March Mad-Max: The Fury Road to Houston
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Legendary sportscaster Warner Wolf would likely have summarized the opening 2016 Final Four contest thusly: ‘If you had Oklahoma and 43 points…you still lost.’ Put another way, if you placed an opening bid on the actual retail point total of Sooner G Buddy Hield (averaging 29 per tourney game) anywhere in double digits, longtime Price Is Right host Bob Barker would reluctantly inform you that you had overbid <fail horn>. OU’s card-carrying first responder successfully connected from three-point range on his initial shot attempt, 25 seconds into the game. He then spent the next 39:35 missing all of his remaining seven tries from behind the arc and eight of his 11 overall shots from the field, scoring just nine points. Villanova’s 95–51 destruction of Oklahoma marked the most dominant margin of victory in Final Four history.
Anyone who predicted an Oklahoma win would be facing a steep challenge to reestablish prognosticative credibility. It would require an effort worthy of the pioneering spirit embodied by the host city of Houston. A Rice University-approved PhD dissertation, for example. A Ninth Wonder of the World concept to eclipse history’s Eighth Wonder, The Astrodome. Perhaps even an Apollo 13-level ad hoc device; a round filter fitted into the rectangular bracket to remove any and all impurities prior to selection reentry. So…CTRL-ALT-DEL…<reboot>.
2016 NCAA Championship: Villanova vs. North Carolina
The ‘Heels convincing 83–66 semifinal victory over Syracuse may have produced a surreptitious sigh of relief from the championship ceremony coordinators. A title-game win by the Orange would have put head coach Jim Boeheim on the stage after a season in which he served an NCAA-imposed nine-game midseason suspension. That would have presumably led to the most awkward trophy presentation since former NCAA enforcement representative and current Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany handed the award to career Association nemesis Jerry Tarkanian and the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels in 1990. UNC officially dissolved that scenario with an effort typical of the ’16 tourney Tar Heels. The squad came within two points of posting its fifth-straight bracket game to have five players in double figures (Joel Berry II scored 8). Its offensive depth and prowess have continued to produce four double-digit postseason scorers, led by Brice Johnson (20 ppg), and including Marcus Paige (13.8) Justin Jackson (13.6) and Joel Berry II (12.4). Carolina has also extended its postseason streak of maintaining a 10+ point lead through at least the last six minutes of every contest.
It’s hard to conceive of a team arriving at the end of the road brimming with more confidence than Villanova. The ‘Cats laid the foundation for their 44-point semifinal win with adept shot selection. Their 71.4% success rate from the field was the second-highest mark in Final Four history, trailing only the ‘Nova squad that hung a banner in the campus rafters. The 1985 Wildcats converted 78.6% of their shot attempts in a 66–64 championship win over Patrick Ewing’s Georgetown Hoyas. The 2016 version displayed no outward signs of disorientation as they rocketed past Oklahoma. Five players scored in double figures, led by Josh Hart with 23 and Kris Jenkins’ 18. VU will have to combat the g-forces of history in its matchup with UNC, though. The ‘Heels last two title teams ran through the ‘Cats, with the 2009 champs knocking out ‘Nova 83–69 at the Final Four in Detroit and the 2005 squad successfully sealing a 67–66 Sweet 16 squeaker in Syracuse. Villanova’s last win in the series came at what is now likely a pile of rubble somewhere in New Jersey; a 1996, 76–56 victory in the late, great, two-time championship host (1976, 1981) Philadelphia Spectrum.
THE PICK TO RAISE THE PLAQUE: NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS