To the delight of college basketball traditionalists, the Final Four matchup between Villanova and Oklahoma is headlined by outstanding upperclassmen.
Senior Sooner Buddy Hield has established himself as the National Player of the Year by averaging 29.3 points per game in the tournament.
On the other side, Ryan Arcidiacono, the senior Villanova point guard, continues to be the unquestioned leader of the team since captaining the Wildcats as a freshman. Usually heralded for his hustle and grit, Arcidiacono has also been terrific offensively in the tournament, shooting 62.5 percent from the field and 57.8 percent from three, while also hitting clutch free throws in the waning seconds against Kansas to seal the victory.
The two teams last met on Dec. 7, near Honolulu at the Pearl Harbor Classic. There, the Sooners outclassed Villanova 78-55, holding them to just 4-32 shooting from beyond the arc. However, history is not likely to repeat itself, as the Wildcats have improved their three-point shooting percentage from their 35.4 percent regular season clip to a tournament-best 46.3 percent.
Villanova head coach Jay Wright has shown his coaching brilliance this year, most recently exemplified by taking down tournament frontrunner Kansas 64-59 in the Elite Eight. Wright’s transition into a zone defense has allowed the Wildcats to limit their tournament opponents to just 63.0 points per game. Their smothering defense, anchored in the paint by 6-foot-11 senior Daniel Ochefu, limited Kansas’s leading scorer Perry Ellis to just four points.
Saturday, the Villanova defense must continue its aggressiveness and discipline against the offensive juggernaut Oklahoma, led by the three-point assassin Hield. A unanimous AP All-American, Hield is coming off a 37-point performance in an 80-68 win over Oregon.
Hield is not the only worry for Villanova. Fellow guard and senior Isaiah Cousins presents problems as the court general of the very efficient Sooners. An interesting story of triumph, Cousins has reached the Final Four despite being shot in the back by a rival gang member as a sophomore in his hometown of Mount Vernon, New York. Cousins was able to recover and has hit 42 percent of his threes for the year while averaging 4.6 assists per game. If Villanova overcautiously shifts the zone to Hield, Cousins is surely able to hurt them from deep.
Both teams have depended on the three-pointer to carry their offenses, and it is the deep ball that will be the deciding factor. Oklahoma derives 38.9 percent of its total points from three, while Villanova shoots 43.1 percent of its shots from beyond the arc.
If the matchup is decided in three-point land, Oklahoma will have the edge. Despite Villanova’s defensive successes and recent surge from behind the arc, Oklahoma has consistently been one of the nation’s best shooting teams behind Hield, Cousins and junior guard Jordan Woodard.