Michigan, Villanova have no need for one-and-done stars

Here today, gone tomorrow crowd failed to make final.

Oklahoma’s Trae Young captivated the college basketball world, dashing and dishing and fill- ing up the hoop. Arizona’s Deandre Ayton was called a cyborg and a unicorn, what- ever people could think of to describe his unique com- bination of power and athleticism. Marvin Bagley III seemed to be playing a differ- ent game than everyone else, dunking, slashing, shooting and dominating at Duke.

All three are headed to the NBA, Ayton and Bag- ley potentially as the draft’s top two picks. None made it to college basketball’s final weekend. The trio — and the rest of the coveted one-anddones — were already done before the bracket branched into San Antonio.

Winning championships, except in rare cases, takes more than one talented player. It requires a collec- tive effort, experience, lead- ership — elements Villanova and Michigan have stockpiled while building toward the NCAA Tournament title game tonight.

“There’s a process of going through the season that you have to experience one, two, three times before you can really have this type of success under this pressure,” Michigan coach John Beilein said. The Final Four this year has come down to just that.

All four teams had talented freshmen, though none of the one-and-done variety. Loyola-Chicago’s Cameron Krutwig was the Final Four’s leading true freshman scorer at 10.3 points per game.

The last two teams have counted on freshman to help them reach the title game. Wildcats big man Omari Spellman is a freshman, but had a redshirt year to learn coach Jay Wright’s system and transform his body. Collin Gillespie appeared in 31 games, but averages only 4.3 minutes.

The Wolverines have two key players who are freshmen, Jordan Poole and Isaiah Livers. Poole hit the buzzer-beater against Houston to send Michigan into the Sweet 16. Livers has started 21 games this season, rotating with Duncan Robinson at forward.

One-and-done they are not. These title contenders are here because they have veteran leaders, savvy players who know the game’s nuances and can handle the brightest spotlights without peeking around the corner to a professional career.

“We recruit guys that just want to be in college,” Wright said. “We want them to enjoy the college experience and then we hope that after one year of enjoying the college experience they have a really difficult decision to make that the NBA wants you but you really enjoy college. Rather than come to college saying I want to get out as soon as I can.”