Before Villanova eviscerated Oklahoma, no one had ever won by more than 34 points in a Final Four. No one in the 2016 tournament had beat a team by more than 39! Villanova won by 44. It was brutal, vicious and left us all a bit shell shocked at just how violently the Wildcats knocked down the Sooners.
3 graphs that show just how badly Villanova beat Oklahoma
1. The scoring difference
There are two stretches where Oklahoma flatlined. They survived the first one, sort of, because Villanova briefly stopped scoring as well. They couldn’t overcome the second, where the Sooners watched Villanova rattle off a 25-0 run that put the game away for good.
2. The win probability
In the final minutes of the first half, Villanova already had a 90 percent chance of beating Oklahoma. Almost half way through the second half, Villanova had hit 100 percent. That’s unbelievable.
3. Margins of victory this tournament
Only four games prior to Saturday had been decided by 30-plus points, and all four were during the opening weekend of the Madness. Florida Gulf Coast pounded Fairleigh Dickinson in a play-in game, while three top seeds (including Villanova) absolutely crushed first round opponents. None of those were big surprises.
But two weekends later, for Villanova to beat a fellow No. 2 seed in Oklahoma by the largest margin of the entire tournament -- and by 13 more points than the fourth biggest blowout of the entire tournament? Jeez. Seriously, that’s brutal.
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