How good was this Villanova team that won the national championship in such impressive fashion over its Michigan counterpart Monday night?
From November until mid-March, they obviously weren’t as consistently as good as they were during the three-week NCAA Tournament – if that was the case, they would not have had four losses going into Selection Sunday.
The best team during the 2017-18 regular season was the University of Virginia Cavaliers.
Sure, history will remember Coach Tony Bennett’s team was the first-ever team to lose to a No. 16 seed, via the stunner by way of the Maryland-Baltimore County.
But taking a 31-2 record into the NCAA Tournament – including winning 20 of 21 games against ACC competition – is a far stronger indication of what the Cavaliers were until that mind-boggling result on March 16 in Charlotte.
However, Jay Wright’s Wildcats – who finished a game behind Xavier in the Big East standings but took a No. 1 seed and 30-4 record into the East Regional – left no doubt as to the best team in the 68-team NCAA Tournament.
They won their tournament games by an average margin of 17 points, with only West Virginia and Texas Tech (in the East Regional semifinal and final, respectively) coming as close as with in 12 points of them.
An exceptional group of jump shooters, as well as the overall play of likely John R. Wooden Award-winning point guard Jalen Brunson, were obvious strengths of Wright’s team.
But equally as impressive – if often overlooked – was the Wildcats’ defense.
Opponents shot a cumulative .393 from the field.
And three consecutive wins – vs. West Virginia, Texas Tech and Kansas – came against the best teams from what was widely conceded to be the best conference (Big 12) in the sport this season.
Right off the top of my head – and getting the scope is reasonably concise as possible – here are the two teams that impressed me as much as Villanova did while winning national titles:
*The 2004-05 North Carolina Tar Heels, who went 33-4 while outscoring their six tourney foes by 14 points per game, and having three reasonably “close calls”, edging Villanova by a point in the Sweet 16, Wisconsin by six in the regional final and a very good Illinois team by five in the final game, and;
*The 2011-12 Kentucky Wildcats, who were 38-2 (including 19-0 against SEC competition), beat their six tournament opponents by about 12 points per game and beating Louisville and Kansas in the Final Four by eight points apiece.
That squad, in 6-foot-10 Anthony Davis, had a player who was more dominant (if not necessarily “better” – if that makes sense) than either the Wildcats or the Tar Heels had in their lineup.
If I had to give a very slight edge to which I consider the “best” of those three teams – at least in the way they play during those six games – it would be to the Villanova squad that overwhelmed Michigan Monday night in San Antonio.
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