Jensen: Sooners say, 'We got whipped'
HOUSTON - A stone-faced Oklahoma undergrad, in the second row of the Boomer Sooners section, saw another lost Sooners possession and simply said, "C'mon, just give us two."
HOUSTON - A stone-faced Oklahoma undergrad, in the second row of the Boomer Sooners section, saw another lost Sooners possession and simply said, "C'mon, just give us two."
It was obvious in the best seats and the last rows of NRG Stadium: Oklahoma's will had been shattered. Sooners coach Lon Kruger put it this way about the whole Villanova avalanche that rolled over his squad Saturday in an NCAA national semifinal: "It became embarrassing right there. . . . We lost composure, and things fell apart."
It was over, well over, when Josh Hart, star of this night, served up a symbol of the whole massacre. Oklahoma wanted to get a little pass over to its guy, Buddy Hield, who has been picking up the most national player of the year trophies and had been the dominant star of this tournament.
Except the pass wasn't crisp, and Hart simply beat Hield to the ball, going the other way. Then it happened again, next series, on the other side of the court. Get the ball to Buddy. Nope, Hart took it.
Go ahead and focus on Villanova's Near Perfect Game on the shooting end. But Villanova wins this night even if all those shots don't fall. Sure, the 95 points and 71.4 percent shooting both stand forever, but so does the other side of the ledger, leading to this being the biggest rout in Final Four history.
Look at the 51 points scored by Oklahoma this way - the Sooners had averaged 74 points a game in the seven games this season they'd lost.
"We did a really good job pressuring the ball on the perimeter," said Villanova assistant coach Ashley Howard. "All of their guards are really good with the ball off the dribble and getting the pull-up jump shots from three-point range. We did a really good job of getting pressure on them, making them drive, and making them take tough contested shots."
Every route led to another stop sign.
"Besides the guy guarding him, he saw four guys [running] at him," Hart said of Hield's nine-point night after Hield had scored 27 and 36 and 17 and 37 in his four previous NCAA games.
"He hit that first step-back three on Ryan Arcidiacono, and everybody on our team went crazy on Ryan," Villanova coach Jay Wright related later. "I don't think I've ever had more people ask me or send me suggestions on how to stop Buddy Hield going into this game. It's unbelievable."
They had this.
"One of the things we tried to do was switch onto him not specifically for switching, but get different people playing him because he wears you out," Wright said. "We had everybody from Daniel Ochefu, our five man guarding him - Darryl Reynolds [another post player] guarded him. We did it so different guys were chasing him, moving off the ball. We were giving him different looks."
Wright made sure they were all fresh. He got Ochefu out of there just before a TV timeout. His rest lasted more than five minutes, but the time missed on the clock was exactly 40 seconds.
Hield saw the one little momentum swing Oklahoma had just after halftime, drawing inside 10 points - "I thought that was it for them."
Hield himself noted what happened next, remembering how Hart took the ball into the lane, into heavy traffic. His pump-fake and shot missed, but Kris Jenkins kept the ball alive, and Hart grabbed it and found less traffic this time, hitting the shot inside and getting fouled.
"They're a great team," Hield said. "They made shots. They made shots in rhythm."
They did a lot more. A 12-0 run that put 'Nova up, 28-17, with seven minutes left in the first half, included Ochefu feeding a cutting Jenkins, after Jenkins had hit a three, after Oklahoma had missed two straight free throws, after Hart had worked for an offensive rebound to score and had scored inside before that, after Mikal Bridges had come cold off the bench hitting a three.
Asked about that fantastic home run pass Jenkins threw to Bridges, who dunked his way into Monday's One Shining Moment montage - asked if that was the back-breaker - Oklahoma's coach said, "Villanova had a lot of good plays."
Kruger said that with respect. He talked of how Villanova "popped us there" in the first half, and the Sooners didn't handle it well. Then Oklahoma got that bit of life.
"Popped us again," Kruger said of the run that eventually reached 25-0.
Hield, also full of respect, put it simply: "That's one of the best teams I've ever played in college."
This hadn't been all about holding him down. Other guys had hurt Villanova more at Pearl Harbor in December. This time, Villanova had six steals in the first half, forcing nine turnovers, and had just two personal fouls. By the end, the margin off turnovers was 31-14. Villanova had scored 53 second-half points, to those 51 for Oklahoma for the game.
Oklahoma's coach reached the only available conclusion: "We got whipped in every way."
And then a bunch of Sooners undergrads lined up at the edge of the student section to take photos - of Villanova running off the court.
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