Holy Crap: An Elite Eight Summation

Wow. That was certainly not the ending Villanova fans have been accustomed to seeing for the last three rounds of this tournament. No running out the clock here, no sir: Thirteen lead changes in the second half, capped off by a dunderheaded throw by the Wildcats with ten seconds remaining... which was then redeemed after two Pitt free throws by a hot-knife-through-butter layup by Scottie Reynolds which sealed the victory with half a second remaining (although Levance Fields did not give anyone an excuse to exhale until his desperation heave bounced hopelessly away from its target).

If my last sentence left you breathless, well, that's how watching the game felt, too.

And so the Villanova Wildcats -- pride of the Main Line, scourge of the also-rans -- will travel to Detroit as one of the remaining quartet of teams hoping to cut down the net come Monday, April 6. I couldn't be prouder of Jay Wright and this team he has assembled and led with tenacity and brilliance. Excuse me while I get up off of my knees now and realistically examine their chances...

'Nova will play North Carolina for the chance to play in the final round. As you recall, it was the Tarheels who beat Villanova in 2005 en route to capturing their first title since Dean Smith was still coaching there. In later years, it seemed that if you wanted to win it all, you had to beat Villanova to get it. Will this trend continue?

(Continued...)

If you believe the experts, yes. Now that Louisville has been dispatched in shocking fashion, only Connecticut and UNC remain the lone number-one seeds standing, and conventional wisdom says these two will battle for the championship. Unfortunately -- and I would love nothing better than to be wrong -- I think conventional wisdom is right.

This is usually as far as the scrappy underdogs get (if you can call a #2 and #3 seed that). The Huskies and Tar Heels are the elite of the elite, and should Ty Lawson play at full steam the Wildcats may hit the wall by Saturday night. Again, I could be way off, and I pray that I am. But to quote Damon Runyon, "The battle may not always go to the strongest, nor the race to the swiftest, but that's the way to bet."

No matter what happens from here on out, I can only thank these young men from my alma mater for making this a great year to be a Wildcat fan. Go 'Cats!

---