Nova

Like father, like son. Like grandfather. When La Salle High quarterback Brett Gordon, the most prolific touchdown-thrower in state scholastic history, today reveals his college destination in a 2:30 press conference at the school, he is expected to opt, according to a source, for Villanova. The 5-10 1/2, 170-pound Gordon said earlier this week that he was down to 'Nova and Lehigh. At 'Nova, Gordon would attempt to become a third-generation signal-caller. His father, Drew, was a quarterback at 'Nova from 1969 to '71. His grandfather, Andy, played QB at 'Nova from '46 to '48 and in the Canadian Football League.

Junior tailback Jeff Dingle, Villa-nova's leading rusher last season, left the team yesterday for what Wildcats coach Andy Talley called personal reasons. Talley said Dingle, a 5-foot-9, 170-pounder from West Hempstead, N.Y., had come to him late Wednesday afternoon to say he was quitting football. "It was voluntary," Talley said. "We encouraged him to stay. But he had his mind made up. " Talley would not elaborate on why Dingle quit the team. A source close to the situation said that Dingle, whose 868 yards rushing last season ranked third in the Yankee Conference, was displeased about having been demoted to the second team.

Amelia Arnold glared at me, and she had hate in her eyes. Sadly, it's not the first time it looked as if a woman was about to slap me. Here's the background: For the last few days, and ever since Villanova beat Pittsburgh, people all over the region have cooed about the Wildcats making the Final Four. On the streets, on the radio, even in this very paper, I kept hearing and reading about how students and alumni from the other city schools were pledging their support to 'Nova. They talked about how Jay Wright has made it impossible (or at least harder)

The most celebrated passing arm in city-leagues football history is going into mothballs. For the rest of this century. The first thing La Salle High quarterback Brett Gordon did yesterday in a press conference in the school library was announce he had picked Villanova, where his father and grandfather also were QBs, over Lehigh as his college destination. The second thing he did was reveal his first official Wildcat pass will not be thrown until 2000. Gordon said he will wait until January to become a full-time student at 'Nova and will redshirt in 1999.

The wait for Tim Thomas continues. The high school all-American still has not let anyone know where he intends to play basketball next season. Villanova is the favorite to get the 6-foot-10 forward from Paterson (N.J.) Catholic. But a source yesterday said the Wildcats haven't received a letter of intent from Thomas, and that source figures it might be next week before there is any word from him. Publicly and privately, Paterson Catholic coach Jim Salmon, who is Thomas' cousin, has told people that Thomas hasn't decided between 'Nova and Seton Hall.

The Big East Conference has dropped the two-division format used in the last three basketball seasons. The new format will have each member face 10 opponents once each and three others on a home-and-home basis, for a total of 16 conference games. In 2003-04, Villanova will have home-and-home series with Miami, Providence and West Virginia. The Wildcats also will host NCAA tournament participants Connecticut and Notre Dame, plus Rutgers, St. John's and Virginia Tech. The Wildcats will visit NCAA champion Syracuse, Boston College, Georgetown, Pittsburgh and Seton Hall.

It took nearly 40 minutes to prove what seemed obvious from the opening tap. Villanova had more players than Pittsburgh. It had better players than Pittsburgh. It was supposed to win. Finally, after several fits and starts, Villanova won a game it had to win. And gets to play another game it may have to win. After beating Pitt, 65-55, in the opening round of the Big East Tournament last night at Madison Square Garden, 'Nova (19-11) gets St. John's in the late game tonight.

After it was done, Steve Lappas was saying the Rutgers game didn't mean quite as much as everybody was saying it meant. His Villanova players thought differently. They knew. And they played as if they knew. It is now February and every game matters. The Ski Lodge was jammed and everybody saw one of the best games of the season around here. It was high-energy hoops. It was the home team sprinting away by 18 points in the first half. It was the visitors refusing to get blown out and, for a time, looking very much like a team that had enough to win. The Wildcats never trailed.

The Villanova football team will get some international exposure next season when it travels to Milan, Italy, to play Rhode Island in a Yankee Conference game on Oct. 28. The game, arranged through the Italian government and World Tek, the travel agency of the NCAA, will be played at Milan's 20,000-seat Central Stadium with Rhode Island as the home team. It will be the first American college football game played in Italy. "We see this as a fantastic cultural experience for our student- athletes," Villanova coach Andy Talley said.

Antonio Meeking and Gerrod Henderson had 19 points each as Louisiana Tech beat visiting Vanderbilt, 83-68, last night in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament. Tech (22-9) advanced to a game Monday or Tuesday against Villanova. Tech led 41-34 at halftime after shooting 61 percent to 48 percent for Vanderbilt (17-15). Matt Freije's 23 points led Vandy. In another game: At Dayton, Jason Harrell scored 14 points, and Tennessee Tech (26-6) beat the Flyers, 68-59.

ON FRIDAY NIGHT, as Dick Vitale likes to say, Sarasota will become the toast of the sports world, as ESPN's voice of college basketball hosts his seventh annual Gala at the Ritz-Carlton to benefit The V Foundation for Cancer Research.. Celebrities will be all over the place, from John Calipari and Greg Schiano to Ricky Watters and Gary Sheffield. This year's three honorees are Lou Holtz, Gary Williams and, well, some other guy. "Yeah, right," said Villanova coach Jay Wright.

