A season that began with such promise ended in agony for Villanova on Saturday when the Wildcats lost to the Wisconsin Badgers 65-62 in Buffalo. What seemed like a sure win with very few minutes left in the second half turned into a demoralizing loss, despite a great game from redshirt freshman Donta Divincenzo.
Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig led the Badgers, with Hayes completing a nifty reverse layup in the final minute to seal the victory. Jalen Brunson’s full court heave at the buzzer came up well short, and Villanova reverted back to their pre 2016 tournament run selves by choking in the biggest moments.
In my biased opinion, the referees had a little bit to do with that, but what had more to do with it was poor shooting, particularly from 2016 hero and senior Kris Jenkins. Jenkins played very poorly in both of his tournament games, and one can only wonder if he had made even just one or two more shots, the Wildcats would be preparing for a Sweet Sixteen matchup with the Florida Gators instead of sitting at home living the life of a normal college student for the time being.
Villanova, though down at half, came out firing to start the second half. Thanks in large part to multiple pull up threes, along with a few great drives, Donta Divicenzo was clearly the player of the game for the Wildcats, and at times was the only real threat on the floor, while the Badgers were getting scoring from all over, even when Bronson Koenig was on the bench with 4 fouls early in the half. Villanova built as much as a 9 point lead, but that seemed to vanish as quickly as it had built up culminating in the final run that doomed the defending champs.
Some might say that having to play a senior laden Badgers team so soon in the tournament was extremely unfair. This is Wisconsin’s fourth straight Sweet Sixteen appearance, and despite a solid season, they were penalized merely for having played in a conference, the Big Ten, that was supposedly having a down year. As a result of the stupidity of the selection committee and desire for ratings as opposed to rewarding a solid regular season without thinking about any other factors, Villanova had to play an extremely under seeded Wisconsin team, and suffered the consequences. I guess there’s always next year, but at least I was able to see one Villanova championship in my lifetime, something that very few fans of the team can say.