Villanova looks to shoot way to title
The Wildcats are in tonight’s championship game on the strength of their 3-point prowess
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SAN ANTONIO >> It used to be considered a gimmick, an experiment and even worse — a shot employed only by risk-taking coaches with teams that were big on dreams, short on talent and unafraid of the low-percentage play.
More than 30 years later, and with plenty of help from Billy Donovan, Steph Curry and Steve Nash, to name a few, the Villanova Wildcats have officially made shooting the 3 a bona fide way to win a championship.
Villanova is making 3s at record-setting levels this season, and with a win over Michigan in today’s title game, might lay waste to the last vestiges of the once-sacrosanct notion that nobody could win big by lofting up the long shot without maintaining an inside game.
“When the line came out, I think a lot of coaches were opposed to it,” Donovan said. “They thought it would really hurt the game.”
Not by a long shot. In their win over Kansas on Saturday, the Wildcats tied the Final Four record for 3-pointers in a game — by halftime — then shattered it in the second half.
They took only four shots from inside the arc over the first 20 minutes. Their 18 3s against the Jayhawks gave them 454 for the season, breaking an 11-year-old college record and setting themselves up as potentially the most 3-point reliant champion since the line was first drawn in 1986-87.
The Wildcats’ 3-point prowess has made them a clear favorite to beat Michigan for their second national championship in three seasons. And sure, their ability to keep hitting from outside — even if it isn’t at a record pace — against the Wolverines’ tough defense will play a big role in reaching that goal.
Yet there’s more beyond the obvious glow from all those deep shots. They’ll have to do a better job rebounding than they did in some of their few losses. And they’ll have to keep the ball moving while racking up assists with a deep well of shooters on the ready, something they’ve done nearly all year.
“It’s very good — we’ve been very unselfish this year,” redshirt junior guard Phil Booth said Sunday. “We know, always look for
the best shot. Not taking too many 3s is what we’ve been doing a good job of . ... And when we get a lot of assists, good things happen.”
Villanova (35-4) is atop KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency at 127.6 points per 100 possessions. That’s better than any team on other than Wisconsin in 2015 (129.0) dating all the way back to the 2002 season.
They’ll face a tough challenge against a Michigan defense ranked third by KenPom (90.4 points allowed per 100 possessions) and hoping for an uglier game compared to Villanova’s free-flowing romp against Kansas in Saturday’s national semifinals.
Villanova kept the ball moving — sometimes whipping it around the perimeter, other times on driveand-kickout plays — to stay a step ahead of the Jayhawks’ befuddled defense, which left coach Bill Self in a perpetual state of exasperation through what became a 40-minute shooting show.
By the end, Villanova had assisted on 12 of its Final Four-record 18 3-pointers,
and finished the game with 20 assists on 36 baskets.
“It just gets everybody touches, everybody staying aggressive,” redshirt junior Mikal Bridges said. “It’s kind of tough for maybe a guy throughout the whole game not touching the ball at all. You’re just not going to be ready. It’s just normal.
“But touching the ball every possession and moving without the ball, then when it swings to you and you’re open or have to make a play, everybody has confidence in each other to make that play and find each other.”
The assist-to-basket ratio can offer a glimpse of how well things are working for the Wildcats. They have assisted on 55.6 percent of their baskets in wins, but just 42.6 percent in their four losses — including 39.3 percent in a loss to St. John’s on Feb. 7 and 34.6 percent in a loss to Providence a week later.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Villanova struggled from outside in both of those games in particular. The Wildcats made 2 of 18 3-pointers in the second half of the loss to the
Red Storm, then made 3 of 20 for the game against the Friars.
The other thing to watch will be rebounding. Villanova was beaten on the glass in three of its four losses, with Butler, St. John’s and Providence offsetting misses by combining to average 13.7 secondchance points.
Yet Villanova’s work on the glass on a bad shooting day, along with a tough defensive effort, is why the Wildcats reached San Antonio. Villanova shot just 33 percent and went 4 of 24 from 3-point range in the Elite Eight win against Texas Tech, but took a 5133 rebounding advantage that included 20 offensive rebounds.
It’s proof that Villanova can win even if those shots aren’t falling.
“I think we have to watch a lot more film and make some decisions,” Wolverines coach John Beilein said.
Even if they’re the right ones, they might not beat Villanova.
And even if they do, they probably won’t reverse this trend.