The house was packed for the Wildcats’ home opener.  There was the occasional burnt orange sprinkled around, but that was an anomaly in a sea of blue.  The game was a victory, but it wasn’t pretty.  Sophmore Maalik Wayns got the start at the point with C-Fish at the 2, Stokes at the 3, Pena at the 4 and Moof at the 5.

The Wildcats came out with some hot shooting, but were matched by a feisty Bucknell team.  They continued to battle though and at  halftime managed to build a 12 point lead.  The second half saw the ‘Nova play excellent defense to make up for a suddenly anemic offense.  The defensive play managed to keep ‘Nova in the game until Wayns, Stokes, and Fisher began to once again rain 3′s on the Bisons again.  This paced them to a 68-52 victory.

Now lets get to the bad stuff.  The 3-point defense was god-awful.  Only the great shooting managed to keep us in  the game.  The interior defense was good and Mouptau Yarou was an absolute force down low.  Offensively he struggled, but battled on defense.  Towards the second part of the second half, the Bisons ran a great motion offense that allowed them to continuously find open shooters in the corner.  It was not a pretty game, but it was the season opener.  With two NIT games and another battle against Lafayette, the Wildcats should be in rare form when they take on the SJU Hawks on December 3rd.

A side note for your enjoyment, SJU by 28 to Western Kentucky.

As Always,

PeteyPete

Welcome to the segment I like to call PMS, featuring the DIBS scale (we’ll go over that in a second)! But first…

There’s a part in the HBO series “How to Make it in America” where the main character’s ex-girlfriend is talking about her current boyfriend and the main character asks what he does/how successful he is.

She says, “Don’t do that,” to which he goes, “What?” She tells him that he’s comparing himself to other people around him and gauging his success (or lack thereof) against theirs. This is largely what I am doing with this column. I do this all the time with everyone around me. It’s like some form of self torture, because you can never measure up to every single person you ever encounter/have known, it’s impossible.

You will always come across someone more successful that you. Now, success can mean totally different things to many different people. To me, it’s simple: it’s that cash you’re pulling in. Your job, or how much money you’ve made (regardless of how you made it), where you’re living, all that. You may think I’m shallow and short-sighted for being so caught up in what people make, but people with money fascinate me. I am obsessed with finding a way to make some decent money some time in my life. What about that kid that just published his book at the age of 12 that went on to become a best seller? Or that other kid that developed some computer program at the age of 11 and made millions selling it to some company, or that kid that makes money playing online poker? The list is endless.

And without further ado, this column’s first entry is everyone’s favorite people from Jersey: The members of the “Jersey Shore.”

(picture of them here, or you can have it at the top, i just think it fits better here because this is the first time they are being mentioned)..

Now, for the DIBS scale, DIBS standing for “Difficulty in becoming successful,” based on a scale of 0-10.

Jersey Shore DIBS score: 0.01/10.
How could you make this any higher? Acquiring your own reality show requires no skill whatsoever, just a little bit of luck. The only minor thing you can say about them is that they were lucky enough to get discovered. There are people in Jersey just like these guys and gals (I mean, probably not as entertaining, for sure) but they are all over the place, not just Jersey. I was going to make their DIBS score an absolute 0, but I have them the .01 because of the “Situation’s” abs. That guy has to put a lot of time in at the gym for that even be a situation. Other than that, all they had to do was get discovered…now all that is required of them is to work at some random ice ceram shop and then go out and drink every night and act like a bunch of assholes. Now, I am not saying they’re not entertaining, they are, but this doesn’t require talent in the slightest.

So, Entertainment Value: 10. DIBS: .01. Now go avoid some grenades and don’t wind up in bed with Snooki…oops, too late.

I’m very happy with where I’m at, thanks for asking! The road to employment was a long and bumpy one for me. For other people I know, it was easier, for others, they’re still looking for a decent job. They may be employed, but not the type of employed they envisioned while in school. I like to hear about where are and how they got there. I am happily and gainfully employed now, but it took a very long time to get there.

