Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Villanova on Cloud 9 after another title
Villanova comes home on Cloud 9 after another title
RADNOR » Around their necks, jingling as they leapt up and down in celebration, the Villanova men’s basketball players carried souvenirs from San Antonio. The Nova players sported lanyards with four pins each, mementos of the logos of the Final Fours hosted at the Alamodome over the last two decades.
In their emotions on the stage of the Jake Nevin Field House Tuesday afternoon, the Wildcats also carried badges of their Final Fours past. And they exhibited that rarity of rarities in the college game, not just college juniors (real live ones, that contributed, even!) to their teams, but ones who could say that they’ve won two national championships.
It’s the best of problems to have: How to compare one national championship, brought home by the Wildcats in 2016, to the one clinched Monday night with a 79-62 thumping of Michigan?
“It’s very similar,” junior point guard Jalen Brunson said at the team’s welcome back to campus. “It’s cool to be an upperclassman, now being a leader on this team. It’s a very similar feeling. We’re just so thankful that we have this opportunity and to be able to do it with these guys.”
The climb back to the top of the mountain bears a unique footprint from the last title run. The 2016 team holds the distinction for the largest combined margin of victory for a championship team at 124 points (thanks to that 44-point Final Four walloping of Oklahoma), which broke the record set by North Carolina in 2009. This year’s team joined those Tar Heels as one of four champs to win all six tournament games by double-figures.
The 2016 team relied on outside shooting and the in-out balance with Daniel Ochefu, while this squad’s 18 made 3-pointers in the national semifinal and NCAA record 464 on the season had a similar but accentuated dependence on the long ball. Both teams were led by a surprise performance in the title game by a bench player – Phil Booth with his 20 points in 2016; Donte DiVincenzo with his stirring 31 Monday. One team ended a threedecade drought; the other overcame the expectations of a favorite that could no longer claim any element of surprise.
Coach Jay Wright relied on Booth, who with Brunson and Mikal Bridges played in both finals, to do the comparing and contrasting.
“We’re just a younger team, Villanova’s Jalen Brunson speaks to the crowd at Nevin Field House Tuesday afternoon. more of a youthful team,” Wright said. “I think Phil Booth explained it best: The ’16 team was probably a little more fundamentally sound. This team was probably a little more athletic and maybe talented.”
One significant difference was the way the honor landed. The 2016 final was one of the more memorable in history, thanks to Kris Jenkins’ last-second shot that will be replayed until the internet goes away and Charles Barkley’s made-to-tweet, toddlerat-Christmastime reaction. Monday’s final lacked any drama, Villanova putting matters to bed at an hour when most neutral fans could themselves head to bed without any risk.
With the fearsome threat of North Carolina two years ago, there wasn’t time to bask in the moment as it happened at Houston’s NRG Stadium. Monday, Booth got a head start on that elusive process.
“It sinks in when coach subs out Jalen, Mikal and the crowd starts cheering,” Booth said. “You’re like, ‘man we’re about to win a national championship.’ This is all of it, this is what we work for all year. We’ve come to this point and we’re champions.”
It’s come full circle for Brunson, who’s grown from a highly-touted freshman to a junior feted with national player of the year honors by the bushel and serenaded by chants of “one more year” from the Nova faithful. He started but struggled in the 2016 final, limited to four points. Foul trouble slowed him Monday night to a 4-for-13 shooting night from the field for nine points. But his fiery demeanor set the tone against Michigan as it has throughout the season, and witnessing a young player like DiVincenzo flourish as Brunson did in his youth is an indication of how well his leadership has trickled down.
“It’s great,” Brunson said. “It’s crazy how things come full circle when you’re one of the youngers guys trying to fit in and be a part of this team, and then when you’re an upperclassmen trying to lead the team and do the same thing for those younger guys. It’s really cool how it comes full circle.”
The second time around isn’t any less of a whirlwind for the players, who blew into town Tuesday at the tail end of essentially one long, 36-hour day, with celebrations ending well after midnight on the East Coast but soon enough for Brunson to make an appearance on “Good Morning America.” They now get to recover and prepare for a parade, to reunite with family and friends and take stock of another jaunt into the history books.
With equal parts gratitude and wisdom, Booth is looking forward to what lies ahead. Having been there before allows him to slow down and appreciate the moments. But the first go-round instilled in him how special it is to be a national champion. And to get back there with a similar group of players two years later … that defies any attempts at comparison.
“Everything was so new to us; now we look forward to every little part of it,” Booth said. “You never know when you’re going to get back and win another one. We took that first one like, hey this could be it. And now we’ve got another one, and we’re just blessed. We’re enjoying every minute of it.”
To contact Matthew De George, email mdegeorge@21stcenturymedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @sportsdoctormd.