Neither the disconcerting confines of NRG Stadium nor the star power of Oklahoma's Buddy Hield proved any match for a swaggering Villanova on Saturday evening, with Josh Hart's game-leading 23 points an afterthought to the scale of the record 95-51 obliteration in Houston. Not content with the competitiveness of their previous round's duel with Kansas, the Wildcats sealed their berth in the national title game by the largest margin in Final Four history.
To build a blowout, the Wildcats emphasized defense.
Villanova is undersized, and Oklahoma took advantage, but it did the Sooners little good. Oklahoma secured 19 offensive rebounds, but only made 19 shots; they also turned the ball over 17 times and fouled 20 times. The Wildcats, by comparison, had more made shots than offensive and defense rebounds combined.
To prevent size mismatches from becoming a factor, Villanova preempted their opponents' attempts to attack the basket. Instead, they generated turnovers from Oklahoma plays meant to take the ball to the inside; on this play, help defense from the Cats broke up a screen-and-roll and gathered the ball without allowing a shooting opportunity.
They also defended aggressively on the ball, pressing the handler and allowing Oklahoma no space to pull up or pass around. The pace of their defense created numerous transition opportunities, such as this steal before the Sooners had the chance to settle on the ball.
The defensive pressure took a toll on the Oklahoma offense's ability to operate in half-court sets, an opportunity Villanova took to run up their unassailable lead.
From 12:56 to 6:53 in the second half, Oklahoma was outscored 25-0. The Sooners' possessions in that span: miss, turnover, miss, miss, offensive rebound, miss, miss, turnover, turnover, miss, offensive rebound, miss, miss, turnover, turnover.
The pressure also affected Buddy Hield. By disrupting the Bahamian star's ability to hold the ball in the triple-threat position or the open court, the Wildcats held him to a nine-point game, well below his season average of 25.4 points per game.
Villanova also rolled offensively, hitting shots from all over the floor with impunity. In fact, Kris Jenkins and Ryan Arcidiacono combined for more one more three-point make than all of Oklahoma's roster.
NRG Stadium, the venue for this season's Final Four, has a bewildering reputation for perimeter shooting problems, but the Wildcats were not bothered. At 61.1%, Villanova shot nearly as well from behind the three-point line as Oklahoma's 63.6% mark at the free throw line.
When the teams met at Pearl Harbor in December, Oklahoma outshot the Cats by fifteen percent. On Saturday, Villanova shot 71.4% from the floor, the second-best mark in the history of the Final Four. Oklahoma shot worse than half that mark, only 31.7%, and shot only 39.4% even inside the three-point line.
Past Villanova teams reliant on the three-point shot suffered early tournament exits as a result of poor shooting nights, but these Wildcats create better looks in part through an increased willingness to attack the basket.
When Oklahoma cleared the paint to press on the outside, Josh Hart made them pay the price by breaking the press and finishing at the rim around a bigger defender. As Oklahoma gradually pulled in, 'Nova found more space on the outside to take shots. Like Villanova teams of old, the Wildcats lean on threes, but they complement the outside game by driving to reduce the need for contested perimeter shots.
After Villanova halted a brief second-half spurt of energy from the Sooners, the crowd fell into a stunned hush from which it would not reemerge. They numbers showed as stunning a spectacle as anything in the tournament thus far. They also testified to a brilliant gameplan that turned the general consensus on its head.
This is peak Villanova: quick, aggressive, forcing opponents to adjust to their game rather than settle for second-rate opportunities. After winning three of their first five games by twenty points and two of them by thirty, they may have already made the greatest single tournament run in basketball history. A win over North Carolina would leave no room for doubt.
Regardless of the championship's outcome, though, the Wildcats have already left us with the greatest once-in-a-generation beatdown ever seen NCAA tournament. In the grand scheme of basketball history, that may well be enough.
