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Austin Krell As you look up and down the roster of this year's Villanova Wildcats, there is one GLARING issue, or so it would appear to the uneducated eye. This team has no seniors to lead the way back to the NCAA tournament and fight for a second national championship in three years. The Cats were pretty good two years ago. But, they really  started to click late in the season, and they took off from there. An upset loss to the Seton Hall Pirates in the Big East tournament championship made the Wildcats hungry. The loss arguably fueled them to one of the most efficient-scoring, defensively-effective tournament runs in the history of the tournament. They absolutely blew out four of their five opponents on their way to the NCAA championship game. The defensive intensity and sustained efficient offense all culminated in, as we will never forget, the greatest shot in NCAA tournament history -- Kris Jenkins' game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer to win the national championshi...

Austin Krell With NBA training camp opening this week, and with the season about 3 weeks from tip-off, it is time to introduce the story lines for each team heading into the 2017-18 season. Number 1: Golden State Warriors  With a 16-1 record in last years NBA playoffs that resulted in a world championship for the Warriors, it did not seem as if they could get any better. First, they re-signed versatile sixth man and elite defender, Andre Iguodala, as well as 2-time MVP and three-point sniper Stephen Curry to keep them exactly where they were at the end of last season. But then, they bolstered their bench with the signing of veteran shooting guard Nick Young, whose shooting ability will keep defenses honest once Klay Thompson, Curry, and Kevin Durant are subbed out. They also seem to have found another diamond in the 2nd round of this summer's NBA draft in power forward Jordan Bell, who was very impressive in summer league. The only question is, with the shift of NBA stars from...

Tyler Kemp Just when it looked like a normal day in the NBA offseason right before training camp begins to roll around, what looks to be the final shockwave in what has been a wild NBA summer has already had its ripple effect. The New York Knicks and the Oklahoma City Thunder have agreed in principle to a trade that would send Carmelo Anthony to OKC while New York receives Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, and a future second round pick. While this immediately looks like a win for Carmelo Anthony, there are a lot of different moving pieces in terms of who won and lost this trade. Let's get it started: Winner: Carmelo Anthony This is pretty obvious, right? The 13 year veteran finally got his trade request granted and escaped a tumultuous situation that was the New York Knicks, who are constantly the resident laughingstock of the NBA. He will now be paired up with Russell Westbrook and Paul George, two guys that he is very familiar playing with during summers of the olympic...

Patrick Zeng & Luke Lynch CSN Philly Coach Ferrante preached passion, toughness and grit in his post game press conference following the Wildcats 16-13 loss to Temple. He said he was proud of his team, but is not a believer in moral victories. While he is right that in the end this game will end up in the loss column for the 2017 Villanova squad, on a different day this could have ended in victory. The Wildcats entered the game as a sixteen point underdog against FBS foe Temple. Combine that with the predominant sea of Owl supporters flocked throughout Lincoln Financial Field(though Nova Nation was also present) and it adds up to everyone knowing this was going to be a tough one for the Cats. Temple needed to try and build momentum after a 10 win season that saw the Owls grab their first ever major conference title. And they surely needed to do so after the drubbing they were handed at the hands of Notre Dame last week. But as the final whistle blew, you couldn't h...

Patrick Zeng @Roundtripper891 Philly.com For the first time since 1985, a new man was calling the shots on the sideline for Villanova football. Mark Ferrante made his debut as the head coach of Wildcats on Saturday afternoon as Nova made the trip to Lehigh. And it certainly felt like a new era with the style in which the Cats used to secure their first victory of the season. Last year, Villanova relied heavily on its top tier defense to carry them to their 9-4 record. Things felt a little different on a chilly afternoon in Bethlehem, PA. It was Villanova's offense that led the charge to the thrilling 38-35 victory. Junior Quarterback Zach Bednarczyk led the way for Nova with 281 yards of total offense along with three touchdowns. The veteran was a threat all day, completing 74% of his passes to keep the offense humming. His elusiveness continually frustrated the Lehigh defense as they were not able to sack him and kept the positive gains coming. In total Villanova put...

Patrick Zeng @Roundtripper891 SI Jalen Brunson said it best in his tweet that today "heaven gained a legend". This afternoon at age 82, coach Massimino passed away after a long standing battle with lung cancer. His legacy, especially at Villanova cannot be understated. Without coach Mass, Villanova basketball would not be as we know it today. In 1973, when Rollie Massimino was hired, he started to lay the groundwork for what would be one of the greatest upsets to ever occur 12 years later. It only took two years of building for Massimino to turn the program around from the 11-14 season it had suffered the year before Massimino's arrival to a point where the Wildcats ripped off 11 consecutive winning seasons. Coach Mass helped establish Villanova for what it is now. He was famous for having his players over for Italian family dinners to create a bond and togetherness that is now so often referenced as a part of Villanovan culture. He was a star member of th...

Patrick Zeng @Roundtripper891 TampaBay.com It was advertised as the biggest match-up in combat sports history. Conor McGregor versus Floyd Mayweather, live from Las Vegas. It was a match made in heaven. Sports talk shows and radio were dominated by it and a Pay Per View price of $100 reflected the high hopes of the promoters. But was it worth it? Did it live up to the gargantuan levels of hype around it? Absolutely. One of the biggest questions entering the ring was if Conor McGregor would embaress himself against Floyd being that McGregor had never boxed before. He didn't. Conor came out flying in the first few rounds of the fight as he tried to live up to his word of knocking out Mayweather. While he wasn't able to, he was still found a way to land a large amount of punches. In fact, he actually landed 111 of them against Mayweather, more than the 82 that Manny Pacquiao landed in their fight two years ago. Boxing Scene While McGregor came out guns blazing,...