Villanova just laid the most vicious whooping in Final Four history. The Wildcats beat Oklahoma 95-51, a 44-point romp that set the record for largest margin of victory in a Final Four game, and they'll be playing for a national title.
Everything worked for Nova against Oklahoma. In an arena where it's been hard for teams to shoot threes, the Wildcats shot 11-for-18 from deep. They were even better inside the arc, shooting 24-for-31 from 2-point range. Even on plays where Oklahoma played great defense -- and, to be honest, there weren't a ton of them -- Villanova found a way to score.
All in all, Villanova shot 71.4 percent, the second-best percentage in a Final Four game ever ... topped only by Villanova's performance in the 1985 championship. And there were no 3-pointers in the game back then.
The Wildcats scored 1.50 points per possession, which is almost the best offensive performance by any team in any of the thousands of college basketball games this season. The only reason it's not is because Villanova set that mark by scoring 1.55 points per possession against Miami in the Sweet 16. So the Wildcats have now put together two of the best offensive games of the year by any team against any opponent ... and both came in the later rounds of the NCAA Tournament, when they were supposedly facing the best teams in the country.
And they did it on defense, too! Sure, a lot of Oklahoma's failings were missed open shots, but the Wildcats did a better job of bottling up Buddy Hield than pretty much anybody had done all season. Villanova held Oklahoma scoreless for 5:38 in the first half, going on a 12-0 run, and held the Sooners scoreless for 6:03 in the second half, going on a 25-0 run. A 25-0 run! Villanova blanked the team with the best scorer in college basketball for 18 freakin' minutes of playing time while racking up 37 points of their own. That's not supposed to happen at all!
Oklahoma is a really good basketball team. We know that because they were good all season, but also because they themselves whooped Villanova back in December, winning 78-55 in a game in Hawai'i. Between these two games, there was a 67-point difference in margins of victory. That's the largest flip this century, per Ken Pomeroy.
Villanova is peaking right now. And Villanova peaking looks like a freakin' juggernaut.
Basketball is supposed to get harder when the calendar goes deeper into March and flips into April. But Villanova has now won its NCAA Tournament games by 30, 19, 23, five -- good job, Kansas! -- and now 44. These were games against good basketball teams.
With one game left in the college basketball season, Villanova is playing the best basketball any team has played all season long. That's pretty good for Villanova! And if they can keep it up for another game, they'll be the champions.