Villanova looks to win its first national championship since 1985
while North Carolina looks to win its 3rd title in 11 years
Tonight, the NCAA championship will be decided between North Carolina Tar Heels and the Villanova Wildcats. Both teams spent portions of the season ranked number one. North Carolina comes into the game as a favorite by by the public and many commentators. The Tar Heels come from perhaps the best conference; the ACC had 6 teams make it to the Sweet 16 and 2 teams makes it to the final 4. Roy Williams looks to win his 3rd title at UNC and improve his 2-2 finals record.
Villanova remains a holdover from the Big East, who will try to be 6th team from the Big East to win a national title since 2003. While Villanova has not won a national championship under Coach Jay Wright, they have come pretty close given that they have lost to 5 times teams that have ultimately gone on to win the National Championship since 2005. (North Carolina twice, UConn, Kansas, Florida). Still, the resolve of this Villanova team is rather strong as they have been able to advance farther than most experts had predicted.
This will be the third time since 2005 that Villanova has faced UNC in the tournament. While UNC knocked off fairly easily in 2009, the Wildcats suffered a defeat that many view at the hands of the officials in 2005.
Villanova looks as if it has the resolve to finally get a national championship but it will be tough . Brice Johnson and Marcus Page have proven to be more than capable and UNC on paper has more size, meaning they could dominate the boards. Still, Villanova may have the advantage overall in terms of guard and perimeter play which has been the direction that basketball is going especially in the professional ranks with Golden State. Villanova certainly has capable shooters including Ryan Arcidiacono, Kris Jenkins, Josh Hart, and Jalen Brunson. Like North Carolina, Villanova has really good bench players including Phil Booth and Mikal Bridges. Villanova will need a combination of high octane offense and great defense to win it.
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