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No one gave him a chance. He was just the good-looking, perfectly put-together coach with the satchel who couldn't get out of the first weekend.
All glitz, no substance.
Now Jay Wright, with only one more victory, will have a chance to join Rollie Massimino in the annals of Villanova Wildcats basketball.
This was a team that was picked apart and passed over, one without a star, whom few casual college basketball fans were able to rattle off a single player's name until Saturday night's 95-51 annihilation of the Oklahoma Sooners.
Now this starless squad from the Main Line will get a chance to join Ed Pinckney's Cinderella group from 1985 with a victory on Monday night in the national championship game.
"This doesn't mean s---," Villanova's leader and senior point guard Ryan Arcidiacono said as he walked out of the locker room. "Not if we don't win Monday night."
"It was just one of those nights for us," said Ryan Arcidiacono, one of six Villanova players in double digits in a game the Wildcats won by a Final Four-record 44 points. "A little surreal." Bob Donnan/USA TODAY Sports
It wouldn't be quite the miracle that Massimino helped orchestrate 31 years ago over Patrick Ewing and mighty Georgetown, but like that one -- no one truly expected this.
"I didn't see this coming," were the most uttered five words in the arena following the game.
Oklahoma boasted the best player in the country -- Buddy Hield. Buddy Buckets was a scoring machine who entered the game averaging 25.4 points and was shooting 50 percent from the field and 47 percent from deep. The Sooners had also completely outclassed Villanova back in December at Pearl Harbor in what had been a season-changer for the Wildcats.
Now no one will remember the 78-55 thrashing on Dec. 7 in which Villanova looked as if it were playing AAU basketball, jacking up ill-advised 3 after 3 and finishing the game making only 4-of-32 shots from beyond the arc.
That was when everyone wrote off Wright & Co. Sure, the Wildcats were a nice team that hailed from an overachieving Big East, but they couldn't put together six consecutive wins. Not when they hadn't been able to win two straight the last six years following Wright's lone Final Four appearance in 2009.
This time though, the stars aligned perfectly. Villanova rotated defenders and made Hield look ordinary, and the Wildcats got contributions from just about everyone down the line. There was the circus shot from Josh Hart as the shot clock wound down, the incredible catch and finish from Mikal Bridges on a full-court pass. Six players, led by Hart's 23 points, finished in double figures.
Villanova didn't quite match the 78 percent shooting of Massimino's team in the title game, but the Wildcats did wind up shooting a scorching 71 percent from the field. They made 35 of their 49 shots, and seven of the 14 misses came from beyond the arc.
But it was the stellar defense that was the real surprise. Everyone knows that Villanova can score, but Wright's team held a potent Oklahoma offense to 20 percent shooting from the field in the second half, and out-toughed the Sooners for all but the first couple of minutes after halftime.
Hield made only four baskets and finished with nine points on 4-of-12 shooting. The future lottery pick made 1-of-8 from beyond the arc.
"It was just one of those nights for us," Arcidiacono said. "A little surreal."
It was such a pasting that walk-ons Henry Lowe and Kevin Rafferty checked into the game for Villanova with 2:39 left.
"I can't even process this," Rafferty said of his extended stint.
But you wouldn't know that the Wildcats had just got done putting the finishing touches on what was the most brutal beatdown in Final Four history when the locker room opened after the win.
There was no celebration. No yelling or screaming. Not many smiles to be found around the room. In fact, the scene was eerily similar to when Villanova took care of Providence on the road in early February.
Business-like.
"The journey isn't over for us," Kris Jenkins said.
"We came here to win two games," Arcidiacono said.
Wright is now in his 15th season at Villanova. The 54-year-old has been a hot commodity before with Kentucky making a run at him before hiring John Calipari in 2009. There were many who felt he'd be coaching the Philadelphia 76ers by now, but his star had dimmed in recent years -- and he made no attempt to hide the frustration of the recent tourney struggles. A few more early exits and there might have been some wondering whether it was time to move on from the Wright era.
Now, with one more victory, the perception of this anonymous team -- and its coach -- will change forever.