Remembering The 'Greatest Shot' And Villanova's 2016 National Championship With Jay Wright, Wildcats
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- With so many who missed March Madness, CBS3 wanted to re-live one of the glory moments when Villanova won the national championship four years ago. This weekend is the anniversary of perhaps the greatest shot in basketball history.
To relive the magic, I virtually sat down with members of the 2016 Villanova championship team, including head coach Jay Wright, Phil Booth and Darryl Reynolds.
"I was amazed at how unaffected the players seemed to be," Wright said. "They seemed so cool and calm and played like they were cool and calm. That kind of blew me away."
Reynolds was asked what he remembers most about the early stages of the game.
"It was a lot faster than we thought it would be at first," Reynolds said. "It kind of got into a rhythm toward the end of the first half and that's when things kind of settled in and then Boothy started doing his thing."
"I knew that Phil was good in that game. I knew he had 20 points. But when you watch it again this weekend, he was unbelievable," Wright said. "That was unbelievable."
Then the man responsible for the last-second buzzer-beater, Kris Jenkins, jumped in on the fun.
"I remember coach telling us not trying to run transition with them and then the second play of the game I tried running transition. Maybe I should listen to him," Jenkins said.
During the final stages of the game, Wright weighed in on a bad pass by Ryan Arcidiacono.
"I was upset at him because that's so rare for him and he did something that we never do and he's never done before, so you can tell how much the pressure of that game impacts everybody," Wright said.
Then there was a miracle shot by UNC to tie it.
"To make it simple, we have all this terminology we use, but the basic point is, the only thing we can't do here is, give up a three," Wright said.
But 'Nova had one last chance and Booth thought he might see the ball.
"Me and Archie were making eye contact when he crossed half-court," Booth said. "I'm ready, stepping in, one, two, and he was coming my way."
Instead, Arcidiacono dropped it to Jenkins for the championship.
"That shot going in, at the buzzer, for the championship, the fireworks going off, the confetti coming down at the exact time, I still think that, to me, is the greatest shot," Wright said.
