to fill the job.

“We moved Phil Matusz up,” head coach Andy Talley said. “Phil was a captain of our National Championship team, a starting nose guard for four years — so he worked under Justus [Galac] for four years — and then was his assistant strength coach for two, so he knows our system.”

Matusz is a 2010 graduate of Villanova and has only been working as a strength coach for the past two seasons. Talley wasn’t worried about the length of his resume, however.

“He’s a little young for the job, but he actually has more experience than Justus did when he took the job over. I mean, he’s got 6 years of indoctrination in Justus Galac’s philosophy.

“I replaced Justus with the best guy I think I could have replaced him with.”

Matusz is a coach that comes from a similar mold as Galac, both were energetic motivators. Matusz as a player was always up for a game.

“He’s passionate, I don’t know if you’ve ever watched him before a game, but he’s a wild man. He’s very emotional, very upbeat.

“He’s matured, I’ve watched him mature over the years, but he has a long way to go. We’re going to live with some of his ‘early learning spots,’ but he’s mostly going to be dealing with players, that’s what a strength coach has to deal with — the mood of a particular player at a particular time; you get them at 6 in the morning, they’re not exactly all sunshine, and they get moody, and you’re dealing with all of the different personalities, which is part of the experience.”

It won’t be easy stepping into the huge shoes of Justus Galac. Talley thought very highly of the man he helped elevate from a graduate assistant into one of the top strength coaches in the Championship Subdivision — if not all of football.

“Huge loss for us — huge,” Talley said. “He did a phenomenal job for us. He was a [graduate assistant] for me and we had a discussion, ‘are you going to be a football coach or are you going to be a strength coach?’ He came back and said, ‘I’m going to be a strength coach,’ so we elevated him, moved him along, let him prove himself, and year-in and year-out he improved our team. I can’t tell you what a loss that is.

“He was with our players 24-7, year round, so to replace someone like that, you have to get lucky.”

Villanova hopes to be lucky again with Phil Matusz taking the reins for the football program. As an assistant, he had been working with the lacrosse, baseball, volleyball, softball and women’s soccer teams at Villanova. Now he will work with the football players. Different teams have different goals, but in many ways he will be applying the same principals that Galac used to motivate and push his teams to get better.

Villanova’s strongest defensive staff?

“On paper, this is the strongest defensive staff we’ve had,” Talley claimed. He noted that they would have to actually achieve and reach their potential before he could dub them to truly be his strongest defensive staff.

“We lost a heck of a defensive coordinator in Mark Reardon. That’s a huge loss for us, I mean that guy was tremendous.”

Despite the loss, Talley added two experienced coaches on the defensive side of the ball and moved a longtime assistant in Billy Crocker to the defensive coordinator spot. Roc Bellantoni had previously been the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach at Eastern Illinois University while Tony Trisciani had some good college coaching experience prior to spending the last five years running a successful high school program.

“Roc was the defensive coordinator at Eastern Illinois for 10 or 11 years and they’ve had 6 playoff experiences,” Talley noted. ”

Brian Flinn, our wide receiver coach, coached with Roc at Eastern Illinois, and when our job came open, it was important to me to get a guy with some experience. I wanted to help Billy Crocker with a guy who has been around, and Roc was a guy who was available to us. ”

Though he is coming from a midwestern university, Bellantoni isn’t a stranger to the northeast.

“He’s from [New York], so he’s an eastern guy and you know I love the fact that he had a coordinatorship under his belt and he’s also going to coach special teams. You know he looked around in the job market and felt that Villanova would be a great place for he and his family — they’re looking forward to coming east.

“Its an easier transition for him than it would seem.”

Don’t call the move from his previous job as a defensive coordinator a step down, though. Bellantoni is arguably taking on just as important a role at Villanova.

“The luck of the draw had Villanova available, and I think being the special teams coordinator fit for him, even though he was a D-coordinator, at least he’s coordinating. And really, he’s responsible for every kid on our team, because all of our kids, you know, are involved in special teams.”

As for Trisciani, he had been on Talley’s radar for a while, and apparently for a good reason.

“We’ve been in touch several times before and finally this job opened and he came in and just did a tremendous job. He was phenomenal actually. Secondary-coach wise, technique, he had it down pat, my staff was really impressed with him.

