Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
No consolation after early exit
Villanova’s season was not supposed to end this way, at least not this early.
As the overall No. 1 seed and the reigning national champion, the Wildcats expected to at least make it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, if not farther. Instead, they were bounced on the opening weekend for the third time in the last four years.
Nor did anyone expect the Wildcats (32-4) to squander a seven-point lead with 5 minutes, 31 seconds to play as they did in a 65-62 loss to eighth-seeded Wisconsin (27-9) Saturday afternoon at the KeyBank Center.
What this crushing loss shows is just how tough it is to put together a run like the Wildcats made last year to the national championship. You have to be perfect or as close to perfection as possible to do what Villanova did last year.
The Wildcats were the better team in every game they played a year ago. That wasn’t the case this time around. Wisconsin was the better team Saturday. It was that simple, and the Wildcats were not surprised by that fact.
“Nothing really shocks me in the NCAA Tournament,” senior Josh Hart said. “It’s March Madness for a reason.”
Upsets are common, especially in the first weekend, but the overall No. 1 seed should not be sent packing in the second round. The bottom line is that the Wildcats did not get the job done in crunch time.
They had one basket after Donte DiVincenzo’s 3-pointer gave Villanova a 57-50 lead with 5:31 to play in the game. The Wildcats also were 2-for-4 from the free throw line down and turned the ball over twice in the final 48 seconds, both by Hart.
“It’s disappointing to us,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “You know when you’re playing great teams that can happen, you cannot get buckets. We didn’t get buckets, but you can still get a stop.”
And that is something that the Wildcats, who pride themselves on defense, did not do. Wisconsin scored on seven of its last nine possessions to erase that seven-point deficit.
“You’re disappointed in the result,” Wright said. “There are going to be bad plays in the game. There is nothing wrong with that. It’s trying to find a way to respond to each bad play and not being able to find a way in the end.
“I thought it was great when we pressed and got the turnover and Donte (DiVincenzo) got to the foul line. I thought that was huge. I loved that response, but in the end we did not have that final response that Wisconsin did.”
Wisconsin had a lot to do with that. The Badgers are not some fly-by-night squad that was fortunate to be in the NCAA Tournament. This was a team that was ranked as high as No. 7 at one point in the season before it struggled down the stretch. Wisconsin finished second in the Big Ten in the regular season and
lost to Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament championship game.
The Badgers are also tournament tested, more so than the Wildcats. This is Wisconsin’s fourth straight trip to the Sweet 16. The Badgers have been to two Final Fours in that span, losing in the semifinals in 2014 and the championship game in 2015. Seniors Bronson Koenig, Nigel Hayes and Vitto Brown are 13-3 in the tournament over the last four years.
“They have some great players,” Hart said. “Their experience really helped a lot.”
Of course, Villanova was experienced, too. The ’Cats won the Big East regular-season title for the fourth year in a row, claimed the Big East Tournament title for the second time in three years and were ranked No. 1 for a good portion of the campaign. Those are no small accomplishments, but the Wildcats know this team will be judged on how it did in the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s just crushing and you just have to deal with it,” Wright said. “There’s no way to say anything positive and be honest right now that anything feels good.”
As a result, some will say that Villanova should not be considered as one of the elite programs in the country, which is hogwash. The Wildcats are among the nation’s best.
If you asked any player coach, fan or team, for that matter, if they would trade three losses in the second round for the chance to do what the Wildcats did a year ago, everyone would say yes in a heartbeat.
It doesn’t ease the pain of the loss or lessen the fact that the Wildcats came up short. They did and have to live with that.