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'Nova's Forwards: Deserve Respect

Posted on: Thursday, 23 March 2006, 06:00 CST

By Dana Pennett O'neil, Philadelphia Daily News

Mar. 23--MINNEAPOLIS - The rules of basketball stipulate that you play the game with five guys.

To hear people talk about Villanova, though, you'd think they were constantly offering up a power play to the opponents.

Four guards, four guards, four guards, that's been the theme of the Wildcats this season and to be certain, the way Villanova plays and the way those four guards in particular play, it's understandable why the novel lineup gets all the notice.

News bulletin, news bulletin, this just in. Villanova plays five guys at a time and one of them isn't a guard.

And by the time tomorrow night's Sweet 16 game against Boston College is over, Mystery Man No. 5 might be the difference between a quick return trip to Philadelphia or another night in Minneapolis.

"We are in the shadows a lot of the time and it's fine. Our guards deserve the spotlight," said junior Will Sheridan, the fifth starter and de facto spokesman for the Missing Forward Society at Villanova. "We don't feel like we're any worse or not as good as the guards."

If it sounds like Sheridan and Co. have a bit of a chip on their shoulders, they do. But it's a healthy chip, not one borne out of petty jealousy. Ask anyone who isn't a Villanova guard about the Villanova guards and he'll be the first to say that they deserve all the hype and praise they've received.

The chip comes more from the notion that the forwards and centers on this team are just along for the ride.

"Our guards get the attention but the forwards do a whole lot more than what people see," said guard Mike Nardi.

The truth is the four-guard offense is a bit of a misnomer. Sacre bleu! The 'Cats actually play three guards frequently and - round up the smelling salts - sometimes even go with just two. Without viable options at the forward and center position, there's no way Villanova stands at 27-4 right now, a top seed and two steps away from the Final Four. It can't happen.

And there's no way they get by Boston College without those Other Players either. Villanova has faced big frontlines before and fared more than well - a split with Connecticut, a 10-point win against a Georgetown team that uses 7-0 Roy Hibbert as its anchor, a narrow loss at Texas when those guards shot just 27 percent - but in BC, the Wildcats will face an offense that is something of a college basketball dinosaur.

Unlike most teams today that hover around the perimeter, the Eagles compact their flex offense in, feeding the low post a steady diet of field-goal attempts.

The reason is simple. Like Jay Wright, BC coach Al Skinner goes with his strengths and his strength resides in the body of Craig Smith. The 6-7, 250-pound brick wall basically camps on the low-post blocks and doesn't move.

"They're like an old-school NBA team," Wright said.

Wright got to coach Smith this summer in the World University Games. At the time he was thrilled, figuring with Boston College in the Atlantic Coast Conference, he'd never have to worry about facing Smith again.

Now with Smith on tap, Wright looks at his summertime trip a lot differently.

"Having played against him the last 3 years, I didn't get to know him as a person," Wright said. "I thought he was a real tough kid and I really feared his toughness. I was amazed this summer what a nice, really beautiful kid he is. It shocked me. I came away from thinking, 'Well, we'll never have to play him again, but why did we fear him so much?' But then the way he played this summer, he carried us. He's just a monster. Now I'm reverting back. Now I'm remembering why we feared him."

The reality is, Villanova isn't likely to stop Smith. Teams a lot more post-oriented haven't been able to do that. In 36 games this year, the senior, averaging 17.7 points and 9.3 rebounds, has failed to hit double digits in scoring just twice - with eight against Duke and nine against Wake Forest. The forwards, however, can try to make him uncomfortable every time he touches the ball and battle him on the boards.

"You always look forward to playing the best," said 'Nova freshman Dante Cunningham. "Growing up, that's what you dream of. That's why you go to the best leagues. You want to play the best players on the best teams. That's how you build up your own game."

Lost in the hubbub of the four-guard thing is just how much the forwards at Villanova have built up their games. Though senior Jason Fraser struggles with the strength in his legs, Sheridan has developed a sweet touch on his outside jumper, a shot that makes him a little more difficult to guard for big men not comfortable stepping away from the basket. He scored 13 against Connecticut at the Wachovia Center, 17 against Rutgers in the Big East Tournament, 16 in the second-round against a much bigger Arizona team and is averaging 5.6 points to go with his team-high 6.3 rebounds.

And while the roster may still list Cunningham as a freshman, he stopped playing like a rookie a long time ago. The Maryland product doesn't score a whole lot - he averages only 2.1 points per game - but he cleans the glass with authority. Against Arizona, Cunningham came away with nine boards and one monster block.

"I wouldn't say it's about intimidation," Cunningham said. "It's more about not letting people get an edge, not playing scared or soft."

The reality is, the sight of Villanova taking the court isn't going to scare a lot of people. Not when the biggest regulars stand in at 6-8 (Sheridan) and 6-9 (Cunningham) and the bulk of the lineup (Kyle Lowry, Allan Ray and Nardi) are under 6-3.

Frankly the Wildcats aren't interested in scaring anyone. They're more interested in beating everyone.

"It would be silly to say we intimidate people being how we're so small," Sheridan said. "But as forwards, we try to have a no-nonsense approach. We will stand in the lane and hold our place. We will take a charge."

And tomorrow night, the forwards will get noticed.

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Source: The Philadelphia Daily News

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