“So we end up getting a tremendous secondary guy with college experience, a former defensive coordinator coaching the d-line and special teams and a guy like Billy Crocker who coached the secondary here, coached the linebackers here and knows the defense.”

Despite spending the last five years as the head coach at Whitehall High School, Trisciani has a college coach’s resume.

“Tony Trisciani, you know, came in with five years of high school experience as a head coach where Chris Polony played, but previous to that, he really was a college assistant.

“He coached for five years at New Hampshire, he’s best friends with Chip Kelly at Oregon. They grew up together, they’re both from New Hampshire — same town. They coached together at New Hampshire, and Tony went from New Hampshire to Lehigh and spent a year at Lehigh because he wanted to expand from New Hampshire. Then the coach from Lehigh [Pete Lembo] left to become the coach at Elon, so he went to Elon with him.

“Then he ended up marryng a girl from Allentown and she didn’t want to move because her kids were still growing up. Pete wanted him to go to Ball State with him, but he opted to stay in Allentown and coach Whitehall High School for the last five years or he would have been in the college ranks.”

Bill Crocker will oversee the entire defense, moving him from the sideline to the press box. Talley’s last two defensive coordinators came in with a similar amount of experience, and he hopes that Crocker can be as successful.

“Billy worked under [Reardon] for 6 years, is a Coast Guard Academy grad, he’s smart, and he knows our system. He’s very motivational and very emotional, so he’s got to find that happy zone where you temper all of that on game day. I think that’s the experience he has to have. He has to be up in the booth, making his defensive calls and analyzing what’s going on, accepting info from the people around him and when the bullets start flying, this is when you earn your keep.

“The only way you’re going to get that kind of experience is to do it. Reardon was the same way and Joe Trainer was the same way when I gave him the job. Trainer didn’t have any d-coord experience when he took the job.”

It will still be a challenge to follow up Reardon. Crocker has to live up to that challenge in order to reach the same level — but it’s a challenge he is capable of living up to.

“When you lose a top-flight guy, my particular feeling to the guy coming up is that you’ve got big shoes to fill. Its not going to happen overnight. Reardon was an outstanding defensive coordinator, respected nationally.

“We’ve replaced him with a guy who has been around and understands what has to happen and has all of the intelligence, and fire and drive to keep us up there.”

Overall, Talley is very positive about the rebuilding of his defensive staff after the defections of Reardon and Dave Sollazzo.

“I think our defense will continue to have a good rep and be a defense that everyone is proud of.”

Photo by Nick O'Donoughue '06

Jay Wright’s young Villanova squad found themselves down 18 points at times in Sunday’s game against Pittsburgh but found resilience in staging a late second half comeback. Even though the Wildcats clawed to within 3 in the final minute of the game, the Panthers’ iced the game at the end winning 79-70.

Maalik Wayns led the way for ‘Nova with 18 points on 7-22 shooting. Mouph Yarou added a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds.

The loss drops Villanova’s record on the season to 10-13 on the year (3-8 in the BIG EAST).

‘Nova has a short turnaround as they host Providence on Tuesday at The Pavilion.

Grab your iPads and fire away here with the good, the bad and the ugly.   Go Cats!

He holds Pennsylvania state records for career receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns.

The 6-0 and 170-pound player visited Villanova on the final weekend before signing day and was impressed, but ultimately wanted to wait things out for a few more days after signing day before deciding.

Scout.com rated him 2-stars while Rivals did not provide a star-rating.

The two teams, who played in an epic game for a spot in the Final Four a mere three years ago, are trying to emerge as the least disappointing team in the Big East this year.

‘Nova (10-12 overall) and the Panthers (14-9) both share 13th place in the conference with a 3-7 record in the BIG EAST. At the moment, only DePaul and Providence are sporting worse conference records. At the dismay of many Nova fans, St. John’s is the only other BIG EAST school with a sub-500 record.

Point Guard Ashton Gibbs leads the Panthers with 16.4ppg and 2.8 assists- PITT is on a 3-1 streak since his return to the lineup following an abdominal injury. Nasir Robinson adds 12.4 points in the paint and grabs 6.6 boards.

Tipoff is slated for 2p from Petersen Events Center- a venue where Villanova is 0-4. The game will be carried on ESPN.