By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The biggest game in men’s college basketball was played Monday, April 2, 2018.

The national championship game featured two great teams, Villanova (36-4) and Michigan (33-8). Both of them are blue blood programs that have had great success recently.

The Wildcats just won a national championship in 2016. Villanova became the first school in 31 years, since the 1985 Villanova Wildcats, to not only beat four top-three seeds on the way to a national title but to also beat four straight opponents ranked in the AP top 10, in addition to beating AP ranked Iowa in the Round of 32.

Michigan last played in the national championship game in 2013. They lost to Louisville 82 – 76. The Wolverines had won a national championship in all the way back in 1989.

These teams are led by veterans, which is very different from what college basketball has been over the last decade. Typically, highly recruited freshman lead programs like Duke, Kansas or Kentucky to the Final Four.

The leading scorer for the Wildcats is junior guard Jalen Brunson. He averages 19.2 points per game and he makes 52.7% of his shots. Brunson is the National Player of the Year.

His backcourt mate is also a junior guard, Mikal Bridges. Bridges is the second leading scorer on the team with 17.6 ppg and he shoots 51% from the field.

They have very good shooting percentages and it’s rare for star players to make at least half of their shots. We normally see volume shooters that rely on taking so many shots that some have to go in.

Redshirt sophomore guard Donte DiVincenzo averages 13 ppg, 4.7 rpg and 3.5 assists per game.

The Wildcats beat Michigan convincingly 79-62. Villanova won all six games by double digits over this tournament run, joining Michigan State (2000), Duke (2001) and North Carolina (2009) in that rare air.

“I thought we played our best game in the championship game,” coach Jay Wright said.

DiVencenzo aka Big Ragu came off the bench and led all scorers with 31 points. He shot 10 of 15 and 5 for 7 from three-point range. This great performance won him the most outstanding player in the Final Four.

“The way DiVincenzo shot the ball, it was just incredible for us to try to win that game with the roll he went on,” Michigan coach John Beilein said.

Bridges finished with 19 points and he’s expected to enter the NBA draft. Surprisingly Brunson struggled, only scoring 9 points and making 4 of 13 shots.

Jay Wright boosted his credentials for the Naismith Hall of Fame and put himself in elite company. The only other two active Division I college basketball coaches with multiple championships are Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski (5) and North Carolina’s Roy Williams (3).

The Wildcats have been outstanding over the past five years. They are 165-21 since the start of the 2013-14 season, a stretch that includes a pair of national championships and a combined seven Big East regular season or tournament titles.

This was an interesting season because it seemed like there were more scandals than usual. It was great to end the year with a dominating performance by a great team.