NEW YORK — In the span of one basketball game, Villanova has gone from answering questions about its second-round failures to inquiries about whether it can make a Final Four.
The way the Wildcats looked in an 87-68 demolition of Iowa in a South Region second-round game at Barclays Center certainly makes it seem like they can now advance to their first Final Four since 2009.
Next up is Miami in the Sweet 16 on Thursday in Louisville, and then potentially overall No. 1 seed Kansas in the Elite Eight.
“We definitely can go all the way as long as we stick to what we do,” senior guard Ryan Arcidiacono said after going for 16 points and 4 assists in a game the Wildcats led by as many as 34. “If we defend like we did in the first half and stay solid like that, our offense will eventually come. I just think, once we set the tone on the defensive end in rebounding, we can go as far as that takes us.”
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, whose team was ranked as high as No. 3 in the nation this season, agreed that this Villanova team could gain some major redemption in the coming days by making a deep run.
“I really think they can go a long way,” he said. “They’re a really difficult team to guard. A lot of times, really talented offensive teams plays defense in spurts, and they don’t. They play defense equally as well as they play offense.”
Villanova (31-5) basically won this game in the first half, when it blew Iowa’s doors off to the tune of a 54-29 halftime lead thanks to a 61 percent shooting clip and 58 percent from deep. The Wildcats’ 25-point halftime lead was the biggest of the tournament.
“We’re thrilled,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “We’re thrilled that we came out and played a first half like that. When I shook hands with Fran, I just said, ‘Hey, I’m sorry. We haven’t played a first half like that in a long time.’ We played a game against Xavier at home that we played like that, and we’ve been on the other side of this. When you just have a team that comes out and makes shots, makes every play defensively, it’s tough to get back in it.”
The second round of the NCAA Tournament hadn’t been kind to Villanova in recent years — as everyone knows by now. In the last two years, the Wildcats lost to UConn and N.C. State, respectively. In their previous two appearances, in 2011 and ’13, Villanova was bounced in the first round.
Wright’s bunch hasn’t been past the second round since reaching the Final Four in 2009, and Wright admitted that another loss to Iowa would mean “failure.”
Wright compared Villanova’s struggles to those of the Buffalo Bills, who lost four straight Super Bowls.
“Maybe that did help us because they weren’t afraid — they definitely were not afraid of the failure,” Wright said. “Nobody was afraid of playing this game, great Iowa team. We knew we could have lost this game. No one was afraid of that outcome.”
Opponents of Villanova have reason to be afraid.
The Wildcats have three able point guards in Arcidiacono, freshman Jalen Brunson and sophomore Phil Booth. The trio combined for 36 points, 11 assists and 5 rebounds. Often, several of them are on the floor together.
“We look at our guards as guards,” Wright said. “We really don’t have a point guard. We don’t have a two guard. We don’t have a three guard. We want all of our guards to do the same thing. When we were recruiting, Arch had the biggest impact on the recruitment of Jalen. When Jalen came on his recruiting visit, he stayed in Arch’s room. We got a hotel room for him, but he stayed and slept in Arch’s room. They developed a great relationship. They’re very similar people and players, very similar backgrounds. So we knew it was going to be fine.
“The traditional definition of a one guard and two guard, a lot of people asked us about that, thought it was going to be a problem, but we were not worried about it.”
Wright and his team also won’t be worried about dealing with tickets for the Sweet 16.
Had they been placed in the East, they would be playing in Philadelphia at Wells Fargo Center and would have all kinds of homecourt advantage — but would also have to cope with the headaches of handing out tickets to friends and family.
“That’s the way we’re going to look at it, Adam, but I would love being at home in Philly for a week right now,” Wright said. “I’ve just got to be honest about that. But Louisville is a good spot. I’m not mad about it.
“And that is the advantage, you know, that you don’t have as many distractions….So that helps. It really does. There is a positive not being in Philly. I’d still rather be in Philly.”
NIn the span of one basketball game, Villanova has gone from answering questions about its second-round failures to inquiries about whether it can make a Final Four.
