Two's Company
62 games down. Just one to go. The most important contest of the most important tournament in all of college basketball. And it all comes down to this one last game.
Villanova, who has exercised an absolute reign of dominance to get to this point, will face off against the inconsistent yet well-lead Michigan Wolverines to take all the marbles as the 2018 Men's College Basketball Champion. Who will claim the title and why? Here's our pick.
The Case for Michigan:
Damn you, Michigan! You spoiled the historic run of America's sweethearts, Loyola-Chicago despite their teamwork, adept coaching, gritty defense, and the prayers on Sister Jean's behalf. Michigan has looked a very strong side since the beginning of the B1G Tournament, as they haven't lost in 14 games. Surging off tight lockdown-style defense, the passion brought by team leader Mo Wagner, and the tactical coaching of John Beilein, Michigan has arguably looked the most dominant team in the tournament. As the 13th team in defensive efficiency and 6th in opponent's PPG, the Wolverines are an absolute defensive juggernaut and this matchup will pose an absolute clash of the titans, as we focus here on the defensive one. Michigan additionally operates seamlessly on offense as they have the third least opponent SPG, showing mature passing and strong teamwork. Despite their defensive dominance and seamless ball movement, Michigan is a team with many holes across the board. Their most notable deficiency is their inconsistent play as despite going on a run of dominance, many of their wins have honestly been shabby, consisting of poor shooting performances, bad shot selection, and relying on their gritty defense to pull out the win. Michigan needed a 24 point, 15 rebound performance out of Wagner to manage a four point victory over the Ramblers who, very similarly to Villanova, lack a strong rim protector and are a poor rebounding team. Michigan is also absolutely atrocious from the foul line, landing themselves 324th in Division 1. In case you couldn't tell, that's about the bottom six percent of college basketball. Seeing as high pressure games often come down to the line, literally and figuratively, Michigan simply couldn't handle the late game intensity. Michigan would need to have their best two-way performance of the season, with an especially efficient night on the offensive end, and control the boards against a relatively short team, to even keep up with the high paced Villanova offense.
The Case for Villanova:
Let's just slow clap it out for Jay Wright and the Wildcats real quick. They hadn't won by less than 12 points the whole tournament and were going into perhaps the most anticipated game of the whole tournament where some pegged that run to come to an end. Boy, were those guys wrong. The Wildcats started out on a 22-4 run against the bewildered Jayhawks and kept an iron-tight grip on the contest the whole way as they ended up comfortably winning by 16 points. Villanova proved to still be the offensive juggernaut they had been all year long, despite a terribly inefficient outing against a top 10 defense in Texas Tech. Villanova bounced right back as they made a tournament record 18 three pointers on an astounding 45% from downtown, all the while shooting 55.4% from the field and tallying up a more-than-impressive 20 assists. Basically Villanova was a textbook example of both ball movement and lights-out shooting; some might call them almost Warriors/Spurs-esque. Let's not tarnish the good name and unmatched atmosphere of college basketball with the NBA though, despite Villanova having an extremely modern offense that operates at a break neck pace that forced even the defensive titan West Virginia into a 90-78 shootout. While having undoubtedly the best offense in college basketball, Villanova has its fair share of weak spots too, such as their mediocre defense and lack-of-presence on the boards. Speaking of boards, in their recent matchup against top 10 defense Texas Tech, the Wildcats relied on their astonishing 51 rebounds to compensate for shooting 33.3% from the field and a dismal 16.7% from deep. As they prepare to face another defensively sound team, Villanova must prepare for a slower pace than usual and be ready to hit the boards with fervor. If the Wolverines can limit the shooting of Villanova, all the while forcing turnovers and dominating the glass, they just might have a chance to win their second championship of all time.
Our Pick: Villanova