City of Basketball Love

Eugene Rapay (@erapay5)
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Top overall No. 1 seed and Big 12 Champion Kansas may have been the best team going into the NCAA Tournament.

However, once March Madness ensued, it’s Jay Wright's Villanova Wildcats who have been impressing with their one-sided wins.

In three tournament games so far, Villanova has throttled opponents by an average margin of victory of 24.0 points.

During this stretch, the Wildcats have shot a tournament-best 59.9 percent on the floor and 53.2 percent from beyond the arc.

Second-seeded Villanova hopes to maintain this momentum against the Jayhawks in Saturday’s upcoming Elite Eight game, hoping to further its mission to get back to the Final Four for the first time since 2009.

Kansas won’t make it easy for the sharpshooting Wildcats, as Bill Self's Jayhawks used a balanced scoring offense and a stalwart defensive effort to beat No. 5 seed Maryland 79-63 in the Sweet 16.

The Jayhawks’ suffocating defense held Maryland to just 8-of-23 (34.8 percent) on the floor and 3-of-13 (23.1 percent) from 3-point range, as they pulled away in the second half to secure the win.

“We’ve always marvelled at Kansas’ defense for years under Bill Self,” Jay Wright said. “They are physical. They are disciplined, and they’re very committed.”

Villanova has been acquainted with the Jayhawk defense before. Wright and his team has faced the Jayhawks in the NCAA Tournament back in 2008, losing to them in amidst Kansas’ national championship season.

Most recently, they played each other in the semifinal round of the Battle 4 Atlantis in 2014, a game that featured a handful of Villanova and Kansas’ upperclassmen as young freshmen and sophomores.

It was a defensive battle in which both teams shot below 40 percent overall and combined for 32 turnovers. The deciding factor came from a go-ahead Ryan Arcidiacono 3-pointer with 10.1 seconds left, it was the only basket made by then-sophomore point guard.

“Certainly, not a good memory but one that I think we certainly grew from,” Self said. “I think that the teams historically, at least in the times we’ve played, have been pretty evenly matched and we got the best of one and they got the best of one.”

Kansas has changed since then, no longer is it led by current NBA players Andrew Wiggins (Minnesota) and Joel Embiid (Philadelphia).

Senior Perry Ellis has emerged to the forefront, establishing himself as a steady presence in the post and with a reliable mid-range jump shot. Ellis led the Jayhawks with 17.2 points per game this season but has elevated his play for the NCAA Tournament.

The 6-foot-8 forward has scored at least 20 points in each of the tournament games so far, most recently scoring 27 points in the win against Maryland.

So far, no team has been able to solve how to deal with Ellis and Wright and his coaching staff do not have very long to figure it out.

“It’s something we’ve had to struggle with preparing for them,” Wright said. “They’re very well coached. If you put too much attention on Perry Ellis, they have a system and a scheme to take advantage of that and get everybody else easier shots.”

Aside from Ellis, three other players scored in double figures in the win against Maryland - Wayne Selden Jr., Frank Mason III, and Landen Lucas.

While Mason and Lucas have been inconsistent in the tournament, along with Devonte’ Graham, Selden has been a reliable secondary scorer behind Ellis.

Through three games, he is averaging 18.3 points per game. On the defensive end of the court, he has proven himself to be a tough perimeter defender, being one of the cogs in Kansas’ defensive machine.

Regardless of how any of the Jayhawks’ players do on offense, they remain tuned into Self’s defense-first philosophy and focusing on shutting down their opponents.

“Yeah, I feel like, you know, we know that teams can go on runs and we know as a team that we try not to let that happen,” Ellis said. “If it does happen, defense is always key. We really try to make sure defense is our key, main focus, because if we’re not thinking about our offense, it really helps us.”

No matter what Kansas hopes to do defensively, the ‘Cats are confident that they can keep the momentum going, but they will need just as strong of a defensive effort on the other end to complement their offense.

“Our defense fuels our offense,” Villanova's Josh Hart said. “So if we’re able to get easy shots, cash in of turnovers, holding the opposing team to not too good of a field goal percentage, I think we can sustain it and make it a little bit further of a run.”

In the last two years, both teams have experienced the bitter taste that comes along with the inability to pass the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

Not only has Villanova and Kansas gone beyond the Sweet 16 this year, now they will compete for an exclusive spot in the Final Four, a place where no player on either squad has played in, let alone even reached.

“In college basketball, getting to the Final Four, for some reason, I think if you’re in the NBA and you get to The Finals, if you don’t win, it’s not that big of a deal,” Wright said. “But getting to the Final Four, it’s so big. It’s defining.”