SAN ANTONIO -- The dynasty that Jay Wright has built at Villanova hinges on players accepting their roles, no matter the task. Winning their second national championship in three years on Monday night, it was only fitting that the guy who has arguably accepted his role more than anyone on this year’s team was the one to lead the way.
Donte “Big Ragu” DiVincenzo already had quite the following, but his legend has a new definition now after the sophomore’s 31 points powered the Wildcats to the 79-62 victory over Michigan. Putting the exclamation point on a historic 36-win season, DiVincenzo could not have dreamed of this performance.
“I did not think I was going to have this kind of night,” said DiVincenzo.
Two years ago, DiVincenzo sat on the bench in a suit, taking a redshirt year while the Wildcats claimed the program’s second national title. The reward is all that much greater because of it.
“He’s worked so hard to make himself the best player he can be every day,” said National Player of the Year Jalen Brunson. “This is very special, but it’s nothing surprising for us. We’ve seen Donte do this multiple times this year.”
It was the sixth time this season that DiVincenzo scored at least 20 points in a game.
Wright has said it time and again - DiVincenzo’s role is considered so large by his teammates that they call him their sixth starter. The sophomore would be in almost any other starting five in America. But, the patience that he used is something we don’t see as often in college basketball. The sophomore explained how that happens by lending some perspective on the recruiting philosophy of the coaching staff.
“As the older guys on the team now, we have so much confidence in the type of person Coach Wright is going to bring into the program,” said DiVincenzo.
“We try to be the nastiest on the court, but off the court we try to be genuine people as much as we can,” Brunson added. “I think that’s the most important thing is just finding the right kids to keep this culture alive.”
That nastiness that Brunson was talking about is what the Cats used to conclude a historic NCAA Tournament surge. The 17-point victory gave Villanova a clean sweep of double-digit wins in the Big Dance.
“I don’t think these kids will even think that we dominated the tournament,” said Wright, who shrugged off the fashion of these victories. “They’ll just think we played Villanova basketball. We got better the next night. We did keep getting better. We got better from the Kansas game. We got better defensively tonight. That’s what they take pride in.”
The pride these Wildcats can have is that they’ve assembled the best run in program history, and they did it in the Final Four with Eric Paschall charging the team past Kansas, and DiVincenzo being the man in the title clash.
That’s the mark of a complete team, and that’s why Villanova is the king of college basketball again.