Villanova Men’s Basketball Defeats Michigan for NCAA Championship Win

The Ramblers had a hard time getting the ball to cutters against the bigger Wolverines, but the Wildcats are long and have strong finishers at almost every position.

He’s Villanova’s sixth-man, and he’s also the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, as the Michael Jordan of DE went for 31 points, breaking Luke Hancock’s record for the most points scored by a bench player in a title game as Villanova won their second national title in three seasons, dispatching MI, 79-62, on Monday night in San Antonio.

“He was a sixth starter”, Villanova coach Jay Wright said.

On this night, with a national championship on the line, it was a fitting reminder that this Wildcats team is more than just a remarkably good 3-point shooting team.

Seven ‘Nova players made 3s.

Canning 3-pointers, scoring off the dribble and even drilling one long jumper over two defenders, DiVincenzo put MI in a hole it wasn’t about to escape.

Villanova on Monday night became that occasional college basketball men’s national champion of such uncommon quality that it never did cause its fan base any of the customary bouts of March such as fear, dread or horror.

“Buddy Hield Donte was a special person, and someone who might’ve came out tonight”, Jalen Brunson, the Wildcats’ star who ran into foul trouble and had only nine points against MI, told the Times. “I just love my brothers, I love my team, I love the Villanova nation”. “But you just get to enjoy everything”. The Wildcats knocked down a record 76 three-pointers en route to the championship, setting the record for most threes in a Final Four game with 18 against Kansas.

After the Wolverines started the game 8 for 12, Villanova held MI to 3-for-16 shooting for the final 11 minutes of the half as the Wildcats dug out from an early 21-14 deficit to lead 37-28 by the break.

VMI set that record in 2007. He made feverish drives and outlandish three-point shots with a look in his manner that suggested the shots just weren’t all that outlandish.

Part of that involves a ferocious competition in the practice gym – the fruits of which have now delivered two more titles to go with the one Rollie Massimino’s team won back in 1985. “It usually worked. Against both the Jayhawks” man defense and their zone.

Most legends make it hard to see what’s coming. “We want to go up on top of the mountain, we get up there and we go back down and climb the big one”. Villanova held a 53-40 lead then. By the end of the half, Villanova dug themselves out of the deficit, carving out a 37-28 lead. And there’s no reason to doubt they will be back in the mix next season. The advantage quickly bulged to double-digits in the second half.

Look now at the 56-year-old coach who thought a single squeeze into a Final Four nine years ago must have been his lucky pinnacle, the sub who craved a starting role and felt slighted when his coaches ruled otherwise, and the conference whose name kept turning up in late 2012 near the word “implosion”.

Despite being a true freshman who averaged a little more than 14 minutes per game, Gillespie has already been inducted into this continuum. They combined to make 6 of 13 3-pointers themselves, but didn’t get much help. But UNC’s defense wasn’t ranked as highly (19th) as Villanova’s. We’ll watch tape, try to figure out the best way to approach going into Monday night’s game. The run through the NCAA Tournament saw wins against Montana, Houston, Texas A&M, Florida State and Loyola-Chicago before running into the juggernaut that was Villanova (36-4).