The Final Four commenced before an audience of one vice president (Joe Biden), one former president (George H.W. Bush) and some 70,000 other folks. Yes, things are bigger in Texas — buildings especially. And it’s a source of lingering fascination that the first domed edifice sits alongside NRG Stadium, which is so massive it could hold an Astrodome-and-a-half.
For those of a certain age, there can be no thought of college basketball without recalling the night of Jan. 20, 1968 — No. 1 UCLA and Lew Alcindor against No. 2 Houston and Elvin Hayes in the building next door. It was the first nationally televised (by TVS, no relation to TBS) regular-season game, and it changed the face of its sport. Houston won 71-69.
The Bruins and Cougars would meet again in the Final Four, UCLA winning 101-69 in what is regarded as the most dominating performance in collegiate basketball history. Which is a convoluted way of saying: What happens in the regular season sometimes stays in the regular season. To wit: Saturday’s rematch of Oklahoma and Villanova.
When last these two met, the Sooners won 78-55. That was on Pearl Harbor Day at Pearl Harbor. Given nearly four months to ponder, Villanova figured things out. It had more points in 28 minutes Saturday than in the December game. The Wildcats proved they could guard Buddy Hield and could score every which way. What figured to be a tight game between No. 2 seeds became a powerful display of Take 2 basketball — maybe not quite UCLA over Houston, but in the neighborhood.
Final score: Villanova 95, Oklahoma 51.
Conventional wisdom (and raw data) held that domes are never good for shooting percentages, and NRG was the worst of the lot. When the Final Four was staged here in 2011, the championship game saw UConn winning 53-41. The halftime score was 22-19. Given that both Villanova and Oklahoma were among the nation’s best 3-point shooting teams, this game figured to put NRG to the test. One team passed.
With 8 1/2 minutes remaining, Villanova led 72-41. Gerry McNamara — a star of Syracuse’s 2003 NCAA title team and now an Orange assistant scouting this semi — said to a writer: “They’ve got to be shooting 70 percent.” Sure enough, the Wildcats were at 70.7, calling to mind Villanova’s epochal upset of Georgetown on April Fools’ Day 1985. That night Nova made 78.6 percent of its shots. It would finish this game shooting 71.4 percent. Again: Not quite that game, but not far off.
Villanova made 66.7 percent in this first half — and then got better. They would make 61.1 percent of their 3-pointers in the dome where treys have been in short supply. (Against UConn in 2011, Butler missed 10 of 11.) Villanova was making shots because it was getting nothing but good shots. The jumpers were coming off inside-out action, and Josh Hart was darting through the lane with disdain.
Hart took 12 shots. He made 10. Had it not been for Bill Walton’s 21-of-22 game against Memphis State in 1973 — FYI, Walton was sitting courtside for this one — Hart would have threatened the Final Four record for shooting. (Asked about his miss, Walton said: “Short one. First half. I put it back in. Thanks for remembering.”
Apologies for all the historical references, but this was unprecedented. (The biggest previous spread in a Final Four game was Princeton beating Wichita State by 36 in the 1965 consolation game.) Oklahoma couldn’t make its treys — the Sooners missed 21 of 27; Hield missed seven of eight — and there’s your wipeout right there.
And there went your Final Four handicapping out yonder window. In one week, Villanova has taken down No. 1 Kansas and obliterated Oklahoma. This is a superb team playing its best basketball. It will be a mighty tough out come Monday.
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