Great story about last night’s game from Dana O’Neil at espn.com:
HOUSTON — With 4.7 seconds left in a tied national championship game, Daniel Ochefu walked over to the little boy charged with mopping up the wet marks on the court and politely took the mop out of his hands.
The Villanova coaching staff likes to tell its players, “Be the best street sweeper you can be.”
Ochefu decided to take the motivational motto literally, pushing the mop back and forth, back and forth, a good 10 times to make sure every last drop of sweat from the spot on the court where he’d just fallen was gone.
That’s because the senior knew what was coming, even if no one else in the building would believe it long after it had happened.
Ochefu set a screen that popped Ryan Arcidiacono on the sideline inbounds play.
As Arcidiacono sped over midcourt, amid the din of 74,340 people both screaming and holding their breath at the same time, he heard one distinctive voice — Kris Jenkins screaming at him.
“I just heard Kris yelling, ‘Arch, Arch, I’m open,'” Arcidiacono said.
The guard flipped the ball to the trailing Jenkins, who caught the ball in stride, squared his feet and let the 3-pointer go.
And time paused, if it didn’t stop altogether, as nearly 150,000 eyeballs inside the building turned to the basket as the ball flicked off Jenkins’ fingertips and headed on its trajectory toward the rim.
“Physically, I watched it, but I don’t think I actually understood it,” Villanova assistant coach Baker Dunleavy said of his perch on the bench.
“Oh, I watched it. I watched it. I just can’t believe it,” said Wildcats head coach Jay Wright’s wife, Patty, sitting in the first row on the aisle directly behind the bench.
“I knew. I knew. Because he was set and his shoulders were square,” Joe Arcidiacono, Ryan’s dad, said of his view from section 108.
“Do you know how many times I’ve seen that kid take that shot in the summer? At least 1,000. I knew it was going in,” said Toronto Raptors All-Star and former Villanova player Kyle Lowry, who was sitting just behind Patty Wright and her three kids.
To continue reading: How Kris Jenkins’ 3 happened and why it perfectly explains Villanova
