HOUSTON — Everyone will remember this game as the time the Villanova Wildcats almost eclipsed their own “Perfect Game,” the 66-64 near-flawless offensive performance in the national championship against Georgetown, with a shooting night maybe even more awe-inspiring against Oklahoma (see story).
'Nova hit 71.4 percent from the field, 77.4 percent on two-point shots — just a hair’s breadth off that 78.6 percent night against the Hoyas, back when all college shots were twos.
The second and somewhat unfair storyline will be that the Sooners’ Wooden Award favorite Buddy Hield laid an egg. That the nation’s best shooter couldn’t shoot and finished with only nine points, his second-lowest output of the season.
Well, a lot of that was not his fault. Hield’s supply of good shots was choked off mostly by 'Nova’s dominance of the floor game and its guards' team defense against not just Hield but mostly his would-be facilitators.
“Sometimes, they say it’s contagious,” said the game’s star Josh Hart, who led everyone in points (23), rebounds (eight) and assists (four) (see story).
He also took a good number of turns as the primary defender on Hield. But then, so did everybody, it seemed. That’s what a swarm of hornets the Villanova defense was.
“These guys were just so locked in,” Hart said. “The defense we were playing just sparked it. We were able to get open transition shots, layups. We were just feeding off our defense.”
And it was a feeding frenzy.
The story of this game was team ball against hero ball with Oklahoma’s dribble-dribble-dribble getting overrun by the Wildcats’ sloughing, helping defense, especially on the Sooners’ dribblers, guards Jordan Woodard and Isaiah Cousins.
You can say that Villanova did a great job running five different defenders at Hield and it did. But it did an even better job pinching the Oklahoma guards when they tried over and over to break down the Wildcats by themselves. Wasn’t gonna happen.
Summarized Hart: “When we play defense, it’s not about the one person who’s on the ball. It’s about everybody loading to the ball. Everybody ready to help the man on the ball.”
Oklahoma never passed out of that help fast enough. So it was a total overrun by a wave of 'Nova humanity playing as one.
And Hield just got caught up in the wave.
“They just outfought us,” Hield said. “The way we smacked them in December (78-55 in Honolulu), they came out with a vengeance tonight. They were determined to win this game.
“My hat’s off to them. They played a really great game, a hell of a game, tonight. They were aggressive and they were playing together. They just made it difficult.
“What they did was remarkable. They played together as a team. We came ready to play. But they just was the better team today.”
Villanova assistant coach Ashley Howard is still in his mid-30s and grew up in the age of dribble-drive basketball where everyone tried to beat his man off the bounce. He isolated not only the Sooners’ strong point but also their weakness.
“All three of their guards are really good off the dribble. That’s their strength. They can all drive and get to the basket. They can all shoot off the dribble,” Howard said.
“Those guys have been good at it all year. So, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”
It’s broken now. Oklahoma could not penetrate effectively, nor could it shoot off the bounce with the Wildcats extending the perimeter and loading up on the dribbler with helpers.
Hield was the big loser. He scored in single figures for only the second time this season in OU’s 37 games.
“One of the things we wanted was to not allow them to have rhythm,” Howard said. “No dribbles into jump shots. Make those guys have to drive past our defenders knowing that we were helping. Then make them make decisions.”
Usually a help defender on the perimeter means an open shooter somewhere, most likely outside the arc. And Oklahoma ranked No. 2 in the nation entering the game in three-point percentage.
But many times, Woodard and Cousins fumbled the ball or got jammed up, preoccupied on the penetration rather than the pitch. Often, they lost possession.
This was a target of opportunity for the Wildcats entering the game — OU’s sloppiness with the ball. Both Cousins and Hield coughed it up four times, contributing toward 17 total Oklahoma turnovers.
And fewer good shots for Hield. He hit his first three-point attempt and then missed his last seven, finishing 1 for 8 from the arc and 4 of 12 overall.
Jay Wright sent the posse at Hield, assigning five different primary defenders to the Oklahoma star during the course of the game — everyone from 6-foot-2 Jalen Brunson to 6-8 Darryl Reynolds.
“I think the thing that really separates us is, we have eight great defenders but not just in the post or on the perimeter,” Reynolds said. “We are versatile, tough and strong and everybody’s down mentally.
“We all kind of knew what his pet moves were. We knew we had help.
“That’s our defensive concept — five guys playing the ball. All dialed in.”
You can’t be any more dialed in, really. And if the Wildcats find the same code one more time, that 1985 game may be replicated in one final respect that’s more important than any gaudy statistics.