VU at the JW

So I'm walking through the JW Marriott in downtown Washington, DC Sunday night when I notice their schedule of the day's events includes a "late night snack" from 10-11pm for the Villanova Men's Basketball team.

On Monday night, the team was to play the arch-rival Georgetown Hoyas (and wound up losing on a terrible ticky tack foul 70 feet from the basket with, literally, 0.1 seconds to play. That foul might cost the school an NCAA berth. Oddly, it was the second time this season 'Nova was called for a game-losing foul with under 0.2 seconds to go in the game.

Anyway, what I found so interesting about this sign was the fact that although Villanova and Georgetown are only about 2 1/2 hours away by car, the team came into town a day early and missed a day of classes.

I find this really interesting. Clearly it is a sign of the big-time status of college basketball that major Division I teams can stay overnight at 3 star DC hotels for what is in reality - or should be - a day trip.

I'm not suggesting that Villanova not come down early for the game. But if they left St. David's at eleven, they would arrive in DC by 2pm, 2:30 at the absolute latest. This would still give them 4 - 4 1/2 hours before the game to stretch out, have a shoot around a day, nap and eat. And let's not forget, they're college kids: 18-21. Surely they can bounce back after a two and half hour road trip. This is worse than sitting around a downtown DC hotel all day?