Villanova took survive and advance to an extreme today. They were stuck in a defensive struggle that was the classic first team to 50. They almost didn\u2019t get there. They hit 50 when Collin Gillepsie hit 2 free throws with 25 seconds left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Villanova as a team shot 15 of 52 (28.8%) from the field. Villanova also managed to hit a perfect 15 of 15 from the free throw line. I don\u2019t know how a team who is actually so good at shooting that they can be perfect from the free throw line only hit 15 of 52 of their shots from the field – no wait, I do. That happens when the referees disappear and everyone just fouls the shooter on almost every shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Houston\u2019s coach mentioned after the Arizona win, he said \u201cVictories don\u2019t come with asterisks. This is not a beauty contest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, this was certainly not a beauty contest. I was at my daughter\u2019s rugby game this afternoon, and after watching the end of the first Elite 8 game, I feel like I was treated to a rugby double-header. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was one point late in the game with about 1 minute left where Jermaine Samuels drove to the basket, gets hit by the Houston defender and somehow still lays it in as he falls to the ground to give the Wildcats a 48-42 lead. I kept waiting for the official to blow a whistle because Samuels threw the ball forward at the basket instead of placing it down for a ruck. Then, maybe they could have let Gillepsie start the scrum. Only way I could be brought back to that it was basketball was that each team only had 5 players instead of 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the perfect example of this physical insanity was at the end with about 12 seconds left. Villanova had just gotten the ball out of bounds after Houston missed two three pointers. The pass came to Villanova\u2019s Caleb Daniels, and a Houston defender sprinted right through Daniels, hit the ball out of his hands, and the referee said it was Houston\u2019s ball since it went off Daniel\u2019s leg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last time I checked the rules, if a defensive player comes over the offensive player\u2019s shoulder, and reaches in and hits the players arm, it is a foul. Then to add insult to the rules, they then went and reviewed it – and you hear the announcers say, \u201cYes – that ball definitely goes off Daniel\u2019s leg.\u201d No one mentioned the fact that he was almost tackled before the ball went out – a foul isn\u2019t something that can be reviewed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately, the college basketball gods intervened, let Houston throw up two wild three pointers before the ball went into Villanova\u2019s Gillepsie\u2019s hands and he dribbled out the clock to mercifully end the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It wasn\u2019t pretty, but there are no asterisks. Villanova wasn\u2019t innocent either – they understood the referees weren\u2019t calling anything and somehow beat Houston at their game. But it doesn\u2019t matter if the score is 50-44 or 76-70, it still is a 6 point victory for the Wildcats – one that will send them to New Orleans and the Final Four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a little sad news for the Wildcats (and didn\u2019t happen because of a foul). Justin Moore slipped driving to the basket late in the game and injured his leg in a scary fall. For a team that only plays 6 players, losing a starter might be rough. But they still survived – and this late in March, it simply matters that you are still playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Congratulations to the Villanova Wildcats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Villanova took survive and advance to an extreme today. They were stuck in a defensive struggle that was the classic first team to 50. They almost didn\u2019t get there. They hit 50 when Collin Gillepsie hit 2 free throws with 25 seconds left. Villanova as a team shot 15 of 52 (28.8%) from the field. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2022-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2302"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2303,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2302\/revisions\/2303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}