This one seemingly inconsequential play sums up what Villanova is all about
HOUSTON -- If you want to highlight the one thing that makes this Villanova team tick, you must look past all the numbers.
You must look past the statistics that show Villanova as the nation's most balanced team, fourth in the nation in offensive efficiency and eighth in defensive efficiency. You must look past the remarkably consistent free-throw shooting (second in the nation) and the three-point shooting that has gradually improved all season to its sizzling 46 percent rate in the four games of the NCAA tournament. You must look past the team's devastating zone defense that has perplexed opponents all year. And you must even look past the obvious chemistry that's on display every time Jay Wright's team takes the court.
Look past all these things, and instead look toward one seemingly inconsequential play from three weeks ago during a Big East tournament semifinal game that says all you need to know about why this team is in the Final Four, with a very real shot at winning it all.
Providence's Kris Dunn was near midcourt with a clear path to the rim when Villanova's senior point guard, Ryan Arcidiacono, tipped the ball away from him. The ball skittered toward press row, and Arcidiacono gave chase. He dove over the press table, crashed into a Sports Illustrated writer, and went a few rows into the Madison Square Garden stands. Arch jumped right back up, back over press row and back onto the court, to a standing ovation.
The ARCH with The DIVE. #BIGEASTtourney #MadeAtMSG pic.twitter.com/vysROBf6op
— FS1 (@FS1) March 12, 2016
It was the ultimate hustle play, and ever since then, it's become in my mind the touchstone play of this Villanova season. The dudes get after it more than any team in college basketball. They get up in you on defense. They get after it with an uncommon intensity on offense. From Arcidiacono, the former high school football player who sometimes treats basketball as if it were Friday Night Lights, to Josh Hart, the nation's most underrated player (and someone who when he was growing up would shoot hoops at the local playground until midnight, the headlights from his father's truck illuminating the court), to Daniel Ochefu, the nation's most unique big man, Villanova is a starless and egoless group that plays with an otherworldly intensity.
An NBA player in this group? Maybe Hart. Maybe. And that may be it.
This year, Guard U. has become Overachiever U.
When Wright was talking about the 1985 Villanova title-winning team on Friday — the team that pulled off one of the biggest upsets in NCAA tournament history, the only eight-seed ever to win the whole thing — it was easy to see the parallels between that overachieving team and this overachieving team.
Head coach Jay Wright celebrates Villanova's win over the Kansas Jayhawks.
"That was probably the most inspirational moment of my coaching career, even though at that point I was a very young coach," Wright said. "I was the assistant coach at the University of Rochester. Division III school. I was also the assistant intramural director. I was in Lexington for the semifinals ...
"I had to go back on Monday night because I had to run floor hockey for intramurals, because that was my job: I set up the floor hockey. The guys who played floor hockey really didn't care about the national championship game. I went to the women's soccer coach's house — I was single then, I was living in Rochester by myself — Terry Gurnett, I sat on his floor and watched that game.
"To see a team make a dream come true like that, overachieve, it was magical. Watching that, you say as a coach, I would love to be able to do it — never thinking you would be able to do it at Villanova."
The idea of assistant intramural director Jay Wright watching Rollie Massimino's crew overachieve more than three decades ago is impossible not to love.
And if this team goes all the way, it will be with that same sort of overachieving gusto that college basketball fell in love with way back in 1985, when an eight-seed Cinderella defeated Patrick Ewing and Georgetown, simply by being the hardest-working team in the tournament.
Follow Reid Forgrave on Twitter @reidforgrave or email him at ReidForgrave@gmail.com.
