Bob Ford: Wildcats give Spectrum a fitting farewell

The last college basketball game at the Wachovia Spectrum didn't turn out to be the best ever - that would have been asking a lot - but Villanova will take it.

The Wildcats killed the lights on college ball at the old place, almost 42 years after they were one of the teams in the 1967 Quaker City Tournament that began a great history between the building and the game. Villanova lost to Duquesne in that first game, but the Wildcats ended their Spectrum association with a win over another Pittsburgh school, and it was one they could really use.

Villanova, if it is to come full circle this season, had to find something other than hard-fought losses against good teams, which is what it had garnered previously. Last night's 67-57 win over Pitt, ranked No. 3 in the nation, perfectly filled the order.

It was also a worthy farewell to the college game at the Spectrum. A big crowd jostled through the narrow concourse once again, found its seats in the overheated arena bowl, and enjoyed the old magic and a bit of the old desperation.

"It's a different sound. It's loud in here. It seems like everything is more on top of you," coach Jay Wright said. "It's more of a gym and has that reverberating sound. It brought back memories."

Villanova remembered that it needed a quality win against Big East competition. The Wildcats needed it for their own confidence and also to put a gold star in the marking book kept by the NCAA tournament committee.

It's easy to look at the depth of the league and declare that all eight of the teams that are nationally ranked should be included in the tournament. But you wouldn't want to be one of the teams at the bottom of that bunch when cutdown day arrives.

Wright doesn't make a big deal of that to his players. There's no sense in making these games harder than they are.

"Fans can look at the NCAA tournament, but the players have to look at the next game," Wright said. "If we win this game and then don't play well against Cincinnati, we'll lose that one."

Playing well against Pitt required a willingness to get banged around all night. Pitt took the early physical advantage and ran out to a 10-2 lead before the Wildcats settled into the game and started pushing back. Villanova had just one field goal in its first 10 possessions and began a game-long struggle for offensive rebounds.

The Panthers, like most of the top Big East teams, are more talented in the frontcourt than the Wildcats. Forwards DeJuan Blair and Sam Young can both score and rebound on the inside for Pitt.

What Villanova has to do to beat a team like Pitt is obvious, and it is the formula the Wildcats have used against bigger opponents for several seasons now. They have to force turnovers, harass the opponent into either bad or lengthy shots - and make their own shots.

Villanova fell behind by a quick 10 points when it couldn't implement that formula, and clawed back into the game only when Pitt suffered a stretch of five turnovers in seven positions. Down by five at the half, Villanova started to get the range on the three-point shots it had to make, and the game was even midway through the second half.

Corey Fisher dropped in a three-pointer from the baseline, igniting that familiar old explosion of noise that can't escape the Spectrum and bounces off the walls instead. He followed up with a three-point play on transition, and suddenly the Wildcats had a lead. Not a great one, but a lead.

They nurtured it, protected it, fought to keep it, and were rewarded when Scottie Reynolds sent a long three-point shot through the still night with just over five minutes to play and the ball slid through the net, igniting another rush of noise from the stands. That put Villanova up by seven points, at 55-48, and the upset it needed was finally within reach.

"The reason we wanted to get this is because they're really good and we wanted to prove to ourselves that we could play with those guys," Wright said.

It was just the second loss of the season for Pitt, and the Panthers probably don't have to worry about their own spot in the NCAA tournament.

Not all teams are that lucky. Villanova may have made some of its own tournament luck against the Panthers, but there are too many games left to be sure of that.

In any case, the Wildcats said goodbye last night to a place they won't see again, and hello to the win they've been looking for all season. A fair swap, they would say.