(03-21-2018 11:54 AM)Tribe2011 Wrote: The difference between Villanova basketball and WM basketball is just a BIT more significant than we’re making it out to be. Villanova has nearly 100 years of distinguished basketball history, and as part of the Big Five in Philly was essentially a major program that “mattered” nationally right from the start. They have multiple national titles, and had built in advantages from the beginning that WM has never had. I agree the comparison of the two school’s is similar, but that’s not a history and prestige gap that we are going to close in the coming decades, no matter how good we get.
No question but that this is a valid point.
However :-)
Penn, LaSalle, Temple, St. Joe's and Nova all have the same starting point, the same history, etc. ... yet, they are not all at the same place currently ... far from it.
Despite having the iconic Palestra as its home, Penn has voluntarily ceded the higher ground (it used to be Penn and Princeton every year with both schools being able to slay bigger schools) to Harvard.
LaSalle has really struggled and has no football.
St. Joe's has more success than LaSalle, but also has no football.
Temple is Temple. They're really trying, but in some respects, W&M has more advantages than Temple.
My point? Nova has parleyed Philly / Big Five to its advantage in a massive way. The other four Big Five schools, for various reasons, have not.
The Tribe has its own advantages which it has not, IMO, parleyed into greater success.
Finally, W&M and Nova have football and hoops. That is important to remember. That is a factor. Nova has done well in both. We need to do better, especially in hoops. It can be done ... if there is a will to do it.
It won't be done in a year, or five years, or ten years ... but the last five years have been a good start.