Written by Matt Norlander at CBSSports.com
Villanova is heading to the national championship game for the first time in 31 years — and has looked as dominant as any team in program history in getting there.
In fact, the Wildcats just put up one of the most impressive, forceful, unrelenting victories in the history of the Final Four. Statistically, it was the best ever. The Wildcats’ 95-51 win over Oklahoma is the largest margin of victory ever in a Final Four. National title game, national semifinals, all of it. No team has ever beaten an opponent by as many points on the sport’s ultimate stage as Villanova.
An incredible showing for the pride for the Big East’s best program.
“I feel bad for Oklahoma that it happened to them in the Final Four,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said.
The win is, flatly, shocking. Nobody could’ve remotely dreamed this to be possible. The expectation entering Saturday night’s national semifinal between a pair of 2 seeds was a tight game between the two squads who’ve continued to play at a high level throughout the tournament. Instead, the Wildcats played their best game of the season, while Oklahoma got far too little out of its National Player of the Year, Buddy Hield (nine points), let alone the rest of its team.
“Yeah, you know, it wasn’t just one guy that was on him,” Wildcats junior Josh Hart said. “We threw a lot of guys at him. Ryan was on him, Mikal was on him, Booth was on him. We were so dialed into not letting him get threes off.”
Villanova was an outrageous 82.7 percent from the field in effective field goal percentage. It shot 71.4 percent from the floor. Wright’s team had 38 points in the paint and 12 steals. They made Oklahoma look like an unworthy opponent, which is saying something, given the Sooners — like the Wildcats — were ranked as the No. 1 team in the country earlier this season.
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