BROOKLYN– When the final buzzer sounded at the end of Villanova’s impressive 87-68 NCAA second-round victory over Iowa here Sunday and the PA man at the Barclays Center announced the second seeded Wildcats were going to the Sweet 16, the first thing Ryan Arcidiacono did was breathe a sigh of relief.

Then, the Cats’ 6-3 senior- guard found his coach Jay Wright and gave him a long, extended hug.

Arcidiacono had waited four years for this moment.

Villanova, which had dominated the new Big East all basketball league for all three years of its existence, finally broke through the glass ceiling that has been seemingly impenetrable for the past six years to advance to the second week of the tournament. The Cats will meet third-seeded Miami in the South Region semi-finals Thursday at the Yum Center in Louisville.

“It’s definitely a sigh of relief,” Arcidiacono admitted. “I just think we’re finally done answering questions about getting past the second game. I think the biggest thing is I don’t have to answer any questions about getting past the second game. It was always in the back of our minds. We definitely can go all the way if we just stick to what we do.”

What Villanova did against Iowa was run a clinic at both ends of the court. Junior forward Josh Hart scored 19 points for the Cats and Arcidiacono, who has played in 140 games at the school, had 16, points, 4 assists and no turnovers in 29 minutes. Junior Kris Jenkins added 15 for Villanova (31-5), which shot a sizzling 59.3 percent and made 10 threes, lifted a curse that had haunted this program since its Final Four run in 2009. The Cats, playing their best first half in March madness since the 2009 East regional semifinals against Duke, shot 60.6 percent and made 7 for 12 three pointers, limiting Iowa’s 6-9 star forward Jarrod Uthoff to just five points to take a commanding 54-29 lead.

They cruised from there.

“When I shook hands with (Iowa coach) Fran (McCaffrey) I just said, ‘Hey, I’m sorry,”’ Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “We haven’t played a first half like that in a long time. We played a game against Xavier earlier at home that we played like that (a 91-62 victory over the second-seeded Muskies) and we’ve been on the other side of this. When you just have a team that comes out and makes shots, makes every play defensively, it’s tough to get back in it.”

This was the type of signature win the new Big East desperately needed as it tries again to establish national street credibility. This all basketball league has been in existence for three years and is still looking for its first Final Four team.The closest they have come was last year when Xavier advanced to the Sweet 16 before losing to Arizona, 68-60, in the West Region.

Both Big East regular season champion Villanova and conference tournament champion Xavier merited two seeds this season but they likely will have to get by Kansas and North Carolina– the two best teams left in the bracket– in a regional final to advance to Houston.

Wright can think about that tomorrow.

For now, he deserves to celebrate his team’s most complete performance of the season.

The victory was particularly meaningful to Arcidiacono, who played his high school basketball at Neshaminy High just outside the city limits of Philadelphia, is the biggest local star to play for Villanova since Kyle Lowrey, the NBA Toronto Raptors All Star, in 2006.

He and Jay Wright have always had a special relationship. “It’s a great relationship,” Arcidiacono said. “Ever since day one, I think we’ve had trust in each other and he trusted me as a freshman and throughout my career. I try to think of myself as him on the floor because he tells me, if he was to play and when he played, that’s how he wanted a player to play.

“So I take pride in wearing this jersey at Villanova.”

As Arcidiacono was speaking, Jenkins whispered into Arcidiacono’s ear: “You’re his son.”
“I can’t say that,” Arcidiacono said.

The two both could be clones, though.

“The guys on our team call him my son,” Wright admitted. “We’re both are from in Bucks County. Our high schools are right next to each other, irvals. He is, you know, if you grow up in Indiana, you aspire to play for Indiana. But if you’re from the Northeast, there’s so many schools around you. Both his parents went to Villanova. His mother was on my wife’s freshman hall. The kids grew up watching Villanova basketball. Him putting on a Villanova jersey is like a kid at Alabama putting on an Alabama football jersey. He just lives it.

“I really don’t talk to him that much. It’s amazing He is me. He takes care of everything. I really do worry about not having him here next year because I’m going to work a lot harder because everything he does is what I do. Everything he thinks about is what I thin about.

“So I really never meet with him. And it really allows me to coach the other guys because my best player, I don’t really have to spend time with. We know exactly how we think We’re right– his parents grew up where my parents grew up ij northeast Philly.

“It’s just been a thrill to have him. I really want to cherish every moment we have him.”
Arcidiacono chose Villanova over Florida primarily because he father played football for the Cats. He was Big East co-Player of the Year as a junior and, along with 6-11 center Daniel Ochefu, a member of the winningest senior class in school history.

He doesn’t want this suddenly special season to end.