You could say that Villanova is playing better than any team in college basketball right now, but that might be doing them a disservice. Villanova’s 92-69 beatdown of Miami to book a spot in the Elite Eight was the best offensive performance by any team in any game all season:
Villanova’s Sweet 16 win was the best offensive performance by any team all season
Miami played a quality offensive game on Thursday, but the Wildcats still blew them out with an incredibly hot shooting night.
Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
1.60 points per possession for Villanova. The best offensive game for any team the ENTIRE SEASON
— Jordan Sperber (@hoopvision68) March 25, 2016
The game between the Wildcats and Hurricanes only had 57 possessions, which is 12 slower than the average Division I basketball game and the second-slowest game of the tournament. But the Wildcats were so hot, they managed 92 points.
Kris Jenkins hit 5-of-6 threes, Ryan Arcidiacono hit 4-of-5 threes, and as a team the Wildcats went 18-for-19 from the free throw line. I mean, they hit shots like this:
The result is that even though Miami played a legitimately good offensive game -- their 1.21 points per possession would be top 5 in basketball if they kept it up the course of a season -- they got blown off the dang court, losing by 23. Miami entered the game 31st in the nation in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defense ratings, and left the game 51st. The fact that a single game caused a team to drop 20 spots after a 35-game season should tell you a lot.
Combine this with a 10-for-19 shooting performance from deep in a 87-68 win over Iowa and a 13-for-28 outing in a 29-point in over UNC-Asheville, and it’s safe to say the Wildcats are playing the best offensive basketball of anybody in the NCAA Tournament.
The story of Villanova the past few seasons is one of unfortunately timed poor performances. The Wildcats have generally been in the best 10 or 15 teams in the college basketball regular season, and yet they lost in the first or second round of six straight trips to the NCAA Tournament. Sometimes they played badly, sometimes an unlikely opponent had a great game, sometimes both happened. Perhaps it was bad luck, perhaps it was lack of “clutchness,” perhaps it was some angry ghost cackling at Villanova basketball from the basketball heavens.
Whatever it was, Villanova has shaken it, and shaken it violently. Not only have they avoided an unfortunate crash, they’re playing their best basketball of the year. And not only are they playing their best basketball of the year, they’re arguably playing the best basketball anybody has played all year.
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