DiVincenzo’s dunks got Villanova going
BOSTON » Two years ago Donte DiVincenzo watched Villanova win the NCAA tournament championship in a business suit.
A broken foot wrecked the season for the redhaired, 6-foot-5 guard out of Salesianum High in Wilmington, Del.
Last weekend the Wildcats watched the Big Ragu helm them get to the Final with a couple of thundering dunks in a 71-59 win over Texas Tech at the East Region final at Boston. DiVincenzo didn’t think he had the first one, a knifing two-handed stuff in which the ball shot through the cylinder so fast he couldn’t get his face out of the way.
“I thought I missed,” said DiVincenzo, who contributed 12 points and eight rebounds, including five of Villanova’s season-high 20 offensive rebounds. “Honestly, I thought I missed it when I went up. But I heard everybody cheer so I just got back on defense.”
The second slam, however, would have made a fan of Zhaire Smith, the Texas Tech freshman phenom whose 360-degree stuff was the jam of the tournament.
With the Wildcats clinging to a 54-49 lead and less than five minutes remaining, Mikal Bridges missed a jump shot. DiVincenzo exploded down the boulevard and two-handed the stray home, using the rim to twist himself around so he could run back on defense. Video of the aftermath shows his teammates caught in a wow moment.
“That dunk, that was big,” guard Phil Booth said. “We needed it, too. I saw him come firing out. I thought I had a good tap, but I could see he got his speed up and he got it. That was big for us. It sparked us a little bit, and he got it. We got another defensive stop and it got us going. He was active up there. He was getting on the glass. He’s a very athletic player. He loves attacking the rim and attacking the backboards.”
The dunks sent a buzz through the crowd at TD Garden, where DiVincenzo previously had shown he could hit three-pointers. Adding a power dimension in an Elite Eight game was nice.
“I do it at practice,” DiVincenzo said. “The coaches were on me just to go do it in the game. It kind of felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I do it often in practice but when I get in a game there’s always someone in front of me to stop me from getting to the rim. That time there was no one in front of me.”
There was traffic. DiVincenzo was zoned in. That’s what it’s like to play fearlessly, a complete departure from his humble beginning.
Two years ago, DiVincenzo had his foot repaired and could have returned about halfway through what became a championship season. He wound up taking a medical redshirt year.
Instead of playing in the 2016 Final Four in Houston, he gave the Wildcats a chance to get to the title game by playing the role of Buddy Hield of Oklahoma in practices leading up to the semifinal round.
DiVincenzo must have been good. The Wildcats limited Hield, the player of the year, to nine points in a 95-51 triumph.
DiVincenzo termed the opportunity to play in the Final Four surreal.
To dunk in the Final Four — that would be priceless.
*** Villanova won its four NCAA games by a combined 73 points, an average margin of victory of 18.2 points. On paper, only Duke seems to have enough firepower to give them a test, and Duke blew it in overtime against Kansas.
Malik Newman scored all 13 of the Jayhawks’ points in overtime to lift them to an 85-81 win Sunday night. Newman filed a career-high 32 points to carry Kansas to its 15th Final Four.
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It doesn’t happen often, but Villanova could walk away from the Final Four with the player of the year in Jalen Brunson, and the national championship.
The last team to hit that daily double was Kentucky. Anthony Davis was player of the year in 2012, when the Wildcats defeated Kansas for the title.
Prior to that, Duke did it in back-to-back seasons.
In 2002, Duke won the national championship with Jason Williams the player of the year.
And in 2001, Shane Battier was player of the year for the national champion Blue Devils.
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NOTES » In four tournament games the Wildcats held opponents to 36.9 percent shooting overall (110for-298) and 27 percent from beyond the arc (30for-111).
Two words: defense wins . ... Before the Wildcats take on Kansas Saturday night in San Antonio, let’s not forget that Jayhawks coach Bill Self also has a national championship. It came in 2008 in overtime, right there at the Alamodome. Kansas looked like it was toast but rallied to force OT and defeat John Calipari and Memphis, 75-68.