A stellar finish to the Wildcats' stellar season

HOUSTON - Late Saturday night, a few hours after a basketball masterpiece had gotten Villanova to the national championship game, I sent Jay Wright a text: "Whatever happens Monday night, I will be sad about one thing, that I don't get to see this group play together again. It has been an amazing show with an all-time crescendo."

If you love the game, you recognize those rare moments when it is played at such a high level, you simply don't want it to end. That was Villanova in this NCAA Tournament. After a wonderful three-year run that most people outside the city did not fully appreciate because of the Wildcats' short NCAA stays, these players and coaches were so connected that the score mattered less than the performance.

Still, when you get so close, you want to win, you want validation, you want to be remembered. The play on the final night was so good for so long that it needed an ending as memorable as the game. After giving up a late 10-point lead, it was Kris Jenkins to Ryan Arcidiacono, Jenkins running behind Arch as he rushed the ball up the court, yelling, "Arch, Arch."

The consummate point guard gave it up to a great shooter, who knocked in the shot of a lifetime.

It was the perfect ending to a perfect run to the championship, Villanova 77, North Carolina 74.

"Was that the best game in college basketball history?" Arch wanted to know as he waited to cut down the net at the Carolina end, the one Marcus Paige had creased on an impossible double-clutch three. But he left the 'Cats 4.7 seconds left, just enough for Jenkins to get the ball in the air as the buzzer sounded.

Wright had one idea in the last huddle.

"I put it in Arch's hands and let him make a decision," he said.

It was a brilliant decision. It was the final assist of a legendary career.

"Kris Jenkins lives for that moment," Wright said.

Arch could have shot it, but he didn't.

"I looked at Arch in the huddle and said, 'Shoot it,' " Daniel Ochefu said. "After the game, he came up to me and said, 'I had faith in my teammate' and the rest is history . . . Arch could have easily taken the shot, and everybody in the whole gym would have been happy with it . . . He gave it up to his teammate."

As he headed back to the podium to listen to "One Shining Moment" and watch the tournament video, Wright had one word to describe it all: "Unbelievable."

The coached listened with an arm around his wife Patty, a look of awe on their faces before heading for the Jenkins net. Wright got the penultimate cut of that net. Arch got the final cut and then handed it to Ochefu, who got up the ladder and began to twirl it all about.

"I'm still trying to grasp what is happening here," Ochefu said. "I did see it go in. Everything was happening in slow motion around me. I was lost. I walked around in a circle for about five minutes."

As they headed for the locker room, Arch held the championship plaque tight. He might never give it up.

The Wildcats shot 14-for-24 (58.3 percent) in each half. They held the nation's most efficient offensive team to only 12-for-35 (34.3 percent) in the second half. They got crushed on the glass, 36-23. They shot the same percentage for the game they shot the entire tournament. And they got the last shot.

The game was played at the Wildcats' pace early. One of the country's best running teams had zero fastbreak points at the half. If there was a time-of-possession stat, Villanova would have been winning it decisively. Their possessions were more methodical, Carolina's more frantic. The 'Cats actually had one first-half possession that went 71 seconds because of two Tar Heels fouls. Phil Booth hit a three to end it.

'Nova was defending the lane really well early, while making a bet that the Tar Heels, a below-average three-point shooting team during the season and an average one in the tournament, could not make a decent percentage. It worked well enough that the Tar Heels missed nine of their first 12 shots. Then, it worked less well, because UNC started making threes from everywhere, their last five of the half and seven of nine in the half, while making 12 of 15 overall in one extended offensive blitz.

Despite that atypical long-range shooting, Villanova was either just ahead or just behind, well within range, but reeling as the break loomed. The Wildcats got it to five points on Booth's lane jumper in the final seconds, just after Josh Hart saved it from being worse with a spectacular block of a Justin Jackson breakaway.

Still, 'Nova had to find a way to start getting stops against a team that nobody had stopped in the tournament, putting up points per possession numbers that were off the charts. Carolina was at 1.3 ppp at the half, fairly typical for the Tar Heels in the tournament.

The Wildcats were shooting 58.3 percent after 20 minutes and trailing because the three-point math that figured to be their ally was working against them. Also a bit unsettling was that they had only three assists on their 14 field goals, a very low number for such a great passing team.

Carolina had been playing from in front the whole tournament. When the 'Cats put some game pressure in the first half, UNC immediately responded with a breathtaking stretch of basketball.

The heat went up in the second half as 'Nova's defense started to get stops and the three-point bet finally started to pay off, as UNC started to clank a few. It just a touch ironic that the 'Cats got it tied on a UNC staple forever, a perfect baseline backdoor that ended with a Mikal Bridges dunk. The message had been delivered. Villanova was going to play to the finish line.

The offense was as good as the defense during a 14-point turnaround when the 'Cats hit five straight and eight of nine. Carolina finally had trouble keeping up as Arcidiacono, the kid who had to sit out his senior year of high school basketball after back surgery, his father never forgetting the scene when he was wheeled in for surgery, wondering what would become of his athletic career.

Well, 144 college games later, Arcidiacono was ready for his moment. As 'Nova was getting the lead, he hit a pull-up jumper, a three and two free throws after walking up the court and taking a long glance into the Villanova section where his family was sitting.

Villanova earned this championship the hardest of ways, beating teams from the nation's two strongest conferences in its final four games, including the regular season and tournament champions in the regional final and national final. And they won it on the final shot of a season that will be remembered forever.

@DickJerardi