The two talked after recent NCAA tournament games.
Advertisement
On its own, Kris Jenkins’ 3-point shot to win the national championship for Villanova wasn’t all that out of the ordinary.
‘It was a great game because it wasn’t like north Carolina gave it away, you know. To this day, Whittenburg swears it was a pass and not an airball but that doesn’t matter, the Wolfpack won the game.
Jenkins was probably headed to overtime, like everyone else, likely headed for the anonymity even those fortunate enough to play in the Final Four eventually receive.
Once Villanova’s band stopped playing its fight song, Jay Wright took over as pep rally conductor. When fans get together to discuss Final Fours, Kris Jenkins and his teammates will have a special place among teams that won thrillers in the end. Every coach has this. “Just to know we’ll be kind of in the same sentence is an honor”.
The championship game lived up the hype, to say the least. “Just put everybody in their spots”.
The ratings, while down sharply from a year ago, marked the second-biggest cable audience ever for a college basketball game, according to the statement from Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting unit, which aired the tournament with CBS Corp.
Jenkins’ shot will certainly go down as the most revered in Villanova basketball history, and it immediately joined Charles’ dunk on the short list for greatest NCAA championship game finishes. Other plays you can.
It’s so rare that we get true, at the horn buzzer-beaters – it’s the first one in a national title game since NC State in 1983 – and Jenkins’ shot came just after Paige’s off-balance 3-pointer to tie the game.
“I think every shot’s going in”, he said, “and this one was no different”.
“I knew exactly where I had to set the screen”, he said of his role, which was to spring guard Ryan Arcidiacono. “And I knew it was going to be really emotional”.
Yale’s 79-75 victory over Baylor in the first round.
Villanova Wildcats forward Kris Jenkins (2) reacts after the 77-74 win over the North Carolina Tar Heels April 4 in the championship game of the 2016 NCAA Men’s Final Four in Houston.
Middle Tennessee State, a 15 seed, beat second-seeded Michigan State 90-81 in a game that busted brackets around the country. “There aren’t that many big guys who are strong and coachable and humble and I think both of their parents deserve a lot of the credit for that”.
The Atlantic Coast Conference had seven teams in the field of 68 and a record six of them made it to the Sweet 16. North Carolina has a massive national following as well, but Villanova doesn’t. The Wildcats also made a strong statement about collegiate athletics by fielding a team led by upperclassmen, including senior center Daniel Ochefu.
The Panthers beat Texas 75-72 in the first round on a halfcourt buzzer-beater by Paul Jesperson.
Advertisement
Phil Booth led Villanova with 20 points.
