PHILADELPHIA– It’s hard to believe it’s been 31 years since Villanova made that magical Cinderella run to its only national championship.
But it didn’t take long for Wildcat fans in the sellout crowd of 19,422 at the KFC Yum! Center to start putting on newly minted blue and white T-shirts that proclaimed, “Party Like It’s 1985” after second-seeded ‘Nova defeated top-seeded Kansas, 64-59, in Louisville Saturday to win the NCAA South Region and advance to the Final Four. And it didn’t take long for the party to begin.
This was a special moment for the Main Line Cats, who seem destined to be remembered as one of this university’s most beloved teams.
Wildcats’ coach Jay Wright showed up at the post-game press conference without his suit jacket and a towel draped around his neck. The Wildcats, who last went to the Final Four in 2009, celebrated their biggest win in six years by soaking their coach with cold bottles of water as he entered the locker room. “They got me. They got me really bad in the locker room,” Wright admitted. “It was reminiscent of the Big East Tournament last year. But I wear it as a badge of honor.
“You know when you’re a parent, you think your kids are the greatest and then when you see them live that out and become great, it just makes your heart swell. Even if they had lost, you still think they’re great, but you can see they’ve proved to everyone else they’re great and I’m so proud of them and happy for them.”
There is great affection between Wright and his players.
This is a truly unselfish team in every sense of the word, built on the back of senior guard Ryan Arcidiacono, who epitomizes the personality of this team. “I don’t care if I score zero points as long as we win,” he said.
The Wildcats put four players in double figures against Kansas. Arcidiacono, guard Josh Hart and forward Kris Jenkins each scored 13 points for the Cats (33-5), who became the first team from the new Big East to advance to a Final Four. On a night when Villanova, which torched the nets in the tournament’s first three games, barely shot 40 percent and made just 4-of-18 three point attempts, the Cats found a way to survive and advance to a meeting with Oklahoma in the national semi-finals Saturday in Houston with great defense in key stretches and poise under pressure.
“It was a tough situation. We weren’t making shots, but we thrive on that,” Hart said. “We buckle down and play defense and let the offense take care of itself. We make it ugly, take charges, do all the little things and we knew we’d be in the game.”
They didn’t know they would win it until the final moments.
Unlike the sainted 1985 Villanova team, which played six perfect games and upset top-ranked Georgetown and Patrick Ewing, 66-64, in the national championship game, this year’s team does not have any All Americans or lock first round NBA draft picks like Ed Pinckney or Harold Pressley in the starting lineup. They are not as talented as Wright’s 2006 Villanova team, which advanced to an Elite Eight before losing to eventual national champion Florida with All American guard Randy Foye and future NBA All Star guard Kyle Lowrey. And they are not quite as good defensively as the 2009, which smothered both UCLA and Duke during its Final Four run.
But Wright has become one of the best coaches in the country since then and these Cats had sharp enough claws to take Kansas out of its comfort zone, turning the Jayhawks into a desperate team after they went on a 10-0 run to take a 50-45 lead on a three point jump shot by junior guard Josh Hart with 7:59 to play. Villanova slowed high scoring Kansas down with three quarter court pressure and a suffocating mix of man-to-man and zone to cut off the court, limiting Jayhawks’ 6-8 senior star Perry Ellis to just four points and forcing the Jayhawks into 16 turnovers, 10 in the first half.
“We wanted to make it a street fight,” said Arciadiacono, who celebrated his 22nd birthday in style. “We wanted to make it an ugly game. . . The backbone of our program is defend and play hard.”
The Cats came up huge with the game on the line. Villanova made 18 of 19 free throws, including eight straight in the final 33 seconds
After Kansas point guard Frank Mason scored on a driving layup to cut Nova’s lead to 60-59 with 17 seconds, Jenkins, the Region’s Most Outstanding Player, calmly drained two free throws with 13.3 seconds remaining and freshman guard Jalen Brunson buried two more after promising freshman forward Mikal Bridges picked off a pass from Mason with four seconds to play to seal the deal.
“I think the basket shrunk a little bit for us, and certainly they probably got some confidence the way they were defending us,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “But it came down to them making free throws, and it came down to a couple of loose balls and that was the difference in the outcome.”
Villanova may have actually caught a break when they lost the Big East Tournament final and and were sent to Louisville instead of remaining in the East Regional in Philadelphia because they matched up better against top-ranked Kansas– the top seed overall in the tournament– then North Carolina and both Virginia and Oklahoma, which both beat the Cats during the regular season.
The Cats will have their hands full when they when they take on Oklahoma, a Big 12 team that trashed them, 78-55, earlier this year in a special Dec. 7 game at Pearl Harbor. They will have to deal with guard Buddy Hield, everybody’s national Player of the Year, who went off for 37 points and eight threes Saturday as the Sooners clubbed to-seeded Oregon, 80-68, in the West Region finals in Anaheim.
“Every guy on this team is willing to do whatever it takes to win, man,” Jenkins said. “Everybody on this team sacrifices. But we’re not satisifed. We’re looking forward to our next game in Houston. This is definitely a special feeling but like I said before, we’re not satisfied.”
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Dick Weiss is a sportswriter and columnist who has covered college football and college and professional basketball for the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Daily News. He has received the Curt Gowdy Award from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and is a member of the national Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He has also co-written several books with Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Dick Vitale and authored a tribute book on Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
