June 15, 2009

The Nova Notebook, by director of media relations Mike Sheridan, returns with a June entry looking forward to a summer film release with a uniquely Villanova flavor.

WEST BERLIN, N.J. - At first glance, this leafy suburban setting of South Jersey would seem a curious place to rekindle the emotions and passion that Villanova's run to the 2009 Final Four stirred. But tucked away in the freshly minted studios of WipeOut Productions, the images of 2008-09 jump off a high-definition screen and ignite the senses.

There is Dante Cunningham, soaring over operations manager Keith Urgo, for a majestic dunk at "Hoops Mania" last October.

Later, it's the calm precision of Reggie Redding's pass to Dwayne Anderson that results in the winning basket of VU's 76-75 win over Marquette in the BIG EAST Tournament at Madison Square Garden.

And, to cap it all off, we see Scottie Reynolds' length of the court drive to beat Pittsburgh in the East Regional Final that catapulted Villanova back to the Final Four for the first time since 1985.

Those are just a few of the elements that have defined the work days of Scott Graham's company over the past three months. Together with photographer Drew Matyas and a staff of filmmakers, Graham has been toiling diligently to craft the official 2009 Villanova Basketball highlight film, a 70-plus minute offering titled "Attitude of a Champion" that will go on sale later this summer.

"We're really excited about this," stated Villanova head coach Jay Wright.

The association between WipeOut and Villanova began in 2008. With the previous contract to produce "Inside Villanova Basketball with Jay Wright" having expired that spring, senior associate athletic director Bob Steitz solicited bids from production companies seeking to deliver the 10 shows that are aired each basketball season. WipeOut was a relatively new endeavor for Graham, a longtime play-by-play broadcaster in the region who also does much voiceover work at NFL Films and came to respect its capacity for visual storytelling over his tenure.

WipeOut was chosen from a strong field of candidates and Graham immediately set about absorbing all he could about the Wildcats. It wasn't a totally foreign concept - as a frequent ESPN play-by-play man, he routinely handled 6-8 `Cat broadcasts a year - but there were nuances to digest.

"Jay and Villanova gave us the full freedom to take what was a successful format and add elements to that," states Graham. "That was important and very much appreciated. Having that relationship with the basketball staff, sports information office, and athletic department really helped us to tell the great stories there are about the people in this program.

"We really learned as we went along. I thought shows 7-10 were clearly ahead of where we were in shows 1-3."

The concept of a film to tell the tale of the season was in the back of Graham's mind almost from the outset. The first original production WipeOut delivered was such a narrative of the 2006-07 Drexel Dragons.

"It was sort of on the backburner in my mind when we started," Graham says. "We kept setting things aside as the year went along that we knew we would want to have in the film if we got that far."

By the time March arrived, the green light was on. Matyas and Graham were credentialed for each of the NCAA Tournament games and were with the Wildcats in Philadelphia, Boston and Detroit.

"The fact we were there," says Graham, "was invaluable. It wasn't so much just the footage from the games, which was important, but being nearby as the coaching staff and team lived this experience."

Those backstage scenes add immensely to the film's texture. The cameras captured so much of the emotion from the weekend in Boston, not only in the stands at TD Banknorth Garden but back at the Westin hotel afterward. Part of that is owed to the skill of Matyas, the man behind the camera lens.

"Drew's got a wonderful eye," notes Graham, "and all of the filming we did over the course of the season really allowed him to refine the look we wanted. I still haven't seen a better view of Scottie's drive against Pitt than the one he shot."

The net result is just over an hour's worth of compelling filmmaking. Those who attended the 2009 Men's Basketball Banquet at the Pavilion in April saw the 18-minute film that offers a snapshot of what this version will include.

"The banquet film was sort of a broad outline of this," explains Graham. "But there is a lot we couldn't do in that film that will be included here. There are individual stories about players in this one. We have the players' reactions to some of the incredible moments and a complete breakdown of Scottie's drive, including reaction from eight of his teammates."

The DVD will be on sale in August. It will debut at an on-campus premiere on a date to be determined. This event will be open to the public and takes the place in 2009 of "Summer Jam", the basketball carnival that has in recent years been held on the first Monday of August at the Pavilion. Further details on the premiere will be available on villanova.com in the coming weeks.

"We couldn't have been any luckier with how things turned out in our first year," states Graham.

NOVA NOTES - Corey Fisher departs this week for the USA World University Games Trials. The junior-to-be will face a strong roster in his efforts to make the roster.

"You just can't measure what that experience does for a player," says Wright. "We saw what it did for Curtis Sumpter, Randy Foye, Allan Ray and Scottie. Playing against the top players in your age bracket under international rules allows a player to really test himself."