So let’s start at the beginning:

Graduating from Nova in ’09, I frantically looked for jobs on monster.com, careerbuilder, craigslist, NCAA job boards, Experience (the Villanova job search engine), indeed.com…I looked everywhere! My mother scoured the Classified like a fiend, she didn’t understand why all the jobs have to be found on the internet nowadays. When I wasn’t searching for jobs, I worked at VIllanova’s basketball camps. Decent money, but this was no career–camps only happen over the summer. Basketball camp season quickly drew to a close, and finding a job became a full time job–> (It has to be a full time job if you want to find something). Some people stay at it for about 8 hours a day, keeping multiple search engines open and constantly refreshing their emails to see if that one recruiter got back to them about their application. I only spent about 3-4 hours a day, because I figured once I got all my resumes out for that day, there’s not much more I can do. But there is always something you can do. I admit, I could have been much more proactive about finding a job, but it was exhausting.

Note: You need get involved in as much as you can and do as much as you can while you’re in school. Employers love to see all the activities you were involved with. They like to see that you were actually participating in things rather than in your dorm looking at every one’s Facebook profiles all night. Do an internship during the summer, or even during the school year. Just do something. The problem with my resume was my lack of experience in anything. All my work experience consisted of was basketball camps or the equipment room at Villanova, and I was applying to jobs in the editorial and communication fields. Do something that is relevant to what you think you want to do with your life.

In October, after two months of being without a job, I caught a little bit of a break when this lady from AmeriCorps called me up. I had applied to many different AmeriCorps opportunities but not very many got back to me, one of the ones that did I completely blew the interview (phone interviews suck!). So, this lady calls and tells me to come interview at this K-8 school in Philly. So I go, and I get the job on the spot. Problem is, it was only a 10 hours/week type job (I worked a little more than that, but still), and I got paid by a minimal monthly stipend.

Around the same time, I had interviewed at this school in Bryn Mawr for a JV basketball coaching job. That same day I was driving up for the interview at AmeriCorps I got a call from the Athletic Director saying I had the coaching job.

I went from having no job to two jobs. It was exciting for me, for a little.

After the basketball season wound down I quickly got frustrated with the AmeriCorps job because I wasn’t being paid that much at all. I was just ready to move on to the next stage of my life. I finished up my hours in May 2010 and then I went back on the grind. I thought that my resume was much better off now with an impressive thing like AmeriCorps on it, but I still was coming up short in my job search.

One of my dad’s coworkers saw an opportunity at a sports website and gave me the guy’s email address. It was an internship for sportswriters. I was discouraged that it was just an internship, but still, it would’ve been something. I thought I did a fantastic job at the interview. Writing is one of my passions and becoming a sportswriter (albeit an Intern) would’ve been a dream. While I anxiously awaited his call throughout that week, I got a call from this headhunter guy asking me if I wanted to interview at this company that had an opening.

To backtrack: I had set up my own website where I was writing fiction, and since I had a writing background, I set up a resume strictly geared towards my writing interest. I had the website, my senior thesis, and my writing experience at the Villanovan to speak of. I put the resume up on Monster and made it live, so anyone could see it. This headhunter had seen this resume and figured I was good for this job.

Anyway, I interviewed the next day, and I thought I did pretty well. I got a call that same day from the website saying that the guy thought I did really well in my interview, but I didn’t get the job. I was bummed, but something about that interview felt great. Two days later I got a call saying I got the job.

Ain’t it funny how stuff works out sometimes? I had spent all this time searching all over the place for a job and a headhunter calls to say he got me an interview at a really amazing company! Awesome!

It’s different for everybody, just don’t get too discouraged. All you need is one person to say yes. And then you live happily ever after for 8 hours a day in a cubicle.

So on Friday October 22, 2010, the Villanova Basketball season got off to a “Fabolous” start.  First up in an evening jam-packed and full of goodies, we had a Dancing with the Stars competition.  Now since we aren’t some second tier school like Georgetown or ‘Cuse, we had the competition as a challenge from ESPN’s own Erin Andrews.  Let me just say that from that moment I knew the night was gonna be good.

The players pull up in Maserati’s and you know we aren’t messing around this year.  They partnered with the Villanova Dance Team.  The judges were Harold Jensen, Gina Procaccio, and Fr. Rob Hagan.  Based on their somewhat questionable judging Russel Wooten won the award.  Now don’t get me wrong Woot did good, but how did he beat out my boy Mouph?  He had a perfect 10 performance in my expert opinion.

