Wildest Dreams

How awesome is it having March Madness back?

That’s obviously a rhetorical question, for two reasons. First, the ol’ blog post format doesn’t exactly allow for much back and forth discourse. More importantly, though, there’s no need to give a real answer here because the only response should be self-evident:

It’s truly, deeply, intrinsically, exceptionally, fucking awesome.

Last weekend was a whirlwind of upsets (14 lower seeded teams won between Round 1 and Round 2), close games (including two 1 point contests and an OT in the First Four) and Sister Jean memes. One year after COVID-19 washed away the NCAA Tournament, it has returned with as much Madness as ever. It has highlighted how much I, and so many others, have missed it. It’s been a reminder of how much we’ve lost over the last year (sometimes too much so), but also how close we are to returning to some sense of normalcy.

Of course, no matter how great any tournament is, it’s always a little better when your team is in the mix, especially if they go on a run. This year, the Villanova Wildcats are doing just that.

I went to ‘Nova from 2012-16. During my senior year of high school, the Wildcats went 13-19, their worst record since 1993 and the depths of a stretch where they won fewer games than the year before for three consecutive seasons. As it turns out, I got there at the perfect time. Villanova began to right the ship in 2012-13, with a couple of major regular season upsets in less than a week (against two of my least favorite college hoops coaches no less) and an NCAA Tournament berth. Over the next two seasons, the Wildcats went 62-8. Unfortunately two of those eight losses came in the second round of tournament, with 2-seed ‘Nova losing in 2014 to eventual champion UConn and then in 2015 to 8-seed NC State. The latter loss not only spawned the saddest hour and a half in 89.1 WXVU history, but raised questions of whether Villanova had what it took to even get to the second weekend, let alone make another Final Four or win another NCAA title.

We all know what happened next. The Wildcats had another typically excellent regular season in 2016, but this time turned on the jets in the tournament. They won their formerly treacherous second round matchup by 19 points. They advanced to the Final Four after a rockfight with 1-seed Kansas, where they obliterated Oklahoma 95-51, the largest Final Four margin of victory ever. The title game was an all-time classic, with the best ending in NCAA Tournament history:

I was lucky enough to be at NRG Stadium for the Final Four that year, and I’ll never forget the rush of cheers, bodies, and endorphins all pushing forward once Kris Jenkins’ shot swished through the hoop. That shot was the culmination of a four year journey that saw Villanova rise from a program in decline to the top of the mountain. The stumbles along the way, so brutal in the moment, were merely part of the story, and made that final triumph all the more sweeter.

That shot, or at least the seconds before that shot, were also the last time that Villanova was truly able to play the “Nobody Believes In Us” card with any earnestness. Two years later, the ‘Cats won their second title in three seasons in a blowout win over Michigan. There was no denying that win felt different. Part of that was the nature of the victory, as the 2018 championship game was never particularly close. Part of it was the atmosphere I was in. Being tucked into a corner of a bar in New York City packed to the brim with Villanova alumni during a no-doubter win was slightly different than being in the student section during one of the most thrilling college basketball games ever. But ultimately, that difference came down to two things:

1. Villanova was no longer the regional school outsider with a great basketball program in a major conference. Whether you wanted to use the term “Blue Blood” or “New Blood”, the Wildcats latest title had granted them access to an exclusive club, where winning is not only the norm, but the expectation.
   
   
2. To put it bluntly, I wasn’t in college anymore. There’s something magical, and borderline indescribable about being on campus when your school is making a run in March. Being removed from that community and the closeness that environment fosters makes that magic a little tougher to replicate…especially when you have real adult responsibilities, which unfortunately don’t include Mario Kart and buffalo wings every night until 2 a.m.

I could feel myself drifting away a bit from ‘Nova hoops over the last couple of years. At the very least, I wasn’t agonizing over Wednesday night matchups with DePaul in February. When the players on the team stop being your peers (or even the dude down the hall asking to use your printer), and start feeling more like college kids, the fandom calculus changes a bit. The tournament getting Thanos-snapped off the face of the planet by coronavirus last season didn’t help, especially when that ‘Cats team felt like it was gearing up for a late March push. As a wise man once said, I guess this is growing up:

But something about this year’s Wildcats team has my attention. After Collin Gillespie went down for the season in early March, ‘Nova was left for dead. As far as the pundits were concerned, Villanova’s loss in the first round of the Big East Tournament was the nail in the coffin. When the bracket was announced, 23-1 Winthrop was a sexy 12-over-5-seed upset pick in Round 1:

Villanova is in trouble …

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 14, 2021

The reasoning was sound: No Gillespie, a hobbled Justin Moore, lack of front court depth, Ryan Arcidiacono’s baby brother running point…by all accounts this Villanova team as currently constituted has more flaws than any other Wildcats team since 2013. But, it has one thing that the last few ‘Nova teams have lacked.

The “Nobody Believes In Us” factor is back.

If the outpouring on Twitter from past Villanova players is any indication of how those in, from, and around the program are feeling, the Wildcats are back to playing with a chip on their shoulder. They held Winthrop at arms length throughout the second half last Friday en route to a 10 point win. Then they turned around and throttled North Texas’ Cinderella story before it could gain any momentum on Sunday. If you needed any more evidence that these Wildcats have something to prove, look no further than Chris Arcidiacono extending like Ozzie Smith to snag a loose ball with 9 seconds left and a 23 point lead:

pic.twitter.com/PAQYHOjXba

— Barry Badrinath (@badrinathbarry1) March 22, 2021

At the risk of sounding cliché, THAT is Villanova Basketball™. That’s a team that should probably be happy with making it to the second weekend considering everything that’s happened this year, but is clearly hungry for more than that. Arcidiacono diving for that loose ball was the equivalent of Don Draper’s iconic “What is happiness?” pitch. Villanova could be pleased with 50%. But they want 100%. They want all of it.

Next up for the Wildcats: A Sweet Sixteen date with the Baylor Bears on Saturday at 5:15 pm ET. It’ll absolutely be a tall task for Villanova. Baylor has been the second best team in the nation almost all season long. The Bears have the third best offense in all of college basketball, per KenPom’s adjusted ORTG. They have the best 3PT% in the country too. And yet, I can’t help thinking that if ‘Nova gets hot from deep, gets enough supplemental scoring from the Arcidaconos and Bryan Antoines of its rotation, and keeps the same energy it had last weekend, it’ll be sending Baylor packing and will be punching their ticket to the Elite Eight. After all, if we’ve learned anything from the last 13 seasons of Wildcats basketball, if you don’t take them out in that first weekend, you know you’ll be seeing them in the third weekend.

One last thought: In the middle of a TV timeout in the second half of Nova’s win against UNT, a commercial featuring The Avett Brothers’ Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full of Promise blared through the TV speakers. For those who aren’t indoctrinated in that incredible band’s lore, the chorus of that song goes like this:

There was a dream and one day I could see it
Like a bird in a cage I broke in
And demanded that somebody free it
And there was a kid with a head full of doubt
So I’ll scream ’til I die
And the last of those bad thoughts are finally out

Never has an insurance commercial felt more apt for a college basketball team’s hot streak in the NCAA Tournament. Win or lose, this Villanova team isn’t going down without a fight. Their dreams are attainable, their goals clear. Nobody was believing in the Wildcats two weeks ago. Maybe, just maybe, we should start. After all, March Madness is back, and having something to believe in is what it’s all about.