2008–09 Villanova Wildcats men's basketball team

2008–09 Villanova Wildcats men's basketball
NCAA Men's Division I Tournament, Final Four
Conference	Big East Conference (1979–2013)
2008–09 record	30–8 (13–5 Big East)
Head coach	Jay Wright
Assistant coach	Pat Chambers
Assistant coach	Doug West
Assistant coach	Jason Donnelly
Home arena	The Pavilion

2008–09 Big East men's basketball standings
	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
#1 Louisville†	16	–	2	.889	31	–	6	.838
#4 Pittsburgh	15	–	3	.833	31	–	5	.861
#5 Connecticut	15	–	3	.833	31	–	5	.861
#11 Villanova	13	–	5	.722	30	–	8	.789
#23 Marquette	12	–	6	.667	25	–	10	.714
#13 Syracuse	11	–	7	.611	28	–	10	.737
West Virginia	10	–	8	.556	23	–	12	.657
Providence	10	–	8	.556	19	–	14	.576
Notre Dame	8	–	10	.444	21	–	15	.583
Cincinnati	8	–	10	.444	18	–	14	.563
Seton Hall	7	–	11	.389	17	–	15	.531
Georgetown	7	–	11	.389	16	–	15	.516
St. John's	6	–	12	.333	16	–	18	.471
South Florida	4	–	14	.222	9	–	22	.290
Rutgers	2	–	16	.111	11	–	21	.344
DePaul	0	–	18	.000	9	–	24	.273


† 2009 Big East Tournament winner As of April 4, 2009^[1]; Rankings from AP Poll

The Villanova Wildcats had a 30–8 (13–5) record in the 2009 season. Their season resulted in a trip to the Final Four, with their last second win over the Pittsburgh Panthers in the Elite 8. For the 2008–09 season, Villanova returned all but one from their entire roster that made it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. That squad with no seniors, lost 6 of 7 games during a 3-week span in the middle of the season, but came back to make the NCAA tournament.

The 2008–09 schedule includes playing Texas in the Jimmy V. Classic, 18 Big East contests, competing in the Philly Hoops Group Classic (against Niagara, Monmouth, Towson and either Penn State or Rhode Island), and games against a trip to Albany, Fordham, Houston Baptist, & Navy.

On December 1, 2008, Cassiem Drummond announced his intention to transfer out of the Villanova basketball team.^[2]

Class of 2008

^[3]^[4]^[5]

Name	Hometown	High school / college	Height	Weight	Commit date
Maurice Sutton C	Upper Marlboro, MD	Largo HS	6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	May 21, 2008
Maurice Sutton C	Scout: Rivals: 247Sports: N/A ESPN grade: 87
Overall Recruiting Rankings: Scout – NR Rivals – NR ^[6] ESPN – NR

Roster

Villanova Basketball 2008–09 Roster
G/F	22	Dwayne Anderson	SR	Washington, DC (St. Thomas More)
F	20	Shane Clark	SR	Philadelphia, PA (Hargrave Military Academy)
G	4	Jason Colenda	SO	Fairfax, VA (Bishop O'Connell)
F	33	Dante Cunningham	SR	Silver Spring, MD (Potomac)
G	10	Corey Fisher	SO	Bronx, NY (St. Patrick's, NJ)
C	3	Maurice Sutton	FR	Upper Marlboro, MD (Largo HS, MD)
F	0	Antonio Pena	SO	Brooklyn, NY (St. Thomas More)
G	15	Reggie Redding	JR	Philadelphia, PA (St. Joseph's Prep)
G	1	Scottie Reynolds	JR	Herndon, VA (Herndon)
G	24	Corey Stokes	SO	Bayonne, NJ (St. Benedict's)
F	42	Frank Tchuisi	SR	Douala, Cameroon (St. Benedict's)
F	23	Russell Wooten	JR	Chula Vista, California (St. Augustine)

Season

Before the season began, on October 22, 2008, the Wildcats were selected to finish 5th among the 16 Big East Conference teams in the annual Preseason Coaches Poll at Madison Square Garden. Nova returned all five starters from a 22–13 squad that reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.^[7] As part of recent tradition, the 2008 Hoopsmania (an on-campus kickoff of the Villanova Basketball season), included a performance by hip-hop artist T-Pain. Previous artists have included 50 Cent, Tony Yayo and MIMS.^[8]

The Villanova-Pitt game on January 28, 2009 was the last game to be held at the Wachovia Spectrum which drew a crowd of 17,449.^[9]

The Wildcats finished perfect this year at the Pavilion. Villanova's 25 regular-season wins tied a school record. It had been done three times before, but not since 1950–51.

During the 2009 Big East Awards Ceremony, head coach Jay Wright was named the 2009 Big East Coach of the Year. He has won the award twice during the past 4 years. Villanova senior forward Dante Cunningham was named the Big East's Most Improved Player, and sophomore guard Corey Fisher won the Sixth Man Award. All-Big East. Cunningham, a senior forward, won second-team honors on the all-Big East team, while junior guard Scottie Reynolds took honorable mention.^[10]

2009 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament

The 2009 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament, a part of the 2008–09 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, will take place in March 2009 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. This is the first Big East tournament to include all 16 of the conference's teams. Villanova was able to clinch the 4th spot in the Big East, thus earning the double-bye to the quarterfinals in the tournament.

