City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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BROOKLYN -- The spectre that’s hung over Villanova’s senior class for the last three years and the entire Wildcat program for the last seven is gone. Vanquished. Disappeared, over the course of two-plus hours at the beautiful Barclays Center.

It started to flicker when an early Ryan Arcidiacono 3-pointer bounced high off the rim and straight through the hoop, giving an indication of what the afternoon would be like for the second-seeded Wildcats against seven-seed Iowa. By the time Villanova had built up a 25-point halftime lead, the phantom was out the door and traveling down Atlantic Avenue.

When the final buzzer sounded, the ghost of failures past was nothing but a distant memory.

For the first time since 2009, Villanova survived the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, beating Iowa 87-68.

“Oh it’s great. I can’t even explain it," senior forward Daniel Ochefu said. "We’re all extremely excited for the guys in he locker room and especially those seniors before us who molded Arch and I into the leaders we are today.”

The Wildcats had four players in double figures, led by junior wing Josh Hart's 19 points. Arcidiacono added 16, while another junior, Kris Jenkins had 15 and freshman guard Jalen Brunson chipped in a dozen.

After being upset in the Round of 32 each of the last two years, Villanova has advanced to the Sweet 16, where it will face the South Regional's third-seed, Miami (Fl.) in Louisville on Thursday.

It's sweet relief for all involved with the program--from the seniors, Ochefu and Arcidiacono to head coach Jay Wright, who led the Wildcats to the Final Four in 2009 but was just 2-5 in tournament games since.

"It's like if you have a cold and everybody keeps asking you, how's your cold? How's your cold? How are you doing? After a while, you're like, I'm fine, you know," Villanova skipper Jay Wright said afterwards. "You know you've got to answer the question. I'm just relieved we don't have to answer the question (anymore), honestly."

And it couldn’t have been in any less clinical of a fashion.

The first seven minutes were played to a 13-13 tie before Villanova put its foot down.

Hard.

The Wildcats were flat-out dominant during most of an opening half where they scored 54 points to just 29 by Iowa, the largest point total and halftime lead during any NCAA Tournament game this year.

"When I shook hands with [Iowa head coach] Fran [McCaffery], I just said, 'hey, I'm sorry,'" Wright said. "We haven't played a first half like that in a long time."

As a team, Villanova shot 20-of-33 (60.6 percent), making 7-of-12 (58.3 percent) from 3-point range and all seven of their foul shots.

"There’s going to be games, big games obviously, where that’s not the case, where we can’t buy a shot and the other team is scoring," redshirt sophomore forward Darryl Reynolds said. It feels good to be on the side of every shot falling."

Iowa had no answer defensively for Villanova’s multi-faceted offensive attack, which was led early by Josh Hart, Kris Jenkins and Jalen Brunson. The three combined for 32 points in the first half alone; Jenkins had a dozen while Hart and Brunson had 10 each.

Jenkins got it start, scoring five straight during an 8-0 burst to create the initial separation. With eight minutes left in the half, the lead reached 10 on a 3-pointer by sophomore Phil Booth (8 points) that kick-started an 11-0 run that made it 39-21 with 5:21 left until halftime.

Like a boulder gathering momentum Villanova didn't stop there, going back into the locker rooms off yet another 11-2 run.

"I think our best half all year, maybe one of the best Villanova basketball halves we could have played," Hart said. “That was a great feeling, coming out of the locker room not just because we had a big lead but because we all played Villanova basketball for each other.”

On the other end of the court, the Hawkeyes were stymied by a swarming Wildcat defensive effort, anchored by Ochefu. The 6-11 center finished with a game-high 11 rebounds to go along with six points, four assists, three blocks and three steals.

He helped hold Iowa star Jarrod Uthoff (team-high 16 points) to just five in the opening 20 minutes as the Iowa starters combined to shoot 6-of-16 for the half, getting eight points from reserve forward Nicholas Baer to lead the way.

“It shows how capable we are when we’re all playing together as one unit," Arcidiacono said. "We’re diving on the floor, we’re taking charges, we’re getting stops and scoring in transition. It just shows when we all play together and everyone is in it, we’ll be a tough team to beat.”

Villanova couldn’t keep that momentum up for the entire 40 minutes, but the lead proved too much for Iowa to overcome.

The Hawkeyes went on a 13-2 run midway through the second half, holding the Wildcats without a bucket for a five-minute stretch and eventually closing the gap to 20 with five minutes to play.

But that was hardly enough to put a serious scare into 'Nova, which made its fifth Sweet 16 under Wright.

Now they turn their attention deeper into March, and maybe even into April.

“We weren’t just coming in this tournament trying to get past the second round," Arcidiacono said. "I think we can win it all.”