College basketball will have a new national champion after the Wisconsin Badgers shocked the Villanova Wildcats in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The game was tight throughout the second half and was decided on a great defensive play from Wisconsin’s Vitto Brown on Nova’s last possession.
Wisconsin’s Vitto Brown stoned Josh Hart to upset Villanova and key March Madness’ biggest upset
Down go the national champs. Wisconsin is moving on thanks to some great help defense from Vitto Brown.
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
The ball was in the hands of Josh Hart, Villanova’s senior leader and the possible national player of the year. Hart went to the hoop where he was met by Brown, who slid over to provide great help defense and make the game-winning stop.
It wasn’t an easy decision for Brown to help off his man. Look who he was guarding: Kris Jenkins, the player who hit the game-winning buzzer-beater in the national title game for Villanova last season.
Without the help, Hart is likely going to get a great look at the hoop. His vision was crowded and he never saw Jenkins in the corner. It was a high basketball IQ play by Brown and it has the Badgers heading to their fourth straight Sweet 16.
Wisconsin took the lead when Nigel Hayes hit the go-ahead bucket with 11 seconds left on a driving layup past Villanova’s Mikal Bridges.
This was an incredible college game all the way through, and one that didn’t feel like it should have been played in the second round. For Nova, it’s another disappointing second-round loss. At least Jay Wright will always have last season’s title.
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