Villanova raising 'Cane in tournament

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - By early Saturday morning, eight teams will be alive for the 2016 national championship. None of the other seven could possibly be playing better than Villanova.

The Wildcats were really good in Brooklyn. They were great Thursday night at the KFC Yum! Center against a really good team from America's best conference.

Miami was good enough to beat Virginia, Louisville, Notre Dame and Duke. Other than what turned out to be a mirage first-half flurry of four threes in 2 minutes to get close, the Hurricanes were never in the game. And they really did not play terribly. Villanova was just that good, 92-69 good, a score you associate with a 1-16 game, not a 2-3.

It has been like that since Villanova began NCAA play last Friday. Three games, three blowouts, putting up numbers you see in November home games - 86, 87, 92.

The only thing more pleasing than a review of the incredible numbers is actually seeing it on television or in person. This is the 'Nova team that has now gone 94-13 over three seasons playing the game about as well as it can be played.

How good were the Wildcats against the 'Canes? They scored all those points in just 61 possessions, an incredible 1.508 points per possession, after scoring 1.26 ppp against Iowa and 1.30 against UNC Asheville. They had as many steals (eight) as turnovers.

Through three games, they are shooting 64-for-100 (64 percent) on twos, 33-for-62 (53.2 percent) from three and 38-for-47 (80.9 percent) from the foul line with 61 assists. And when you asked the players what was up, all they could talk about was their defense.

"We have great shooters taking better shots, but we're clicking because our commitment to defense is just incredible," Darryl Reynolds said. "Our attention to detail is what's making these games what they have been."

It was 8-0 and 29-14 because the defense was setting the offense up in an open court. When Miami closed to 31-30, the 'Cats just continued to play, chasing down every loose ball, forcing live-ball turnovers, keeping possessions alive by tipping the rare miss out to a teammate, hitting killer shots at the shot-clock buzzer. Miami was shooting 66.7 percent at halftime, but never really looked comfortable.

It was the kind of game where Kris Jenkins, just before 35 seconds ticked away on a late first-half possession, launched with one foot on the blue logo straddling midcourt, a Steph Curry shot with a Steph Curry result.

"It was a tough shot," Jenkins said. "The shot clock was running low so I really didn't have anything else to do but give us a chance. I put it up there and it went in."

Of course it did.

The attack never really ended. They did not play the clock; they just played the game. When Jenkins got a ball tipped out to him in the second half, he could have taken some time off the clock. He shot a three and made it, no consideration of what could go wrong, only what could go right. The stat of the game was Miami's 17 rebounds. There just weren't any. The game ended like each of the 'Cats NCAA games, walk-ons occupying the court.

"Our program, we have a saying, shoot 'em up and sleep in the streets," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "We want the guys to start aggressively. And if you saw our game against Oklahoma early in the year, we were very, very aggressive shooting threes, very unintelligent shooting threes.

"But we want to be that way and then over the course of the season refine our decision-making but staying aggressive. I think we have been able to play long enough that we're just, we're making our best decisions right now."

When the Sweet 16 began, 14 of the teams were from football conferences, Villanova and Gonzaga the outliers. In the third season of the new Big East, it is only fitting that Villanova, the team that has dominated the league, is the first to get within a win of the Final Four.

"We're definitely playing our best basketball right now," Wright said. "We haven't played this well in any game this season. And that's your goal."

They really are playing this well. It is all quite real.

"I think having no fear is what we're seeing," Wright said.

We are also seeing absolutely wonderful basketball.

@DickJerardi