Villanova and UNC Represent how Great College Basketball can Be

Time to clean out the gym and wait till next year

What a great ending to what has been a very uneven men's college basketball season last night. That game was absolutely incredible. It was close all the way through. Both of the teams belonged in the title game. The older players were the ones who came through biggest in the end. The coaches traded jabs like prize fighters. The players traded jabs as well too. I was enamored with how well this game was played last night. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, especially the last minute of the game. It was incredible.

Sure, there were mistakes made by each team, but watch any NBA game and you will see some mistakes and lapses of judgement. Basketball is a fun, but can be frustrating game at times, and even the pros make mistakes. The mistakes made in the title game were non factors in the final outcome. Even the refs, some Carolina fans might not agree with me, stayed out of the way and let the players play last night.

I have been very hard on men's college basketball, but this game hearkened back to the good old days of NCAA title games. First of all, we had two traditional power house programs playing for the title. I do like some of the smaller, non power 5 teams, like Gonzaga and Butler, but I'd much rather watch traditional teams play for the championship. We got North Carolina, who besides Kentucky, may be the most prestigious men's college basketball team, and Villanova who was once upon a time a Big East powerhouse, when the Big East still mattered, and it was tremendous. It was the highest level of college basketball you could get. Each team was senior, or at least upperclassmen, laden. There were some sophomores and freshman, but it was the upperclassmen who were the important players. Guys like Marcus Paige, Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks, Ryan Arcidianoco, Daniel Ochefu, Josh Hart and, the hero, Kris Jenkins, all played huge roles and they are all either juniors or seniors. They clearly knew how to play basketball with one another and it showed. This game was so much better than last years freshman laden Duke team versus the slower, plodding Wisconsin team. Sure, Wisconsin had seniors, but they were slow and methodical, in the worst possible way. Duke was good, but I didn't care about that game like I cared about this game. I had no skin in this game either. Last year, I rooted against Duke, this year, I just wanted a good game. I'm not a fan or a hater of either UNC or Villanova, like I said, I just wanted a good game and boy did I get exactly that.

This game was great from the tip. Both teams shot lights out in the first half. Every time UNC would make a shot, Villanova countered with a shot of their own. Carolina would hit a three, Villanova would come down and either, make a three themselves or hit a layup and get a turnover on defense and score quickly again. UNC looked as if they would pull away late in the first half though. They hit three straight threes and built their lead to 7 points with about a minute left in the half, but Villanova, as they've done all tournament, kept their composure, got a late steal on defense, converted that into a jump shot and cut the lead to 5 going into the locker room. Although they were down five, they seemed to have stolen momentum and they looked confident going in down 5. I figured UNC would start to flex their muscles in the second half and feed their big men, but they missed a ton of mismatches, and the guards started shooting three after three, but they went ice cold. Villanova just kept chipping away at the lead until they tied it at 46 with about 8 minutes left. From then on out, Villanova seemed to take control of the game. UNC's poor shooting continued and Villanova built their lead to as much as 10 with about 4 minutes left. I thought they were going to put it away, but UNC actually started driving the lane and their big men started to get easy buckets. They cut it to 4 with about 2 minutes left and this is when the game got really good. Scratch that, this is when the game became a classic. Villanova, who has great free throw shooters, missed some crucial free throws and UNC got it down to two. Villanova then made 1 of 2 free throws and UNC gathered the rebound and called a timeout, down three with 13 seconds left. I assumed that they were done. They hadn't been shooting well anywhere on the floor in the second half and I just figured their time was up. It looked that way with about 8 seconds left when Ochefu dove to steal a pass to Marcus Paige. Ochefu missed the steal and Paige lifted to shoot, but Arcidianoco ran out to defend, causing Paige to adjust his shot. No way it was going in I figured. No way Paige was going to make a double clutch, long three point attempt to tie the game. But, I'll be damned if he didn't hit anything but the bottom of the net. He made that shot look easy. The UNC bench and crowd was going nuts, figuring they pushed this game into overtime. Instead of folding, like a lot of teams would have, Villanova had one timeout left and drew up one of the great plays in tournament history. I also remember looking at my TV screen and seeing that 4.7 seconds were left. I said, out loud to myself, "that's a lot of time, they can get a good shot". Then, they ran this wonderful, classic play. The ball was passed in to Arcidianoco, he sped up the court drew two defenders, passed to a wide open Kris Jenkins and he released the ball. Looking at it, in real time, I thought that it looked decent, but it may pull a bit to the right. Well, as we all know this morning, the shot went in, the confetti fell, the Villanova players rushed the court and the title game was over, just like that. It was incredible.

Like I said, I had no skin in this game, but I jumped out of my couch and proclaimed, "I can't believe that went in! What a game!". I was so fired up, I had to calm down before going to bed last night. This was an incredibly well played and extremely exciting basketball game. This was the most perfect ending the NCAA could have hoped for after how bad the men's game has become in the "one and done " era. I know it's heartbreaking to be a UNC fan this morning, but you have to admit, this was a great, all time classic game. I know heartache when it comes to sports too. I'm a Michigan Wolverines fan and you have to look no further than this past seasons botched punt against MSU, so I do know what I'm talking about when it comes to brutal losses. It sucks now UNC fans, but it will get better. You have an all time great basketball program. The feeling should be the polar opposite if you are a Villanova fan. You should be ecstatic. You should be on cloud nine. You should be thankful to whomever or whatever you believe because your team is the national champions. You guys are the best team in men's college basketball and you won in spectacular fashion. You should, and I know you are, elated, and you will be until next season starts. Villanova is on top of the world right now.

I enjoyed every single second of this basketball game last night. The two best teams were there and they delivered. I'm sorry that I was tough on both of these teams entering this tournament. They both proved me wrong. This was classic and I'm so glad I got to see it in real time. Perfect ending to the men's college basketball season. Now, hopefully I get to see Warriors-Spurs in the NBA playoffs this year because that is the only thing, basketball wise, that will come close to what I witnessed last night. What a great, great game.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Watching a buzzer beater to win the championship ranks right up there with a good bacon double cheeseburger in Ty's world. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.