THIS is it – for all the marbles in the U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men’s basketball tournament.
The three-week, 68-school competitions have come down to the Final Two – the national championship game to be held at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, USA today, April 3 (Manila time), between the nationally second-ranked and highly-favored Villanova Wildcats (35-4) and the nationally seventh-rated and regional No. 3 seed Michigan Wolverines (33-7, most victories in a single season in program history).
Villanova is a 6.5-point favorite to beat Michigan, the biggest odds in an NCAA championship game since Duke was favored by seven over Butler in 2010.
During the semifinals, Villanova registered a Final Four record with 18 three-pointers in ousting the nationally fourth-ranked and fellow regional No. 1 seed Kansas Jayhawks, 95-79, and Michigan halted the upset-conscious Loyola-Chicago Ramblers’ Cinderella run in posting a come-from-behind 69-57 decision.
In the win over the Jayhawks, the Wildcats got three triples and 18 points from The Associated Press’ College Player of the Year Jalen Brunson and 15 points (including three 3-balls) and 13 rebounds from 6-foot-9.5 freshman power forward Omari Spellman. Seven ‘Nova players made at least one three-pointer each.
Brunson, a 6-foot-3 junior point guard who’s averaging more than 19 points per game this season, is the first Villanova player ever to romp away with the AP College Player of the Year award. He also was the leading vote-collector on the 2018 AP All-America First Team.
Michigan, the back-to-back titlist in the Big Ten Conference competitions, trailed by as much as 10 points (41-31) with 14:08 left in the game. The Wolverines were still behind by five points, 47-42, when they put together a 12-0 run that gave them a 54-47 advantage with just under five minutes remaining. Michigan never surrendered the upperhand thereafter.
German-born Moritz (Moe) Wagner, the Wolverines’ 6-foot-11 junior center, poured in 24 points and plucked down a career-high 15 rebounds to become the third player in the last 40 years to chalk up at least 20 points and 15 rebounds in a Final Four game after Indiana State’s Larry Bird in 1979 and Houston’s Akeem (now Hakeem) Olajuwon in 1983. Charles Matthews, a 6-foot-6 sophomore backcourter and a University of Kentucky transferee, tallied 17 markers for the winning squad.
Michigan, the first team to advance to the national title game without beating a top-five seed along the way, owns a nation-leading 14-game winning streak heading into its first NCAA championship appearance since 2013 and the seventh overall in program history.
Both schools have snared the NCAA crown in the past.
Villanova won it in 1985 and 2016 while Michigan copped its lone title so far in 1989 behind NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player and future National Basketball Association (NBA) star Glen Rice.