3 Reasons Why Villanova Can Win The Whole Darn Thing
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- This year is different.
Year-after-year -- to their credit -- Jay Wright's Villanova Wildcats are among the NCAA's best basketball teams. But every year, Nova comes up short in the NCAA tournament.
Here are three reasons why this year's No. 1 ranked Villanova team can win the whole darn thing.
3. No "scary" team
Kansas is solid. North Carolina is talented. Virginia, Oklahoma, Michigan State, and Maryland can probably compete with any team. But the parity in college basketball this season is striking. There isn't any consistently dominant teams. In fact, while you can certainly debate their strength of schedule, Nova's 24-3 record is tied for NCAA's best with No. 5 Xavier -- who they face on Wednesday night.
2. Senior pillars
Senior point guard Ryan Arcidiacono and senior big man Daniel Ochefu are likely not going to make an impact in the NBA. But for this team, for right now, they provide reliable senior leadership at important positions serving as Nova's pillars of success.
Arcidiacono is averaging 12.0 PPG, 4.3 APG, and 1.3 SPG, while averaging under 2.0 turnovers per game and shooting 84-percent from the foul-line.
Ochefu, who has improved brilliantly over the years, is averaging 10.5 PPG, 8.2 RBP, and 1.8 BPG, shooting 63-percent from the field.
1. Balance
Teams like Oklahoma and Michigan State are driven by their respective star players, Buddy Hield and Denzel Valentine. Villanova does not rely on any particular player.
Villanova has seven players averaging 20-plus minutes per game. Five Nova players are averaging at least 10.0 points per game, while no player is averaging more than 15.0. That player, is junior Josh Hart, who is averaging 15.0 PPG and 7.6 RPG while shooting over 50-percent from the field.
