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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — He was maybe 10 feet inside half-court, and you kind of figured that’s outside even Kris Jenkins’ range.
Swish.
“The shot clock was running low, I had the ball, I was open,” Jenkins said with a little smirk. “It’s going up.”
Jenkins continued his insane shooting Thursday in Villanova’s 92-69 win over Miami in the NCAA Tournament South Region semifinals at the KFC Yum! Center.
Including the 35-footer late in the first half, he made five of six threes against Miami and shot 8 for 10 overall for 21 points.
The Wildcat junior forward is now 10 for 17 from three in three NCAA Tournament games (59 percent) and 41 for 82 in his last 11 games overall (50 percent).
“He was in a zone, man,” teammate Darryl Reynolds said. “Kris has hit a stride and he’s not looked back. He’s hitting every shot. Well, not every shot but close to it. He’s hitting big-time shots and I think Kris is playing with a ton of energy right now.”
Jenkins has five more threes than anybody in NCAA Division I since March 1 — he has 31 in eight games.
None from deeper than his bomb with a minute left in the first half Thursday night.
The Wildcats led 38-32 when Jenkins found himself with the ball 10 feet beyond the arc and the shot clock running down.
If you’ve never heard the sound of 18,000 people ooooooohing at the same time, that’s just about what happened when the ball swished through the net.
“It was surreal,” Ryan Arcidiacono said.
Jenkins' 83-percent shooting from three-point range was the best by a Villanova player on five attempts or more since 2011, when Corey Stokes went 5 for 5 against South Florida on Jan. 6, 2011.
“It was a tough shot,” Jenkins said. “I didn’t really have anything else to do but give us a chance so I put it up there and it went in.”
Jenkins finished with 21 points, nine rebounds and four assists as ‘Nova advanced to an Elite 8 game Saturday (8:49 p.m./CBS) against Kansas.
“They throw it out to Kris Jenkins,” Miami coach Jim Larrañaga said after the game, “he buries a 35-footer like it’s a layup.”
Jenkins has been on a tear lately. In Villanova’s last 12 games going back to Feb. 17 against Temple, he’s averaging 19.3 points per game.
Villanova is now 32-5, and Jenkins is their hottest player.
“We always would have to take him out because he would be tired or just not playing with a lot of energy,” Wright said.
“But about halfway through this year, he really found his stamina. He found his stride. And he played defense consistently, rebounded consistently. So we could keep him on the floor.
“He's a great scorer. If you keep a great scorer on the floor for 35 minutes, which he played [Thursday] — he didn't used to be capable of that — he's going to get numbers. And that's what you see him doing.
“And he does have tremendous range. He's the most confident offensive player. Scottie Reynolds was like that. He just believes he's making every shot and he can score from anywhere and well beyond the NBA three-point line. He believes in it.
“I see him when he's shooting on his own. He does it. And it does have extraordinary range.”
It’s a mistake though to dismiss Jenkins as purely a shooter. He was the leading rebounder in the Miami game, and he’s one of only five players in the entire tournament to put together a game with 20 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
“He’s playing with so much confidence,” Mikal Bridges said. “Thing about Kris, when his defense steps up, that’s when his offense picks up.
“He really gets himself going on defense and that leads to shots, and he’s been knocking them down. Great basketball player, great basketball IQ. Every shot he takes looks good. It’s crazy. Great talent. He works his butt off.”
Hard to believe that through 26 games, Jenkins was shooting just 33 percent from three.
In the last 11, he’s shooting 50 percent.
“He’s really starting to take smarter shots,” Jalen Brunson said. “Sometimes he takes a bad shot and it still goes in. Kris is just a tremendous shooter with a tremendous work ethic and he really works on it.”
Jenkins was the only one in the locker room unimpressed with his shooting Friday night.
“I try to be locked in every game and today they just happened to fall more,” he said. “But I have the mindset going into every game that I’m going to be aggressive, and if I make a mistake it’s going to be an aggressive one.”
Wright laughed when asked after the game about Jenkins’ sharpshooting.
“Some of the shots Kris Jenkins took he happened to make them but they were terrible shots, but he makes them, so you win, you know?” Wright said. “And that’s what the tournament is all about.
“You’ve got to go with him when he’s out there, you know? But a couple of them were crazy. And he made them. The craziest ones he made.”