CSNPhilly.com's printable bracket.
Brackets: East | Midwest | South | West
NEW YORK — They flirted with basketball perfection, and they just happened to do it under the brightest lights, under unimaginable pressure, under the weight of a tremendous expectation of failure.
People who expected the worst from the Villanova Wildcats on the same stage where they lost as a No. 1 or 2 seed in the second round in 2010, 2014 and 2015 instead saw a team that for much of its NCAA South Region game against Iowa play the brand of ferocious, dazzling and most of all unflinchingly team-first basketball that coaches draw up in clinics but never dream can actually be achieved.
It was 13-13.
Then it was 65-31.
From the 13-minute mark of the first half until the 16-minute mark of the second half, Villanova outscored a team that was ranked as high as No. 3 in the country earlier this year by the margin of … 52-18.
The Wildcats went on to beat Iowa, 87-68, Sunday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn (see game story), setting up a game Thursday against Miami in the South Region semifinals.
“We were just on point,” Josh Hart said. “Mentally dialed in. Physically dialed in. Feels great that everything that we’re doing paid off out there. All the habits that we’ve been building since the summer really just came together in that [first] half.
“That’s kind of how you want it, how you envision it. What you’ve been building for eight, nine months, and see it come together in what could potentially be your last game. To be able to execute the way we did? It’s a great feeling.”
Villanova on Sunday afternoon closed the first half with a 41-16 run and opened the second half with an 11-2 run.
It was burying open shots, passing the ball with precision and creativity, rebounding furiously and defending a big, tall, dangerous offensive team to the point in which the Hawkeyes just couldn’t get an open look.
“I think it starts with our defense, pressure the ball,” Kris Jenkins said. “We try to make it really tough for teams to score on us and rebound at a high level. That fuels us offensively, and if we get it going offensively, we can make it really tough on teams.
“It was amazing for us to come out that focused and set the tone, to come out that aggressive. We want to be aggressive and tough and together. That’s something we have to keep up. That was probably one of the best halves of basketball we’ve played here in a long time.”
Since … when?
“Since we’ve been here, that’s probably the best half,” coach Jay Wright, now in his 15th year at Villanova, said. “Our first half vs. Xavier was similar, but this team has done that now twice, and it started with our defense.
“We’ve got to figure this out. We’ve got to be able to replicate this for Thursday.”
Villanova plays in the Sweet 16 Thursday for the first time in seven years. The Wildcats, the No. 2 seed, face No. 3 seed Miami at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville.
Villanova led Iowa 54-29 at halftime, and the 54 first-half points are the most by any team in the NCAA Tournament this year, the most ever by Villanova in the first half of an NCAA Tournament game and the most by the Wildcats this year.
“It feels great playing like that against a great Iowa team,” Darryl Reynolds said. “And it wasn’t a crazy Mighty Ducks speech and then a Christian Laettner type of shot at the end. We just did it the Villanova way. We did it with defense.”
During the 17-minute stretch when Villanova turned a tie game into a 34-point lead, the Wildcats held Iowa to just eight baskets.
“In a perfect world, that’s how you want to play,” Reynolds said. “It feels good to be on the side of every shot falling and they can’t get a good look because we’re playing such good defense.”
What was most notable about that remarkable stretch was just how unselfish Villanova was.
By halftime, Jenkins, Hart and Jalen Brunson were all in double figures, and Phil Booth and Ryan Arcidiacono had eight and seven points, respectively (see more on Arcidiacono).
But it didn’t even matter who scored. Because the Wildcats were moving the ball so smartly and passing it so sharply, there were open shots for everybody.
“I don’t think we could have played any better, to be honest,” Booth said.
“Offensively, defensively, forcing turnovers, making shots — probably one of the best defensive halves we’ve had against a team like Iowa that can score so easily, has great players like [Jarrod] Uthoff and [Peter] Jok and the other guys. Definitely the best half we’ve ever had.”
Villanova couldn’t keep up the pace offensively or defensively for 40 minutes but still finished with a 19-point win, the largest margin of victory by a No. 2 seed over a No. 7 since Pitt beat Indiana by 22 in Boston in 2003.
“It was a great feeling, man,” Hart said. “Everybody was about the team. It was all about how’s the team performing. Just to be a part of that … our best half all year. Maybe one of the best Villanova basketball halves we could have played. That was a great feeling.
“Being able to come into that locker room at halftime and feel good not just because we had a big lead but because we played for each other.”