The basketball term jump shot describes the act of a player springing from their toes and flicking the ball toward the rim. Its form was perfected by Ray Allen: body oriented toward the basket with the exactness of a NASA flight path, feet quickly off the ground with token resistance from gravity, arm shaped like a carpenter’s square before releasing the ball. What Paul Jorgensen of Butler University pulled
The basketball term “jump shot” describes the act of a player springing from their toes and flicking the ball toward the rim. Its form was perfected by Ray Allen: body oriented toward the basket with the exactness of a NASA flight path, feet quickly off the ground with token resistance from gravity, arm shaped like a carpenter’s square before releasing the ball.
What Paul Jorgensen of Butler University pulled off at one point during a home game against Villanova back on December 30 cannot be called a “jump shot.” The 6’4″ junior grabbed a rebound, dribbled in and out of traffic to the other end of the floor, and pulled up just beyond the edge of the logo that extended from center court. Whatever compels a man to seize the microphone and profess his love for the prom queen prompted Jorgensen to rise 30 feet from the basket and lean into a three-point attempt, with no pressure due to the clock or the score: There was a minute left. . in the first half.
It was a clean swish.
Villanova lost that day, 101-93. It was the only time during the course of the 2017-18 season that the Wildcats simply were outshot. Because the only way to outshoot Villanova this year was to say screw it—or else they would do the same thing to you.
The third-seeded Michigan Wolverines were probably the most formidable team Nova could have seen in the title game Monday night. The two #1-seeds opposite the Wildcats that had a route to the final game, Virginia and Xavier, possessed an elite (if not historically great) defense and offense, respectively. The relevant 2-seeds, Cincinnati and North Carolina, had ruggedness and experience. Michigan may not have matched any of these teams’ best qualities—but they didn’t lack a high level of any one of them, either. The Wolverines ranked among the country’s best defensive units (third in the country, per the advanced stats cruncher Ken Pomeroy), were coached by a famous offensive expert (the Hall of Fame-worthy John Beilein), and outdid scrappy opponents with their hustle. Their star trio was comprised of a senior point guard, a junior shooting guard, and a junior big man. They may not have been elite in any one category, but they didn’t have any real weaknesses.
Michigan held on for 14 minutes. The largest championship-game underdog in eight years—less a slight than a compliment to the favorite—led by seven early, after confronting the Wildcats with physical three-point defense and strong interior play on offense, particularly from Moritz Wagner. It was still a one-point Wolverine lead before the six-minute mark of the first half when Nova shooting guard Donte DiVincenzo sized up his defender several feet behind the three-point arc, faked a drive to his left, and then let it rip. Jim Nantz quipped, “Look how far out this is.” It was a clean swish.
DiVincenzo had nailed a three from just beyond the edge of the center-court logo.
More than five minutes later, with Villanova now ahead 34-28, Wildcat guard and national player of the year Jalen Brunson let the ball roll to midcourt untouched off an out-of-bounds pass to preserve clock with just 46 seconds remaining before halftime. He grabbed the ball, took two dribbles, and spotted up from 25 feet, exploiting a small gap between him and the nearest Wolverine.
It was ad nauseam.
Villanova spent much of its season creating its scoring opportunities, with a roster full of star-level players who fashioned a juggernaut from their unselfishness. Coaches rave about youngsters who “make the extra pass” to find an open teammate. These Wildcats did the extra everything: set the extra screen, made the extra fake, waited the extra second before finding the eventual points. Their combination of skill and patience produced college basketball’s most efficient offense, which the next best scoring outfits couldn’t match, either on paper and on the hardwood: Villanova busted Kansas, the number-five offense, 95-79 in the national semifinal, after coasting past number-ten offense West Virginia 90-78 two rounds prior.
Michigan’s scoring attack was no slouch, but its defense is what tested Nova. So instead of prevailing with their customary precision, the Wildcats instead shot past them, literally and figuratively: DiVincenzo’s three began a nine-minute, 24-9 run that ended with Villanova’s lead at 14 and the Wolverines’ season finished. Despite limiting Villanova to just seven assisted field goals, Michigan was never closer than 12 for most of the second half—the same margin as the Wildcats’ smallest victory in the tournament.
How could such a dominant team have gone so unheralded? They entered March Madness at 30-4 and a proven favorite. Just two years ago they’d won the tournament with the same coach and a supporting cast who had now matured to become the headliners. With its Elite Eight victory against Texas Tech, Nova set the record for most Ws in a four-year period (135) by any men’s program and over the course of this dominant season they’d hit more three-pointers than any team, ever. Looking into the tournament, FiveThirtyEight gave Villanova the best chance (18 percent) of winning it all, ahead of Virginia (14 percent) and Duke (10 percent).
The Big East no longer comprises the rich mix of college hoops royalty it once did, though its trimmed size after the sport’s latest realignment (just 10 teams) hasn’t diluted the overall competition. The Wildcats play most of their games on a network other than ESPN, instead on the lucrative but lesser-viewed FOX networks and occasionally CBS. It’s possible that there’s some nostalgic bias: Nova doesn’t compete against traditional rivals like Notre Dame and Syracuse anymore, and as successful as their new adversaries like Butler and Xavier have been, the conference’s makeup lacks the reach and tradition of the old days.
