The No. 2 Villanova Wildcats just won by the greatest margin of victory in a Final Four game, beating the No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners 95-51. Four of the Wildcat starting five scored in double-digits, and Big 12 Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year Buddy Hield of Oklahoma was held to nine points. Villanova's dominance extended to scoring on touchdown-like plays:
With plays like that popping off on the Final Four court in Houston, Texas, Villanova shot 71 percent from the floor, fully deserving to advance to their first National Championship game in 31 years.
The only other team over the past month of college basketball that's been beating teams like that is the UConn Huskies women's basketball team, who will play Oregon State in the Final Four on Sunday. Head coach Geno Auriemma's team has won 73 consecutive games, which last week, prompted Boston sportswriter Dan Shaughnessy to claim that they're "killing the women's game."
But Villanova's dominance over Oklahoma, a team lead by Hield, arguably the best March Madness player we've seen since Stephen Curry's 2008 run, should be viewed as bad for men's basketball, right?
Nobody likes to see the big star go down. Also, Villanova has been blowing out teams all tournament. Way to kill the men's game, Wildcats:
Or, not! Shaughnessy's "poorly concealed misogyny," evident in the fact that there have been historically great men's basketball teams that were never accused of "killing the game," was under direct attack again from super sarcastic Twitter users after Villanova's huge win on Saturday night, because sexist double-standards in sports need to be dragged out of the 21st century.
So, what's really the issue at hand? Are we really comparing the UConn women's basketball team, which is the greatest basketball program since John Wooden's UCLA in the '60s and '70s, to Villanova, a good team in a soft field this year featuring zero high-quality NBA prospects? Well yes, as a thought exercise. Let sportswriter Jessica Luther sexsplain this to you:
Despite Villanova's historically best attempt, men's college basketball is alive, folks. Whew!
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