Bob Eilers scored four goals as Syracuse routed Villanova, 15-6, Thursday night in a Big East men's lacrosse semifinal at the Wildcats' Goodreau Field. Jack Rice score twice for Villanova (8-7). Kieran McArdle had three goals in the first game to lead St. John's (8-6) past Notre Dame, 8-7. Wes Hopkins (La Salle) had three goals for the Irish (11-2). St. John's will take on Syracuse (8-7) at noon Sunday for the conference championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Villanova men's lacrosse coach Mike Corrado understands the enormity of the Big East men's lacrosse tournament, one that will determine the Wildcats' postseason fate. Villanova will host the Big East semifinal doubleheader Thursday. Top-seeded Notre Dame (11-1, 6-0 Big East) will meet No. 4 seed St. John's (7-6, 3-3) at 4:30 p.m. Second-seeded Villanova (8-6, 4-2) faces No. 3 Syracuse (7-7, 3-3) at 7 p.m. The championship will be noon on Saturday at Villanova. The Big East tournament winner will earn an automatic NCAA bid. While regular-season champion Notre Dame will probably receive a bid regardless of how it fares, Villanova and Syracuse would likely need to win at least a semifinal matchup.

Villanova second baseman Tyler Sciacca won the Big Five player of the week honor on Monday and La Salle's Pat Christensen was named the pitcher of the week. Christensen (4-2), who got the win in a 12-inning, 2-1 victory at Fordham on Saturday, leads the Atlantic Ten with eight saves. The junior has struck out 44 batters in 331/3 innings while walking six. Widener's Josh Fox (Lower Merion) was named the Commonwealth Conference men's lacrosse player of the week after scoring eight goals in a pair of victories and Mac Nestler was named the league's goalkeeper of the week.

Maalik Wayns received the award as most outstanding player at Villanova's basketball banquet Wednesday night in the Pavilion. Mouphtaou Yarou won the Villanova Basketball Award, presented annually to the player who best embodies the essence of Villanova basketball. The native of Benin led the Wildcats with 8.2 rebounds per game and finished third on the team in scoring at 11.2 points per game while starting all 32 contests. Wayns, a Roman Catholic High grad who will skip his senior season to enter the NBA draft, led the Wildcats in scoring at 17.5 ppg and was named first team all-Philadelphia Big Five.

IN ONLY the third game of Villanova's 2011 football season, true freshman Chris Polony got the call to start at quarterback. Right from the first series, it was clear he wasn't ready. Playing against Monmouth, he fumbled his first snap, threw an interception and completed only two of eight passes for 12 yards. Polony was pulled in the second quarter; the Wildcats lost, 20-9. That was Villanova's third straight loss to start what would be a nightmarish 2-9 season. The Wildcats were an extremely young and inconsistent team, largely because they played three different quarterbacks throughout the year.

Villanova men's lacrosse team (7-4) moved from No. 13 to No. 12 in the weekly U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Division I poll, released Monday, after a pair of wins last week. Sophomore John LoCasio was named the Big East defender of the week. Cabrini (9-2) moved from No. 9 to No. 6 in D-III after a 2-0 week that included a 19-5 win over Centenary. Matt Biegel (West Chester East) had seven points in the win. Temple midfielder Stephanie Markunas (Ridley)

Sources have confirmed Internet rumblings that junior swingman Dominic Cheek could be leaving Villanova early for the NBA draft. The Wildcats are already losing junior lead guard Maalik Wayns, their leading scorer at 17-plus points a game and a second-team all-Big East selection. Neither Cheek nor coach Jay Wright, who was out of town recruiting, could be reached for comment. The 6-foot-6 Cheek averaged 12.5 points in 30 minutes per game, both second-best on a team that finished 13-19 and missed the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2004.

Emily Leer hit a three-pointer with just over a minute to pull Villanova to within one, but Devon Kane missed a layup with 3 seconds left and the Wildcats lost, 48-47, to Colorado in a women's NIT third-round matchup Thursday night at Coors Events Center in Boulder, Colo. Leer finished with 16 points for Villanova (19-15), while Chucky Jeffery scored a game-high 19 for the Buffaloes (21-13). In another NIT game:   Kayla Alexander had 29 points and 10 rebounds to lead visiting Syracuse to a 82-68 victory over Temple in another women's third-round game at McGonigle Hall.

At the time, it was the worst thing that could have happened. These days, maybe not so much. Just before the start of last season, Villanova senior Norman White, considered one of the top wide receivers in the Football Championship Subdivision, suffered a Lisfranc injury to his left foot that forced him to redshirt. An inexperienced Wildcats team, coming off a three-year playoff run that included a national title in 2009 and a trip to the semifinals in 2010, nosedived all the way to 2-9. It's tough to say how much difference White could have made, considering the problems Villanova had finding a replacement for longtime quarterback Chris Whitney.