NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Villanova Upsets Kentucky and Gets Shot at Oklahoma

There’s a strong tendency to compare the present Villanova basketball team to the one that won the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship in 1985.

Those Wildcats were regarded as an overachieving group that came out of the tournament pack to upset favored Georgetown.

Villanova is following the same upset path again as was demonstrated Thursday night at Birmingham-Jefferson Coliseum when it beat Kentucky, 80-74, in a semifinal game of the NCAA Southeast Regional.

In a later semifinal game, Oklahoma outlasted Louisville in a baseline-to-baseline, up-tempo contest, 108-98. So Villanova (24-12) and Oklahoma (33-3), the No. 1-seeded team in the regional, will play here Saturday afternoon for a berth in the Final Four.

Villanova’s victory wasn’t any fluke. It was simply the better team, parlaying a tight defense and accurate shooting, especially from the free-throw line (17 for 17), to beat the No. 2-seeded team in the regional.

“We talk about the 1985 team as a positive reference,” said senior forward Mark Plansky, the only holdover from the championship team. “But this team has made its own identity. It’s not a feeling of deja vu from 1985.”

Perhaps not, but that won’t stop the media from using the cliche, a Cinderella team, when applied to Villanova.

Plansky conceded that this team is probably more of a Cinderella outfit than the 1985 team, pointing that there were three NBA first-round draft choices three years ago.

Labels or not, Villanova played a near-perfect first half in building a surprising 43-32 lead. It then held off Kentucky (27-6) repeatedly in the second half.

Rex Chapman, Kentucky’s super sophomore guard, primarily carried the fight to Villanova. He scored 30 points, making 5 of 9 three-point shots.

But Villanova had several players to offset Chapman in crunch time. For example:

--After Villanova’s underrated point guard, 5-foot 9-inch Kenny Wilson, rebounded his own missed shot, guard Doug West hit a shot in the lane, providing the Big East team with a 72-62 advantage with 3:44 left.

--Then after Kentucky closed in, trailing by only five points, 72-67, Plansky hit a turnaround jumper off the glass just before time expired on the 45-second shot clock with 2:24 left.

--Kentucky made another surge, closing within four points, when Villanova called consecutive timeouts with 1:43 remaining. When play resumed, Villanova rubbed time off the shot clock before West hit a jumper from the foul line. There were 10 seconds to spare.

With Villanova leading, 76-70, Kentucky couldn’t overcome the deficit as foul-plagued forward Winston Bennett missed two shots and Plansky and Wilson each converted two free throws.

Plansky, who made the clutch free throws with four seconds left to help his team beat Illinois, 66-63, in the second round, finished with 16 points. West led Villanova with 20 points, 14 in the first half, and Wilson had 15.

Wilson was supposed to be overmatched against Kentucky’s senior point guard, Ed Davender. But Davender had difficulty keeping up with Wilson and made only 2 of 12 shots while scoring 6 points. Davender had scored a total of 53 points in the first two tournament games.

Rollie Massimino, Villanova’s excitable coach, who rarely sits down during a game, said his team had its its best defensive effort of the season.

“It didn’t seem like we did a good job on Chapman, but he’s a great, great basketball player and we did everything we could,” Massimino said.

Massimino credited reserve guard Gary Massey with a strong defensive game. He had three steals, blocked a shot near the end of the first half and scored eight points.

In retrospect, Villanova’s 14-3 surge late in the first half had a decisive bearing on the game.

“I thought we got ourselves into a jam during those last seven or eight minutes of the first half,” Kentucky Coach Eddie Sutton said. “We hurt ourselves. Anytime you get behind a team like Villanova, you’re asking for problems.

“They shot the ball extremely well (56.9%), and it seemed like every time we tried to make a run at them in the second half, someone on their club would answer it.

“So we fouled and that was no good because they hit all of their free throws. We had a couple of guys who didn’t shoot the ball real well, and perhaps if they had, it would have been a different game.”

He was most likely referring to Davender and freshman forward Eric Manuel, who was 3 for 10.

Sutton wouldn’t accept the notion that Villanova is an upstart team and said that his players weren’t overconfident, just out-played.

The Louisville-Oklahoma matchup was projected to provide a fast-paced game, and it lived up to expectations. The Sooners play with the throttle wide open, as evidenced by the fact they came into the game averaging 104.3 points.

Louisville Coach Denny Crum said he thought his team played well and was just beaten by a better team.

The Cardinals (24-11) shot 57.9% but still lost. Crum said the key to the game was that his team couldn’t stop the torrid three-point shooting of the Sooners. They made 10 of 19 three-point baskets.

“We came into the game knowing that we had to do a good job on their perimeter players,” Crum said. “We even had a hand in their faces, and still they hit the three-point shots. We made some mistakes in the game, but that team will force you into mistakes.”

Oklahoma forward Harvey Grant, who didn’t even attempt a three-point shot, finished with 34 points on 14-of-21 shooting. Four other Sooners were in double figures, with center Stacey King winding up with 24 points.

Center Pervis Ellison led Louisville with 23 points while grabbing 14 rebounds.

So much for statistics. They don’t mean much the way the furious Sooners play the game. Everything is distorted.

Billy Tubbs’ team applied full-court pressure the entire game and forced Louisville into 22 turnovers, while Oklahoma committed 16.

“We just got beat by a great basketball team,” Crum said. “They have a chance to win it all. They are good enough to do that.”

Tubbs said his players have the green light to shoot three-pointers whenever they’re open.

Oklahoma guard Ricky Grace had a simple answer as to why he prefers the three-point shot: “If you shoot it, you get one extra point.”

Louisville, which trailed, 55-51, at halftime, was still very much in contention midway through the second half. Oklahoma was ahead, 76-74.

Then, Sooner forward Dave Sieger made a three-point shot (what else?) and Grant contributed a three-point play.

That was the turning point as Oklahoma gradually pulled away from Louisville and into the regional final.