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Villanova Wildcats Secure Second National Title In Three Years

The Villanova Wildcats’ run to the 2018 NCAA men’s basketball championship was hardly ever in question. Jay Wright’s squad trailed for just 29 collective minutes throughout the entire tournament and capped things off with a 79-62 downing of the Michigan Wolverines.

In a year that was dominated early by the talk of upsets, Villanova, who had been to the top-ranked team for eight weeks in the AP Poll, settled for the ultimate one shining moment. The Wildcats become the first team since 2009 to win every single tournament game, en route to a championship, by 10 points or more.

For 10 minutes of the title game, however, Michigan threw the world at the Wildcats. The Wolverines were closing out, the three-point shots weren’t falling, Moritz Wagner collected 11 points in five minutes, and for a glimpse of this game, it looked like Villanova’s run of domination would come to an unceremonious end.

The Wildcats would go on a 23-7 run over the next 10 minutes to go into the break up 37-28. That lead would shrink to no fewer than seven (which came in the early moments) in the second half as the shots began to fall and Villanova found the defensive edge to eliminate Wagner’s impact and shut down the scoring lanes.

The knight in shining armor and spark that ignited in the cavern with dwindling oxygen wasn’t Naismith Player of the Year Jalen Brunson but Donte DiVincenzo off the bench. He was the lone shooter to find the stroke from deep early and was a factor defensively as he brought a dash of life to a lineup that took a punch to the face early and didn’t look like they’d recover. Even late, as Brunson dealt with foul trouble, DiVincenzo excelled and put the weight of his team on his shoulders, finishing the day with 31 points (the most points off the bench in a championship game since 1990), two blocks, three assists, and five rebounds. It’s got to be somewhat fitting for a team that usually had multiple double-digit scorers through this tournament to get saved by a player off the bench… granted DiVincenzo was the third-leading scorer this season.

For that heroic effort, DiVincenzo was named the national championship most outstanding player.

And while Brunson took home plenty of personal accolades, standing on the podium as the Alamodome was raining blue and white confetti, he said none of that mattered compared to winning it. He added just nine points and two assists, but was the leader on the court that kept his team together, just as he had all year.

What was normally a pair of rosters that saw balanced scoring attacks devolved into a battle of the pairs as each side had major scoring weight boil down to just two players. Michigan had Moritz Wagner (16) and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman (23) combine for 39 while Villanova saw DiVincenzo (31) and Mikal Bridges (19) rack up a combined 50 of 79.

While the Wildcats’ top scoring offense found their scoring edge in the second, finishing 47.4% from the field and 37% from deep, it was the defense that had them hanging around after the opening quarter of play. Shutting down Wagner was priority number one, and after that was accomplished, the Wildcats pushed the Wolverines to the perimeter -where they finished just three-of-23- and broken isolation plays. Omari Spellman and Erich Paschall played big and caused havoc in the paint, regularly contesting shots, and the prolific guard play sealed the border.

The title drought remains for the Big Ten as the conference has now been runner-up sevens times since the conference last won a title in 2000 (Michigan State).

Meanwhile, the city of Philadelphia continues their spectacular sports year of champions. Just two months after Philadelphia Eagles hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, they’ll be queueing in the streets for yet another victory parade. On deck, the Flyers and 76ers, who are each headed to their respective playoffs, and a young Phillies team that hopes to make some noise.

Jay Wright has turned Villanova into quite the powerhouse, collecting two national titles in three years, and while he’ll likely lose a few of these players to the draft, a handful will return in conjunction with the nation’s 12th-best recruiting class. Get used to seeing this team late in March.

Tyler Arnold

I am the editor-in-chief of The Runner Sports. I watch more sports than is probably determined healthy and enjoy talking about them all. I am a firm believer in there being a "dropped peanut surcharge" at the ballpark when it's a good throw. Thanks for the read.

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