City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Kris Jenkins ran up the court needing just one of the nearly 75,000 people in Houston's NRG Stadium to hear him.

"Arch, Arch, Arch, Arch," Villanova's best 3-point shooter shouted to guard Ryan Arcidiacono with time about to expire. Jenkins knew he'd be open, and when he got the ball and took the shot that would make him a Villanova legend, he had a pretty good feeling it was going to find the bottom of the basket.

Jenkins drilled a 3-pointer at the buzzer and gave Villanova a 77-74 win over North Carolina in one of the best and most-dramatic National Championship games in recent memory. Jenkins’ shot from about 25 feet away sent the Villanova bench into a frenzy. The party won’t stop anytime soon.

“I was able to get in his vision. I was open, so I was screaming at (Arcidiacono),” Jenkins told reporters of the final play. “For him to be so unselfish and give up the ball, you know, it just shows what type of teammate he is, what type of person he is. You know, we put a lot of work in. This team, everybody has the confidence to catch and shoot. So when Arch threw me the ball, one, two step, shoot 'em up, sleep in the streets.

After the Tar Heels’ Marcus Paige tied up the game at 74-74 with 4.7 seconds left on a ridiculous 3-pointer of his own, it looked like a game Villanova led by 10 points with five minutes left was heading to overtime.

Out of a timeout, Ryan Arcidiacono brought the ball up the floor with Jenkins trailing him. Two defenders cut off Arcidiacono, who dished it to Jenkins. The rest is history.

Kris Jenkins for the win and Villanova is the 2016 National Champion! pic.twitter.com/zL1Dc09UA5

— CityofBasketballLove (@hooplove215) April 5, 2016

“We work on that play every single day in practice,” Arcidiacono said. “I'm always the one with the ball. I think coach has confidence in me and my teammates have confidence in me. I was trying to be aggressive. It's not about me taking the right shot, it's about me making the right read. I think I just did that.”

The shot, which will be on highlight reels across the country for as long as there is college basketball, gave Villanova its first National Title since 1985. Rollie Massimino, the coach of the upstart ‘85 Wildcats, was on hand to witness Jay Wright hoist the National Championship trophy for the first time.

Wright, who was named the Naismith Coach of the Year earlier this week, guided the Wildcats to a national championship in his 15th season -- and he got to share it with Massimino, who gave him an assistant job in 1987.

"You don't have internships or apprenticeships in coaching where you learn the craft," Wright said. "Somebody has to give you the opportunity, then they have to spend the time with you to teach you. He did that for me. To share this with him, our Villanova people love him. He's a magical figure."

For the last two years, Villanova has been remembered for early exits from the NCAA Tournament despite regular season success. The Wildcats reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2009, the year they fell to North Carolina in the Final Four.

That wasn’t going to be the case on Monday night.

Phil Booth played the best game of his collegiate career, as the sophomore scored 20 points off the bench and was a big part of the Wildcats offense in the second half. Arcidiacono scored 16, and Jenkins, the hero, added 14.

Villanova trailed by five points, 39-34, at halftime, after North Carolina shot an impressive 7-of-9 from beyond the arc in the first half. But Villanova cut into that lead almost right away in the second half. The Wildcats mounted a 17-5 run which put them up 55-48 with about nine minutes remaining.

North Carolina would narrow that advantage to three at 60-57, but seven straight points for Villanova after that had it 67-57 with less than five minutes left. The No. 1 seeded Tar Heels then scored seven consecutive points of their own, capped with a 3-pointer by Joel Berry II, who finished with 20 points -- 15 of which came in the first half.

“I just think it was so exciting to watch, both teams making great plays,” Wright said. “They had a great first half. We had a great second half. Neither one of us could break each other.”

A circus shot from Booth made it 69-64, but Villanova missed some free throws and Arcidiacono had a turnover in the final two minutes to leave the door open for the Tar Heels. Paige had an offensive board and a layup to cut the lead to one with 21 seconds left, and after Josh Hart hit a pair of free throws, Paige hit an off balanced triple which looked like it would be the shot of the tournament.

It was, but only for about a minute.

Jenkins' buzzer-beater will never be forgotten on the Main Line, neither will Monday's game. It an NCAA Tournament run when Villanova hit 58 percent of its shots, the last one was destined to go in.

“That was just great college basketball. Two great teams,” Wright said. “In a national championship game, to hit a shot at the buzzer, I mean, I haven't seen many better than that.”