The next part of the evening was the Blue and White scrimmage.  Let me be point blank and state that both teams played like crap, but Freshman Jayvaughn Pinkston shows great promise and let me tell you right now keep an eye on that kid.  The next best performer I felt was tie between Wayns and Sutton.  Wayns showed some great cuts and I think the Big East should be prepared to see him light it up this year.  There is going to be more awards for this kid in the future.  Sutton looks to have picked up where he left off last year, that is blocking shots.  That frontcourt lacks depth, but the Starting 5 shows great promise.  The missed shots and sloppy play needs to be fixed before the season starts.  That’s exactly why you schedule the University of the District of Columbia.  Maybe C-Fish can get it together and score another 105.

Now the highlight of the evening…

Welcome to Villanova Fabolous.  He was on fire and really got the crowd going.  After suffering through Trey Songz last year, I am glad to say I did not feel like cutting off my ears this year.  My hat goes off to whoever decided to bring him here and who the hell started that ridiculous Young Jeezy rumor?

I’m looking forward to the start of the season.  Like I said the scrimmage left much to be desired, but I am confident that the team can get it together.  I make my Preseason prediction now.  This team is making the Sweet Sixteen, but don’t rule out a 2009 run.

Til the next time stay White & Blue

Yours Truly,

PeteyPete

…about graduating from Villanova: Once you throw those caps in the air, it’s over. You’re now an alumni. No longer will you have the confines of the Main Line Campus comforting you. You can no longer retreat to Connelly Center for late night food, drink the night away in the Quad or other (fill in the blank) spot; the trips to Philly, to AC, to NY; the formals, the baskeball games, the football games, “V for Villanova,” South, Main, West, Davis Center, Pavilion, all night study sessions in the cafe in Bartley or in one of the classrooms, holding fundraisers at the Oreo, meeting up at the Oreo, making out at the Oreo (err, maybe there hasn’t been too many people that do that, but I hear it’s a nice memory), Second Storey, Main Line Bars, happy hour at Brownies, Ballin’ at the tennis courts or Nvein or on the main floor of the Pavilion where the guys play, NovaFEST, staying up all night just shooting the shit with your roomies and friends, waking up hungover in that bush outside of Stanford, the Spit, the Pit, the frats, the sororities, walking up to the fourth floor of Tolentine…and I could go on, but you get the point: It’s all gone. That’s all she wrote. You’re now onto the next phase of your life. Even if you’re headed to grad school, it doesn’t matter, your tenure here is over. Now, if you haven’t found one already, have to find a job–one of the hardest things you will ever do in your life.

Now, I know I’m not writing any new groundbreaking/earth-shattering material here, but that Villanova bubble is now burst. Villanova can only protect you for so long. Now, I will write in another column that the real world is not all that bad once you get going…but in the beginning, it’s hell, especially for the ones that can’t find work right away. Here are some unofficial stats I made up for where in the world you will end up when you graduate:

Home: 40%

NY: 25%

Manyunk:15%

Hoboken: 8.5%

Chicago or some other random major city (That aren’t as major as NY): 3%

Overseas: 2%

Connecticut: 1%

In a van down by the river: .5%

Again, these are just my numbers. No research has been done. And I may have overshot the home estimation. Maybe you’re lucky and you will have the ability to move out right away. But there have been articles written recently about how we are being dubbed the “Boomerang Generation,” because many students that graduate have to go back home for a little bit. There’s no shame in it. I used to think I would be very disappointed in myself if I were still living at home, but there’s nothing wrong with saving money. At first, I had to live at home because I couldn’t find a job yet, but now, I still live at home because my job is so close. It’s really convenient. There’s a lot of stuff to consider when you have to fend for yourself. Food, Cable, Internet , Rent, Phone bill, Going Out? That shit adds up. So don’t be discouraged if you find yourself back at home, because it’s not so bad. Save that money as long as you want.

And, hey, if you get that job that allows you to move away from home and pay for that 2500 dollar/month tiny apartment in the Lower East Side, good for you! More of the power to you. It’s just not a reality for everybody.

I will be writing for this blog frequently, I welcome any questions people may have regarding life after Villanova. I will be happy to do email response type posts, that would be fun.

Sure, a little part of me died when I threw that cap up in the air, but hey, at least I got some pretty decent memories. I’ll always have that…And Homecoming.