Villanova Basketball: Wildcats had look of championship team vs Kansas
Villanova basketball is headed back to the national championship game, and if their performance against Kansas was any indication, the Wildcats could be looking at a second title in three years.
The Wildcats looked like a team on a mission in their Final Four win over the Kansas Jayhawks. It’s not that this Villanova basketball team hasn’t looked good all season, but they had the look and feel of a championship team in their dismantling of Kansas.
There are times you just get a feeling about a team, and Villanova basketball fans should be feeling pretty confident about the Wildcats right now. Kansas was clearly one of the best four teams in the tournament, and Nova came out of the locker room with the “destroy everything” mindset of Ivan Drago, jumping out to a 22-4 lead and never looking back.
Villanova was playing on a whole other level, and team leader Eric Paschall, with his 10-of-11 night from the field (including 4-of-5 from downtown) looked NBA-ready against a team who had been shutting down big men all March long.
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It wasn’t just Pascall wreaking havoc against the Jayhawks either. All five Villanova starters ended up scoring in double figures, as did sixth man Donte DiVincenzo. The 20 overall team assists showed just how generous the Cats were with each other on the court.
The game was truly something to behold.
This doesn’t mean the Wildcats will be able to step on the court and brush Michigan aside with ease on the way to picking up their rings, but it should give the Wolverines reason for concern. No matter what Kansas did on defense — zone or man-to-man — the Wildcats were able to dictate the game.
Will it continue to rain threes against Michigan? Why not?
With 18 threes made against Kansas, Villanova broke the record for three-point shots made in a Final Four game, and set an NCAA record for successful three-point attempts in a season en route to their 454 treys in 2017-18. The barrage of buckets from way downtown was so ferocious, it apparently sent the Alamodome scoreboard into spasms.
Villanova has shot the lights out. Literally. The scoreboards at the Alamodome are no longer working.
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) April 1, 2018
Michigan — a team who has leaned heavily on defense and banging bodies in the paint this season — may be the most physical matchup the Wildcats have seen in some time, but it’s tough to really muscle-up on defense if buckets are falling from beyond the arc. While the Wolverines did hold Loyola-Chicago to just a single three-point FG, the Ramblers didn’t have the snipers Villanova does.
Villanova simply has that look. They look confident, prepared, and unphased by anything positive or negative said about them by the press. Jay Wright has this team looking like champions.
Next: 5 Takeaways From Villanova Win Over Kansas
In 2016, Villanova was a mild surprise coming out of the tournament to win it all after being bumped out in the Round of 32 during the two previous seasons. But expectations were high for this Villanova basketball team, and after taking Kansas to the woodshed, another championship should be no surprise at all.