Sweet 16 Match-up: Kansas vs. Villanova

Everybody likes to hear about the Cinderella teams in the NCAA tournament. That is a major story that people like to hear about and we hear about constantly. It makes a good story, the small school that wasn't ranked all year beating up on a larger school that is 'suppose' to make it to the elite 8 or final four. That's why Hoosiers is such a great movie. However, those type of scripts are usually reserved for Hollywood and not the NCAA tournament. There are occasionally teams that make it to the sweet 16 or even the elite 8 that are not in the top 5 teams in their region, but it is rare. Unfortunately for Villanova, the clock will strike midnight while playing Kansas. Once we break down the seasons and the tournament we will see that this is the easiest game to pick out of the Sweet 16 match-ups.

Regular Season

During the regular season, the Kansas Jayhawks did quite well. They were able to compile a 13-3 conference record and a 31-3 overall record. Their only loses came to in-state rival Kansas State, a great Texas team and a one-point lose to Oklahoma State. During this stretch, they compiled 20 straight wins before losing 3 out of 7. However, they were able to get back on track by winning 4 in a row before the tournament began. During the regular season, they led the nation in margin of victory by winning by an average of 21 points.

Villanova did not have quite as good of a regular season and barely made it to the tournament at all. The Wildcats ended the season with a 20-12 record with losses to some good teams and not so good teams. Their losses include: Marquette, Pittsburg, Notre Dame, DePaul, Rutgers, Syracuse, St. Joseph's, Georgetown twice, North Carolina State and Cincinnati. They ended up 9-9 in their conference play to rank near the middle in their conference. This clearly shows that Villanova had a pretty tough go this past year.

The Tournament

Kansas continued their domination of winning percentage by winning their first two games by an average of 27.5 points per game. While Kansas has not had a great deal of success in past tournaments, it appears that this year will be different. They have a deep roster that will enable them to bring in good players off the bench if their starters get into foul trouble or are not playing well. A lot of people considered their second round match-up of UNLV to give them some fits, but Kansas was able to brush them aside quite easily.

Villanova is quite a surprise to make it to the Sweet 16. While Kansas was the number 1 seed in the Midwest division, Villanova is a number 12 seed. While a lot of number 12 seeds have won in the first round, they are usually bounced out by the number 4 seed in the second round. This year however, Vanderbilt was upset by the number 13 seeded Siena. So in round two, there was a number 12 seed versus a number 13 seed. Villanova was able to beat the other Cinderella team to make it to the final four.

Match-up

Unfortunately for Villanova though, they now have to face the number 1 seeded team instead of a 9, 8 or 16 seed. Villanova has zero seniors on their team and are relying on their star player Scottie Reynolds, who is only a sophomore. While younger teams can do well, they just have not shown enough this past year to compete with the depth and experience that is the Kansas Jayhawks team.

This is going to be a lopsided affair with the final score being Kansas 80, Villanova 68.