Villanova Rolls To National Title

Think its safe to say that Villanova could solidify itself as a national power in College Basketball? Last night's performance in the national championship game could make that argument. They don't have a lineup full of future NBA stars but they have a team built perfectly for the system that Jay Wright has implemented. Nova didn't need to drop 18 3-pointers like they did in the Final Four against Kansas in the Semifinals. They just went out and hit a mixed bag of shots and it was enough to cruise to a 79-62 win over Michigan. Since the end of UCLA’s dynasty in the mid-1970s only three other schools have won two national championships in as short a span, Duke did it in the early 90s and the last being Florida’s back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007.

Going into this game, a lot of people were expecting a big game from junior point guard Jalen Brunson, who just became the seventh Naismith recipient to win that same year’s NCAA tournament. Brunson struggled to find his shot, finishing with 9 points in 28 minutes and then fell into foul trouble. Situations like this always call for a new hero to step his game up. Enter sophomore guard Donte DiVincenzo, who came off the bench to lead all scorers by dropping 31 points, which was good enough to get him named the NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player. DiVincenzo was one of only two Wildcats to reach double digits in points, Mikal Bridges was the other one dropping 19 points. Bridges was the only Nova starter to reaach double digits in scoring. They had bigger games then the three guys from Michigan who hit double digits. Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman lead the way for the Wolverines with 23 points, and he got help from Moritz Wagner, who had 16 and was a flat out beast all tournament long, and Zavier Simpson who dropped 10 points.

What really stood out to me from this game was how well Villanova was able to respond to how slow a start they got off to. After Michigan took its largest lead of the game at 21-14 with 11 minutes left in the first half, Villanova closed the first half by scoring 23 of the next 30 points for a 37-28 halftime lead. The final basket of the extended burst was a 3-pointer from Jalen Brunson 44 seconds before the half. Michigan tried keeping within striking range in the second half, but DiVincenzo got the run rolling with an around-the-back dribble to get to the hoop and get fouled. The shot that really put the nail in the coffin for Michigan was DiVincenzo hitting that three with 7:58 left to put Villanova up 62-44. Its been a good couple of months for the City of Brotherly Love. First, the Eagles win the Super Bowl back in January and now this.

This marks the 3rd National Title for Villanova and in doing so Villanova won all six games by double digits over this tournament run. They joined Michigan State (2000), Duke (2001) and North Carolina (2009) as the only four schools to win every tournament game by double digits. The Michigan loss extended the Big Ten Conference's losing streak in NCAA Championship games to seven. Michigan State is the most recent Big Ten team to win a National Championship, which they won in 2000.