Kansas and head coach Bill Self are one step closer to the final four. The Jayhawks dominated 12 seed Villanova in a 72-57 regional semi-final blowout. In the end the talent and depth of the Jayhawks proved too much for Villanova.
Russell Robinson, Mario Chalmers, and Brandon Rush all scored double digits. Sasha Kaun and Darrell Arthur both recorded nine and seven points respectively. Kaun led in rebounds and blocks, Robinson in assists, and Chalmers in steals. What killed Villanova however was Kansas’ three point accuracy. The Jayhawks were 24-45 from behind the arc compared to Nova’s 21-59.
“The threes hurt us early,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “When a team that good is making those kind of shots, it is going to be tough. I didn’t think we were that bad defensively in the first half, they are just a very good team that is playing very well right now.”
The Jayhawks had the game in hand from the beginning, starting the game with a 14-2 run. When Villanova cut it to seven points just before the half, Kansas held the Wildcats to a single point off a foul shot the rest of the half.
Scottie Reynolds led the Wildcats in scoring with 11 points. Dwayne Anderson had eight points and led Villanova with four steals and two blocks. Dante Cunningham tied with Kaun for a game high seven rebounds.
“I just told Bill he’s got a lot of big-time players that play the right way,” Wright said. “What we feared was not being able to score. We needed to be able to make 3s and Scottie and Dante to score and they just did a great job defensively.”
Kansas will move on the regional championship game where they will play the upstart Davidson Wildcats, a ten seed led by white hot sophomore Stephen Curry. Curry has recorded at least 30 points in all of his NCAA Tournament appearances dating from last year. Curry and the ten seed Wildcats should prove to not be a push over and might be a legitimate roadblock to Bill Self’s first final four appearance.