Date	Opponent	Location	Televised	Time	Result
Tournament Results
March 12	Marquette	Madison Square Garden	ESPN	2:30pm	Win
March 13	Louisville	Madison Square Garden	ESPN	7:00pm	Loss

Rankings

Villanova's rank in the major college polls:^[11]

Date	AP Top 25	ESPN/USA Today
November 10, 2008	#23	#25
November 17, 2008	#23	#23
November 24, 2008	#20	#22
December 1, 2008	#17	#16
December 8, 2008	#15	#12
December 15, 2008	#18	#15
December 22, 2008	#18	#16
December 29, 2008	#15	#13
January 5, 2009	#18	#17
January 12, 2009	#23	#22
January 19, 2009	#20	#21
January 26, 2009	#21	#21
February 2, 2009	#17	#16
February 9, 2009	#13	#13
February 16, 2009	#12	#14
February 23, 2009	#10	#12
March 2, 2009	#11	#16
March 9, 2009	#10	#13

Coaching staff

Jay Wright – Head Coach

Patrick Chambers – Associate Head Coach

Doug West – Assistant Coach

Jason Donnelly – Assistant Coach

Schedule

Date	Opponent	rank	Location	Televised	Time	Result	Overall	Conf.
Regular Season
November 6	Northwood (exhibition)	25	Wachovia Spectrum	No	W	75–37	0–0	0–0
November 14	Albany	25	Villanova, PA	No	W	78–60	1–0	0–0
November 17	Fordham	23	Villanova, PA	No	W	107–68	2–0	0–0
November 19	Niagara	23	Villanova, PA	ESPNU	W	77–62	3–0	0–0
November 25	Monmouth	22	Villanova, PA	No	W	71–48	4–0	0–0
November 28	Towson	22	Philadelphia, PA (Palestra)	No	W	64–47	5–0	0–0
November 29	Rhode Island	22	Philadelphia, PA (Palestra)	No	W	78–65	6–0	0–0
December 2	@ PENN	16	Philadelphia, PA (Palestra)	No	W	69–47	7–0	0–0
December 4	Houston Baptist	16	Villanova, PA	No	W	93–57	8–0	0–0
December 9	#6 Texas (Jimmy V Classic)	12	New York, NY (Madison Square Garden)	ESPN	L	67–58	8–1	0–0
December 11	St. Joseph's	12	Villanova, PA	ESPN2	W	59–56	9–1	0–0
December 14	@ LaSalle	12	Philadelphia, PA (Tom Gola Arena)	ESPNU	W	70–59	10–1	0–0
December 22	Navy	16	Villanova, PA	No	W	78–68	11–1	0–0
December 29	Temple	13	Villanova, PA	ESPNU	W	62–45	12–1	0–0
January 1	@ #13 Marquette	13	Milwaukee, WI	ESPN	L	79–72	12–2	0–1
January 6	@ Seton Hall	17	Newark, NJ	WPHL/SNY	W	89–85 (OT)	13–2	1–1
January 10	#21 Louisville	17	Philadelphia, PA (Wachovia Center)	ESPN	L	61–60	13–3	1–2
January 18	St. John's	22	Villanova, PA	WPHL/SNY	W	76- 57	14–3	2–2
January 21	@ #3 Connecticut	21	Hartford, CT	ESPN	L	89–83	14–4	2–3
January 24	@ USF	21	Tampa, FL	WPHL	W	70–61	15–4	3–3
January 28	#3 Pittsburgh	21	Philadelphia, PA (Wachovia Spectrum)	ESPNU	W	67–57	16–4	4–3
February 1	Cincinnati	21	Villanova, PA	WPHL	W	71–50	17–4	5–3
February 4	@ Providence	16	Providence, RI	WPHL	W	94–91	18–4	6–3
February 7	#20 Syracuse	16	Philadelphia, PA (Wachovia Center)	ESPN	W	102–85	19–4	7–3
February 10	#12 Marquette	13	Villanova, PA	ESPN2	W	102–84	20–4	8–3
February 13	@ West Virginia	13	Morgantown, WV	ESPN	L	93–72	20–5	8–4
February 19	Rutgers	14	Villanova, PA	ESPN2	W	82–72	21–5	9–4
February 22	@ #25 Syracuse	14	Syracuse, NY	CBS	W	89–86	22–5	10–4
February 25	@ DePaul	12	Chicago, IL	WPHL	W	74–72	23–5	11–4
February 28	Georgetown	12	Philadelphia, PA (Wachovia Center)	ESPN	L	56–54	23–6	11–5
March 2	@ Notre Dame	16	South Bend, IN	ESPN	W	77–60	24–6	12–5
March 5	Providence	16	Villanova, PA	ESPN2	W	97–80	25–6	13–5
2009 Big East Tournament
March 12	#21 Marquette	13	New York, NY		W	76–75	26–6	14–5
March 13	#5 Louisville	13	New York, NY		L	63–82	26–7	14–6
2009 NCAA Tournament
March 19	(14) American University	12 (3)	Philadelphia, PA		W	80-67	27–7
March 21	#17 (6) UCLA	12 (3)	Philadelphia, PA		W	89-69	28–7
March 26	#5 (2) Duke	12 (3)	Boston, MA		W	77-54	29–7
March 28	#4 (1) Pittsburgh	12 (3)	Boston, MA		W	78-76	30–7
April 4	#3 (1) North Carolina	12 (3)	Detroit, MI		L	69-83	30–8
Big East regular-season games in bold. • Philadelphia Big Five games in italics. • * represent seedings in NCAA Tournament.

References

Villanova Wildcats men's basketball

Venues	Jake Nevin Field House (1932–1986) The Pavilion (1986–present) Wells Fargo Center (alternate; 1996–present)

Rivalries	Saint Joseph's

Culture & lore	Will D. Cat City 6 Philadelphia Big 5 (Robert V. Geasey Trophy) "V for Villanova"

People	Head coaches

Seasons	1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17

NCAA national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics

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