Tied at 74 with 4.7 seconds remaining against the top seeded North Carolina Tar Heels and needing to go the length of the court, the #2 seed Villanova Wildcats turned to their best players.
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The University of North Carolina is one of the most famous college basketball teams in the United States.
It’s actually a relatively simple screen play, and if you watched North Carolina’s National Semifinal Game against Syracuse, you would’ve seen the Orange constantly running plays like this one against the eventual NCAA runner-up. Confetti flew. The refs looked at the replay to make sure the shot got off in time. Instead, this one belongs to Villanova, a team full of scrappers, grinders and also-rans, who proved you don’t have to have a roster full of NBA-bound one-and-dones to win a title.
Jenkins’s thrilling late victor was the last act of a pulsating final which appeared to be heading to overtime after Tar Heels guard Marcus Paige hit a three-pointer to tie at 74 moments earlier.
On Monday night, he fell just short of an even bigger crown as a sophomore starter for North Carolina. Houston had many players on that team who became professional basketball players.
Wright has been coaching that play for months, even years.
“My daughter was living and dying with every game for the last three weeks, so I was really more excited for her, to be honest with you”, the commentator told USA Today Sports. With final scores of 83-66 (North Carolina over Syracuse) and 95-51 (Villanova over Oklahoma), it looked as if this season in college basketball would go down as one of relatively low significance.
When Arcidiacono passed and Jenkins put the ball in the air, forward Darryl Reynolds said, “It was the longest time the ball was in the air”.
In Monday night’s NCAA national championship game, Villanova point guard Ryan Arcidiacono showed that he was in complete control of his attitude. Britt said he knew when Jenkins stepped into that shot it was going in. “So, that one was no different”, Jenkins said after the game. “When they all followed the ball, I just knew if I got in his line of vision, he would find me”. “I was open, so I was screaming at him”, Jenkins said. “I’m not very good because I can’t change that”.
To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever played in any sort of championship game.
“He’s been doing that his whole career here”, Berry said.
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At the beginning of the 2016 NCAA Tournament, Turner Broadcasting president David Levy claimed the difference between broadcast and cable “is nearly non existent anymore”.
