He firmly tied the net around the back of his new regional championship cap and flipped it onto his head backwards.
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By the end, Villanova had assisted on 12 of its Final Four-record 18 3-pointers, and finished the game with 20 assists on 36 baskets.
Brunson and Matthews are contending for the same trophy again – the NCAA national championship.
The Final Four is college basketball’s greatest spectacle. They torched them instead.
The Wildcats nailed 13 of 26 attempts (52 percent) from the three-point line in the first half. The record once held by VCU’s 2007 team (442) now stands at 472.
Unlike previous Villanova squads, it can play with five shooters on the floor and still have good size, with a starting frontcourt that goes 6-7, 6-9 and 6-9. “And we haven’t played a top-tier team in a while. This is definitely our best”.
A few minutes later, Villanova led Kansas 22-4. It’s historically efficient, scoring an NCAA-best 1.28 points per possession.
Seven different players made three pointers in the first half.
Chasing its second national championship in three years, Villanova (35-4) has made a Division I-record 454 shots from beyond the arc this season, 19 in two games.
Instead, it was Eric Pascall stepping up to take a leading role. And when he started this season it was unbelievable.
Wagner, a 6-foot-11 junior, was only the third player to score 20-plus points with 15-plus rebounds in a national semifinal game, joining Larry Bird in 1979 and Hakeem Olajuwon in 1983.
His journey to Philadelphia was roundabout.
For the 25th time this season, Devonté Graham exited the court having played all but 1 minute of regulation. He couldn’t make a shot. But even if you (lose) by one point it will still hurt.
Sure enough, Brunson got his buckets.
Wagner scored eight more points down the stretch and wound up with 24 points and 15 rebounds on 10-of-16 shooting. The Wildcats have star power with Jalen Brunson and plenty of National Basketball Association talent, and share the ball as well as anyone.
“That was just one of those nights, man”, Villanova head coach Jay Wright said. Our challenge has been that we were so good offensively earlier in the year that we got lazy defensively.
Only about 3 percent of brackets filled out on Yahoo and ESPN platforms selected MI as a title victor, while Villanova was the most popular champion on Yahoo and just behind Virginia as the most likely pick for champion before the tournament began.
MI and Villanova will tip off at 9:20 p.m. ET on Monday night from the Alamodome in San Antonio. “We want them to enjoy the college experience and then we hope that after one year of enjoying the college experience they have a really hard decision to make that the National Basketball Association wants you but you really enjoy college”.
For a team that was barely on the bubble before winning the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, the Ramblers represented themselves more than admirably in the NCAA Tournament.
“A lot of people might have even thought we weren’t even going to win [the Loyola-Chicago] game”. The Wolverines have won one title game in 1989 and this will be their sixth appearance in the title game with the last coming in 2013.
For years, MI was known for its offenses. MI is in its seventh national title game. They’ll also have quite a bit of experience on their side, as three of their starters were a part of that 2016 team.
MI will face a team seeded higher than its seeding for the first time in the tournament.
Monday, that tough-nosed defense will face a juggernaut on offense, creating a strength vs. strength matchup.
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So who will win?
