Wildcats’ championship was total team effort

It would be easy to attribute Villanova’s run to a second national championship in three years to having the consensus national player of the year (Jalen Brunson), the top small forward in the country (Mikal Bridges), one of the best sixth men in the land (Donte DiVincenzo), the rookie of the year in the Big East (Omari Spellman) and the most prolific offense in program history (86.6 points per game).

Yet that would be an oversimplification.

There is no doubt this was the most talented team Jay Wright has had in his 17 years on the Main Line and arguably the most physically gifted in program history.

Brunson is the first Villanova player to win the Wooden Award as the top player in college basketball. He’s also the first Wildcat to earn the Bob Cousy Award as the best point guard in the nation. Bridges is the second straight player from Villanova to win the Julius Erving award as the top small forward. Josh Hart received the honor last year. DiVincenzo set the record for the most points by a nonstarter in the championship game (31).

It wasn’t that easy, even though Villanova was ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll for a total of eight weeks and 31 of the school-record 36 wins came by double digits, including the last 10. There were hurdles the Wildcats had to overcome to become just the fourth team since the UCLA dynasty ended in 1975 to win two national championships in the span of three seasons.

First, Villanova had to bet better on the defensive end. The key there was the development of Spellman, specifically on the pick-and-roll. For all of its offensive firepower, Jay Wright and his staff knew they could not count on outscoring teams on a nightly basis. And Spellman’s development as

PATRICK SEMANSKY — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Members of the Villanova basketball team soak in a rally following a parade celebrating their NCAA college basketball championship Thursday in Philadelphia.