Jan. 9, 2004
The Nova Notebook by Villanova director of media relations Mike Sheridan resumes its regular Friday rotation this week after the holidays. Today the focus is on freshman point guard Mike Nardi.
To say that this particular item stands out in the well-appointed Villanova locker room is an understatement. For alongside the leather sofa, flat-screen video monitor and oak lockers, a weather-beaten green bicycle looks a tad out of place.
But there it rests, on a wall near the corner locker of its owner, freshman guard Mike Nardi.
"It just gets me around campus," says Nardi, the native of Linden, N.J., who has started each of Villanova's first 12 games in 2003-04 at point guard. "It beats walking, especially when it is as cold as it has been lately."
To suggest that the no-frills mountain bike offers a metaphor for Nardi's game would be inaccurate. Anyone who has seen the 2003 New Jersey Prep Player of the Year thread the needle on a pass into traffic knows that this rookie has plenty of style to accompany skill.
Yet there is a clear parallel here. The bike is a tool that helps Nardi reduce the amount of time it takes him to go from one campus stop to another.
Now Villanova fans must hope that Nardi's basketball savvy and skill can do the same and expedite his young team's arrival as a Big East Conference contender. It is much to ask of a basketball novice but then Nardi is used to being leaned upon.
"You keep hearing about us being a young team," states Nardi, who averages 11.2 points per game and leads the club with 4.8 assists per outing. "But the way I look at it is that when we get out there on the floor, each team has five guys. It is up to us to play hard and execute. If we do that, good things will happen."
Nardi's introduction to college basketball has been intense by any standard. With the 'Cats confronting a shortage of scholarship bodies owed to suspensions from last spring's telephone access code incident, Nardi averaged more than 38 minutes per game as the club played five games in six days across five time zones in November. That the Wildcats returned to the Main Line with three wins says much about Nardi's leadership tools.
In December, Nardi was a key contributor as Villanova swept all five of its games in the month to improve to 8-2. It was not lost on observers that his best outing - a 20 point game against Pennsylvania - followed his worst - a two point effort against La Salle on Dec. 6.
Now Nardi must help his young mates confront a fresh batch of adversity in the form of a two-game losing streak (at Kansas and against Memphis at the Wachovia Center).
"Sometimes you are going to run into a couple of obstacles," says Nardi. "For me, I try to keep the spirits of my teammates up. We've practiced real hard the last few days and have stayed together."
The contest on Jan. 10 against Notre Dame also represents new territory for Nardi. It will mark his first Big East Conference action as a collegian and it's an event he has pondered for some time.
"The Big East and ACC were the conferences that I watched growing up," Nardi states. "I'm excited about starting the Big East season."
Nardi's numbers in his debut effort this season have remained steady. His scoring average has hovered in double figures throughout the campaign (it is presently 11.2 ppg). The product of St. Patrick's Elizabeth (N.J.) High School is connecting on .362 of his 3-point field goal attempts and .833 of his free throw attempts. Only Allan Ray (425) has logged more minutes this year among the Wildcats.
"Being a freshman, I knew there would be ups and downs," says Nardi. "I knew there would be adjustments to make at this level but I think I've done pretty well with them, for the most part."
One area that Wright has addressed with his point guard is Nardi's tendency to get down on himself when he does make a mistake on the court. Early in the season it was not uncommon to see Nardi shake his head in disgust at his own error. Lately, he has been working to be less critical of himself during the heat of action.
"I've always been that way," notes Nardi. "I can be very hard on myself and that's something I'm trying to get past. You don't want to express your emotions on the court like that. If my head goes down, my teammates see that and the opponents see that.
"Fortunately I get a lot of support from my family, the coaching staff and my teammates. Knowing they respect my game is a big help."
Of course, coping with defeat still takes effort. On the chartered flight back to Philadelphia from Kansas in the wee hours of the morning, Nardi appeared restless. As he munched on a boxed lunch and listened to his headphones one could almost see him re-playing the evening's game in his mind.
In fact, the only time his eyes perked up in the nearly 3-hour journey came when he spied assistant coach Brett Gunning studying a replay of the game on his computer.
The upcoming challenges should be formidable. They begin with Nardi lining up across from Notre Dame All-American candidate Chris Thomas at the Wachovia Center. Later will come encounters with Seton Hall's Andre Barrett and Saint Joseph's Jameer Nelson, among other members of the backcourt elite.
"Right now, I think we're in a pretty good spot," Nardi states. "We're young and we did not play well against Memphis. But we've gone over what happened in practice these last few days and I think we've learned from that."
On the whole, Nardi pronounces himself well pleased now that the first of his eight college semesters is complete.
"My classes were great and I really liked the professors," he says. "I have met a lot of nice people at Villanova and my roommate (Will Sheridan) and I get along very well.
"The transition has been smooth."
It would be easy to say that Nardi is off and running.
But it would be more appropriate to say he is making steady progress pedaling up the slope known as freshman year.
NOTES
The next "Villanova Sports Page with Jay Wright" radio show is scheduled for Monday night, Jan. 12 at Gullifty's Restaurant. The show runs from 7-8:00 p.m.
