Really, did anyone see this coming during the nonconference season? It was about mid-January when the outline of what this Villanova team would become began to take shape.
The Pittsburgh game at the Spectrum was the night I began to understand the essence of this group of players, how they were being coached, and realized just how difficult it was going to be for anybody to beat them in March and, possibly, April.
That understanding and the matchups in the East is why I picked the Wildcats to get to Ford Field. It was why it was not easy for me to pick UNC to beat them in my bracket. At some point, it is about matchups and talent. Carolina had an edge in both.
What this Villanova team became is a tribute to the players and the coaching they got. Really, what team anymore does more than really should be possible? I can't think of many. I will always be able to think of this Villanova team.
The 'Nova locker room late Saturday night into Sunday morning was not a happy place. Nor was it morose. Deep in their hearts, these players knew what they had done.
Look, they wanted one more game. Everybody wants one more game. But they outlasted 62 teams and ran into a team with Final Four experience (even if it was a horror show against Kansas last year) on a night when that team passed its way into better shots and made just about every open shot, including so many of those shots that would have convinced a lesser team to lose its will.
This Villanova team never did, which is why so many of them were still diving on the floor in the final minute when the game was so obviously lost. The scoreboard, they were saying, would not change who they are.
