WOmegahen cheering for the No. 1 Blue Devils in Wednesday night's matchup against unranked Villanova, keep one thing in mind. The Villanova Wildcats are no strangers to games against the nation's top-ranked team. And often enough, they win.
In 1983, No. 12 Villanova traveled to Chapel Hill to take on top-ranked North Carolina. Despite 20 points by a Tar Heel named Michael Jordan, the Wildcats came away from that matchup with a victory, 56-53.
In 1990, the Wildcats shocked No. 1 Syracuse. The Orangemen had led the polls for six weeks, while Villanova was unranked, but Wildcat Greg Woodward contributed 27 points towards his team's 93-74 win over Syracuse.
Most recently, Villanova faced the top-ranked Huskies of Connecticut in 1995. The then-No. 15 Wildcats upset Connecticut 96-73 as All-American Kerry Kittles scored 37 points, nearly three times more than the nearest UConn player.
Now, in 1997, the Wildcats (2-2) have their eye on another top-ranked opponent-Duke's Blue Devils (8-0).
At first glance, it seems unlikely that the Wildcats have the tools to put up a fight in Cameron. Their biggest star, last year's National Freshman of the Year Tim Thomas, departed early for the NBA. Bad news, but for Villanova it gets worse. Thomas was only one of four starters who will not be on the court this year. Also gone are All-Big East guard Alvin Williams, center Jason Lawson and power forward Chuck Kornegay. Even head coach Steve Lappas had to downplay his team's goals.
"This year will be a rebuilding season for us," Lappas said. "We lost four starters from last season's Big East Championship team... so it's going to take some time."
How, then, did this year's Villanova squad upset Georgetown and drub conference opponent Seton Hall? It would appear that the Wildcats have found their strength-the team. No one player has dominated in their wins. Against Georgetown, four players scored in the double digits without any one player scoring over 20. Three players did the same against Seton Hall.
In addition, several of those who stood in the shadows of Thomas and Williams last year have stepped forward this season. Sophomore power forward Malik Allen had his best-ever game against Georgetown with 16 points, including a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line. Returning starter John Celestand, who averaged 8.3 ppg last year, has become the team leader with 12 ppg, including 15 against Georgetown and 19 versus Seton Hall.
The Wildcats have also found themselves a leader, thanks to the foresight of their head coach. Lappas chose to redshirt senior Zeffy Penn last year. Penn is now their only scholarship senior and considered to be one of the top bench players in the country. As a captain, Penn has worked to build his team's chemistry and emotion.
Coming off the bench to chants of "Zeffy, Zeffy," Penn has become not only a team leader but a crowd favorite a la Carmen Wallace. In his return to action after a year of watching from the pine, Penn entered his school's "Wildcat Roar" wearing a blond wig and dancing to the song "We Are Family."
"Whether I start or come off the bench," Penn said, "I want to go out and help the team in any way possible."
On the other side of the court, Duke will be working to disrupt Villanova's "family" atmosphere in any way it can. In this, its final home game of the semester, Duke will look to win its fourth game as consensus No. 1.
If the Blue Devils play with the intensity that they have against every other opponent this year, then such a disruption is almost inevitable. In Saturday's game against Virginia, Duke held its opponents to only two shots in the first 5:30 of play and never let up defensively, dominating in every category but rebounds. The Blue Devils had 17 steals to the Cavaliers' six, in a statistic that fairly represented Duke's play for the entire season.
The stifling Blue Devil defense has been aptly matched by an explosive offense. Coming into Wednesday's match, Duke had earned 100+ points in three games, not counting a 128-74 exhibition win against the Upstate All-Stars, and over 90 in three others. Elton Brand, Trajan Langdon, William Avery and Roshown McLeod are each averaging over 10 points per game, while five others are scoring at least eight per game.
Visions of wins against top-ranked teams will undoubtedly float through the minds of the Wildcats as they enter Cameron Indoor Stadium on Wednesday night. A Tim Thomas-less starting five and a surprisingly intense Duke squad, however, will make it difficult for history to repeat itself.
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