The two No. 1 seeds left in the tournament face off for a spot in Monday’s national championship game. Will it be Kansas or Villanova who gets one step closer to the title?
TV schedule: Saturday, March 31, 8:49 p.m. ET. (30 minutes after Michigan-Loyola Chicago game) TBS
Arena: Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas
There were a ton of upsets in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. But none of them happened to this pair of No. 1 seeds, who proved to be too much for their opponents each time.
Villanova (34-4) looked dominant in the teams first two games, making a combined 31 three-pointers to beat Radford and Alabama, setting a school-record in the process. The Wildcats next two games featured quality Big 12 defenses in West Virginia and Texas Tech, but even they couldn’t halt the top-scoring offense in the country.
This team is the only ones that can claim to have six different players who average double figures in scoring, and seems that they can’t be stopped. So the only way to beat them might be to outscore them, something their semifinals opponent is capable of.
Kansas (31-7) has five players who average at least 13 ppg, and used that balanced offense to beat Penn, Seton Hall, Clemson and then Duke in overtime to get to this point. They cracked the 80 point mark three out of the four times and will have to do so to beat Villanova.
The marquee matchup in this game is of course between All-Americans Devonte’ Graham and Jalen Brunson, arguably the top players in the country. After both have spent time playing in another player’s shadows, each will have the chance to be the star for their team’s run. Of course, there are nine other guys capable of having the prime performance of the night.
Next: Keys to the Villanova-Kansas game
This game will all but surely reach the 80 point mark, with 90 possibly needed to get the win. Both teams will want to run the ball up and down the court and shoot a bunch of three-pointers. But look for Udoka Azubuike of the Jayhawks down low, who could be the key to Kansas getting the win.
Prediction: Kansas 88 – Villanova 85