A few days have passed. The celebrations and the parade are completed. The season is in the books. Villanova ascended to their second national championship in three seasons, defeating Michigan on Monday evening.
The body of work begins during the sweltering heat of Summer as individual workouts are accomplished. Fall brings the group practices under the watchful eye of the coaching staff. Games begin as does the exercise of balancing, preparation, practice and competition.
Four months of ebbs, flow and adjustment, aka a schedule, leads the better teams to the ‘second season’.
Get fortunate or good enough then post season beckons. The elite get to play the final weekend. Saturday’s survivors meet two night later. After all the months it comes down to this. Forty minutes separating glory from what might have been.
It is safe to say Jay Wright of Villanova and his adversary Michigan’s John Beilein broke down the offense, defense and various tendencies of the opposition. This is not the best of seven of Adam Silver’s league. Here it is a on the line for forty minutes.
As we are all aware, after all the preparation and planning. it was not even a starter becoming the proverbial difference-maker. Donte DiVincenzo came off the bench to give a performance for the ages. Thirty one points, including five of seven from long distance, in thirty seven minutes of action.
That is why the final game is so pressure-packed. A championship is on the line. And after all the planning and film breakdowns a player you might not have expected emerges to put his stamp on the game.
For Villanova, a 79-62 victory, jubilation. Michigan, left with a pain that will subside when they realize days later what they accomplished. All the result of a meeting the first Monday in April. A night culminating months in the “making” but compressed into 40 minutes.
