Brackets: East | Midwest | South | West
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Seven years ago this week, Ryan Arcidiacono was a scrawny 15-year-old Villanova fanatic living and dying by the Wildcats.
His AAU team was playing in a tournament in West Hempstead, New York, when Scottie Reynolds made his historic buzzer-beater against Pitt that sent the 2009 Villanova team to the Final Four.
And young Arcidiacono did what any obsessive teenage Villanova fan would do.
“I remember watching the game,” Arcidiacono said. “I remember when he hit the shot, I was freaking out, running up and down the hotel hallway and getting noise complaints. We were all Villanova fans, and we were all freaking out.
“At that point in my life I was hoping I could just play basketball. I never thought I’d ever play for 'Nova.”
He did play a little bit for 'Nova and on Saturday night, two days shy of seven years after Reynolds’ led Villanova to a Final Four, Arcidiacono led the Wildcats to another.
Arcidiacono, the Wildcats’ unflappable senior guard, scored seven of his 13 points in the final 7½ minutes as Villanova came from five points down against the No. 1 team in the country and advanced to the Final Four with a 64-59 win over Kansas in the NCAA Tournament South Regional title game (see Instant Replay).
Seven years ago, Reynolds sat for an hour in a corner of the Villanova locker room in the TD Garden in Boston clutching the basketball that he scored the winning basket with.
Saturday night, Arcidiacono sat similarly in a corner of Villanova’s locker room at the KFC Yum! Center clutching the South Region trophy.
“To be able to do something like this, what he did, is something I can’t describe,” Arcidiacono said. “I can’t believe it’s actually happening.”
Kansas led by five at 45-40 with 10½ minutes left when Villanova took the lead for good with a 10-0 run that began with baskets by Mikal Bridges and Daniel Ochefu and ended with threes by Arcidiacono and Josh Hart.
No. 2 seed Villanova made eight straight foul shots in the final 33 seconds — four by Arcidiacono — to secure the win and end top-ranked and top-seeded Kansas’ 17-game winning streak.
The Wildcats shot 18 for 19 from the line Saturday two days after shooting 18 for 19 against Miami.
When freshman Jalen Brunson made it a two-possession game with two foul shots at 0:03 and then Hart secured a Kansas turnover, the celebration was on.
And five years of frustration was over for a Wildcats program that hadn’t beaten a team seeded higher than 15 in seven years.
“I remember after we lost last year, the following weekends, I couldn’t watch the games,” Arcidiacono said. “I just couldn’t.
“There was something in my stomach. ‘We should be there, but we lost.’ Even if we were going out to eat, I was trying to not see any TV.”
Arcidiacono and this close-knit group of scrappy, unselfish, hustling Wildcats will play in the national semifinals Saturday in Houston against Oklahoma with a berth in next Monday’s title game on the line.
But Saturday night was a day for celebrating. Not thinking ahead.
It was symbolic of Villanova’s balance that three players — Kris Jenkins, Hart and Arcidiacono — shared game-high honors with 13 points. Ochefu was huge with 10 points, eight rebounds and two assists.
And the two freshmen were huge. Brunson had seven points, the two huge foul shots and no turnovers, and Bridges — playing 26 minutes with Jenkins in deep foul trouble — had a monster night with six points, three rebounds, five steals and some lockdown defense on the Jayhawks' leading scorer Perry Ellis (see story).
Ellis, averaging 17.4 points per game, made just one of five shots and finished with a season-low four points.
But this was Arcidiacono’s night.
With his hustle, defense and knack for big shots at big moments, he embodies everything Villanova basketball is about.
And after not getting out of the second round of the NCAA Tournament his first three years, he’s now going to a Final Four.
“It’s everything that I dreamed of,” said Arcidiacono, who had four points, a crucial rebound and a steal in the final minute. “To know where we’ve been from our freshman year and to go through the struggles that we went through throughout the whole season, sophomore year, junior year, losing early in the tournament, to just persevere and make it through the whole tournament is something really special.”
Villanova, which made 53 percent of its threes in its first three NCAA Tournament wins, shot just 4 for 18 from range Saturday night.
Nobody on the Wildcats made more than one three.
They won anyway thanks to ferocious defense. Kansas shot just 46 percent from the field and 27 percent from three, and Villanova forced 16 KU turnovers.
“Just toughness on the defensive end,” Arcidiacono said. “We didn’t let the offense affect our defense. We stayed committed and stayed solid as a unit.”
After taking that 45-40 lead, the Jayhawks made just five baskets in the game’s final 10:48.
Villanova outscored Kansas 24-14 over those final 10:48.
“We wanted to make it ugly,” Arcidiacono said. “We knew we weren’t shooting the ball well, but the backbone of our program is just defend and rebound and play hard and together, and I think we did that.
“We started off a little slow, but the last 35 minutes or so is where we really turned it up and made it an ugly street fight.”
Arcidiacono and Ochefu are the only seniors who play in coach Jay Wright’s rotation, and everybody in the Villanova locker room made it clear that’s who they were playing for.
“Those two carried the torch,” Hart said. “They carried Villanova basketball. They carried us back after that 13-19 season (in 2011-12). Great leaders. They willed us here. It was great to be able to do this for everybody but especially them.”
Wright is now one of only nine coaches to reach two Final Fours at his current school.
His team is an astonishing 95-13 over the last three years and 115-27 since Arcidiacono and Ochefu walked onto campus.
“It means so much to us to help get the seniors over the hump,” said Brunson, who was in sixth grade the last time Villanova got beyond the second round.
“Once we got over that hump, we knew we were fine. The tournament losses the last few years, they were in the back of their heads a little bit. We wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again.”
When the game ended, Arcidiacono raised his arms and just started running around and pumping his fist toward the fans who made the trip from Philly to Kentucky.
“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “I think I ran in a complete circle. I was freaking out.
“It was unbelievable and something I’ll always remember. It was … just four years of commitment to Villanova, and as a program it was just big-time for us.
“I’m so happy for my teammates and the training staff and the walk-ons and Kris and Josh. I’m just happy for every single person.”