South Florida stuns Villanova in first round of Big East Tournament

NEW YORK - So, has any team ever gone into the NCAA Tournament lugging around a five-game losing streak for the Selection Committee to ponder?

Then again, has any team gone from the Top 10 in mid-January to what appears to be something like a No. 8 seed in the Madness?

Just when you thought things couldn't possibly get any worse . . .

Villanova lost to 15th-seeded South Florida last night at Madison Square Garden, 70-69, in the opening round of the Big East Tournament, when Anthony Crater drove down the right side of the lane past Dominic Cheek (there was no help) for a layup with just over 5 seconds to go. Maalik Wayns got off a 20-footer just before the buzzer, but all it found was the back of the rim.

Was it really any way to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first Frazier-Ali fight in the place they call the Mecca?

Did we mention that the Wildcats (21-11), who lost their fifth straight, led by 16 points at halftime? Or that they'd beaten the Bulls (10-22) by a dozen on the road in early January? So why does that seem like such a long time ago? This was merely the biggest halftime comeback in Big East Tournament history.

The Wildcats, who've won five times in the last 7 weeks, haven't beaten anyone that's going to be in the 68-team field since Feb. 5. Still, they'll get sent somewhere this Sunday. Their RPI says so, whether you agree or not. Of course, ESPN has said that since the expansion to the 64-team bracket in 1985, no team has made the tournament on a five-game losing streak.

At least the previous four setbacks had come against ranked opponents. Then again, Villanova had lost at Providence and Rutgers, and won by three at Seton Hall and in overtime at DePaul. So maybe by now we shouldn't be too surprised, even when it seems almost hysterically bad.

"When it's going [like this], it pours," said coach Jay Wright, whose team went from 20-1 to a second-round exit in the tournament a year ago. "I think that's what's happening. It's mentally tough. But that's life. Life is tough. We have to keep our heads up and take what comes next.

"I think we were tentative with the lead. We haven't won a game in so long, everyone was a little scared. We didn't play with confidence."

The Wildcats, after scoring a season-best 49 points in the first half, the first time since Jan. 22 that they'd reached 40 before intermission, managed only four field goals the rest of the way.

The Bulls, who won only one road game this season and one on a neutral court, got to within two with just over 8 minutes remaining. They would do so twice more. At 3:33, it became a one-point game. And again at 2:22. But Villanova was holding three, 67-64, with 48.6 seconds showing, when Wayns went to the foul line to shoot a 1-and-1 following a USF turnover. Villanova was 20-for-20 to that point, Wayns 8-for-8. So naturally he missed the front end. Twelve seconds later, after another Bulls' giveaway, Corey Stokes, a 90 percent free-throw shooter, did likewise.

At 27.3, Hugh Robertson made a pair to make it 67-66. A few seconds later Wayns tried to make an inbounds pass from the sidecourt back to Antonio Pena. The ball went over his head and Crater came up with it near the basket for a lay-in that put the Bulls ahead for the first time since 26-all.

Wayns then drove to the basket, which mostly was the extent of his team's second-half offense, got hacked and made two freebies to put Villanova back in front at 11.6. Neither side had a timeout left, with USF having burned its last after Wayns made his first. It wouldn't matter, at least from the Bulls' perspective.

Stokes, who missed Saturday's Pittsburgh game with a left hamstring injury, didn't start but got in early. He scored 16 in 34 minutes, but it all came in the first half.

The bad news was, center Mouphtaou Yarou left with 4:58 remaining in the first half after he landed hard while going up to block a shot for which he was called for a foul. He was helped off to the locker room. In the second half he sat on the bench with a patch covering stitches he received to close a cut on his right cheek. He also seemed to be holding his right arm rather gingerly. Afterward, Wright suggested Yarou had injured his ribs, and also might have a concussion. The sophomore, who's been struggling, had three points and one rebound in 7 minutes. Two other big men, Isiah Armwood (none, two boards in 29) and Maurice Sutton (none, and three in 19) wound up fouling out in the closing 3:33.

Wayns led Villanova with 24 points on 6-for-16 shooting. Corey Fisher also had 15, four in the second half, and was 1-for-4 from the arc.

Shaun Noriega had 22 for South Florida, which got out to 8-0 and 16-8 leads. He averages 5.7 a game. This was one off his career high. Five of his six treys came in the opening 10 minutes.

The Bulls also scored the first seven after the break, after the Wildcats had closed the first half on a 41-17 run.

So, where does Villanova go from here, other than home?

"We have to rest up and get everyone healthy," said Wright. "That'll have to be our advantage. For our group, I was hoping we could get a few wins [here] and feel better. Now we'll have to settle for that. Wherever we go, we have to be ready to play.

"I've got a lot [of concerns] right now. But the biggest is getting everyone healthy. The second is their psyche. I don't know if any of us have ever finished a season this way. We have to get their heads right. Their heads were great coming into this.

"We need to get Mouph back. We still had enough people that we should have been able to stop them [at the end]."

There is just no way to put a happy face on this. But it'll be a new season.

"We have to keep grinding," said Stokes. "That's all you can do. We're getting better. It might not seem like it."

He might be right.

"We felt good coming in," Wright said. "We looked forward to coming here and playing a number of games, we hoped. This wasn't in the plan. I don't have the answer right now for what to do next.

"We've got to deal with what's coming next."

Time to come up with another plan.