Creighton falls to Villanova in Big East championship game

Now imagine it happening two years in a row.

“It does still”, he said at his locker Friday night.

Brunson converted a steal under the Creighton basket with 46 seconds left to put Villanova up 36-22 at the break. The Blue Jays and Musketeers were all square at 67 apiece when Marcus Foster hit a crucial 3 pointer to give Creighton a 70-67 lead. “That came to my mind for a second”.

But I do have some thoughts on which teams I would like to see do well – or maybe in a couple of cases not do so well – thereby creating a rooting interest based on the teams involved and not the accuracy of predicted outcomes. Brunson made a great turn-around jumper on the baseline and two key pull-up jumpers as the Cats made their final surge.

The Bluejays continued to try and chip away at Villanova’s lead, bringing the Wildcat lead to 54-42 at one point.

“Just missed it. That’s it”, Delgado said.

It was my first time being inside MSG, first time being at a men’s basketball conference tournament, and it all lived up to the hype. “You can’t do that”. “And we welcome that”, St. John’s coach Chris Mullin said. I should have passed it.

Today’s outstanding performance proved two things: 1. “We’ve just got to bounce back”. “That’s why this team …” “And I think it’s because these guys know how good they are offensively”. Now on to March Madness we go.

Josh Hart was named Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament, capping off the run with a 29-point effort a day after he had the game-winning putback against Seton Hall.

The Villanova Wildcats (30-3) outlasted the Seton Hall Pirates, 55-53, in which Josh Hart scored 19 points in 6-for-13 shooting from the field and 5-for-7 free throws. Villanova won both meetings with Creighton this season, covering the spread in both games as well. Villanova’s Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson started to get hot from the floor to get Villanova back in the game. “Half of that was luck”. Another key component for Villanova, is that they still have the majority of last year’s team intact, and Jenkins has been on it! The Wildcats were on a 14-2 run at this point. He’s the best player in the country. “And I’ve got to live with it”. He’s by far the best player in the country. Kris Jenkins leads the team in threes, but Donte DiVincenzo can be as much of a knock-down shooter as anyone when he gets going.

Oklahoma State, which had a 10-1 stretch in the second half before losing its last three, was dealt the No. 10 seed in the Midwest and has a first-round date with Big Ten Tournament champ MI in Indianapolis.

UNC-Wilmington gets their second crack at an ACC team, after falling to Duke previous year.

The second half of this game was as back-and-forth and just as intense as the first semifinal game of the night. This isn’t the same Villanova program of year’s past. That started what became a 29-point, six rebound effort, his eighth outing of 25 or more points this season for Villanova.

Nothing came easy for the Wildcats.

And you already can hear what that Sunday afternoon would sound like at the Garden, what it would look like, what it would feel like. “It doesn’t happen a lot, so you’ve got to be thankful for those challenges because they make you stronger”.

“Nobody believed in us, and now they do!” “Of course. But let’s not panic and lose our minds”.

Either Villanova or Creighton will be crowned champion of the 2017 Big East Tournament.

Villanova doesn’t take bad shots. Just like the 16th-seeded Privateers, the 15th-seeded Trojans don’t figure to stick around very long. Wilmington plays fast and is efficient on the offensive end, but can struggle to get stops against size. A little bit different from previous year.