April 03--Villanova didn't quite put together another perfect game like the one that earned the Wildcats their lone NCAA tournament championship in 1985. But it was close. And it counted.
The Wildcats shot 71.4 percent to dominate Oklahoma 95-51 Saturday for the right to return to the title game on Monday for the first time since that legendary championship game over Georgetown more than 30 years ago that still resonates as one of the best college upsets. Villanova will play either top-seeded North Carolina or 10th-seeded Syracuse, which played later in the Final Four on Saturday.
The victory margin was the largest for a Final Four game since Michigan State beat Penn by 34 points in 1979.
Villanova wasn't exactly an underdog in Houston, but Oklahoma's Buddy Hield, the national player of the year, was dominating headlines beforehand and reporters were asking the Wildcats how impossible it would be to stop the guard.
Hield, a charismatic senior known as Buddy Buckets for his long-range shooting accuracy, was mostly invisible. He had scored an average of 29.3 points per tournament game before facing Villanova, but he managed only nine points on 4 of 12 shooting, including 1 of 8 on 3-pointers, in the Final Four semifinal.
The Wildcats were as explosive on offense as they were dominant on defense.
Villanova shot 77.3 percent and scored 53 points in the second half. (The Wildcats hit 9 of 10 shots in the second half against Georgetown in 1985). Guard Josh Hart scored 23 points, driving to the basket with ease to outscore Oklahoma 38-20 in the paint.
The second-seeded Sooners had beaten Villanova by 23 points on Dec. 7 in Hawaii during non-conference play. That defeat seemed like eons ago.
Villanova now will make its third trip the final. The Wildcats last trip to the Final Four came in 2009 when they lost to North Carolina. Coach Jay Wright had been preaching since the Wildcats advanced that he wanted them to be more focused than the '09 group and to be the most locked-in team on the court.
On Saturday, they were.
"It was one of those nights," Wright said.
sryan@tribpub.com
