With 1 Shot, Villanova Cements Its Place as One of College Hoops' Top Programs

HOUSTON — Moments after surfacing from the bottom of the dog pile—the one that ensued after he nailed the most memorable buzzer-beater in NCAA title game history—Villanova's Kris Jenkins marched toward the sideline at NRG Stadium and absorbed the scene.

Security guards corralled a herd of students who'd leaped over a baseline guard rail to celebrate the Wildcats' 77-74 victory over North Carolina.

Ed Pinckney and Rollie Massimino, the player and coach who led Villanova to its last national championship in 1985, cheered from the bleachers. A few sections away, Jenkins' parents snaked through the stands to get closer to their son as he pounded his chest, raised his arms into the air and screamed.

"What can they say now?" Jenkins barked as confetti danced in the air around him. "What can they say now?"

Jenkins glared at the reporters on press row.

"Give us our respect!" he yelled.

At this point, how could anyone not?

With one flick of the wrist, the 240-pound Jenkins muzzled the naysayers who once told him he was too fat to excel at the Division I level.

With one monumental play, he altered the perception of a Villanova program that, even after averaging 32.3 wins over the past three years, is rarely mentioned among the nation's best.

With the final shot of the season, he reversed the narrative that college basketball in 2015-16 was defined by parity, that there were no great teams—only a handful of pretty good ones.

"After what we just did, I think it's pretty obvious that this is a great team," Villanova guard Josh Hart said.

Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press

No, these Wildcats are more than that. Following a historic postseason run in which they defeated two No. 1 seeds and a No. 2, Jay Wright's latest Villanova squad should be labeled nothing short of elite.

The Wildcats won their first five NCAA tournament games by an average of 24.2 points. They toppled Kansas, the field's top overall seed, by holding the Jayhawks to a season-low 59 points. They curb-stomped Oklahoma and Naismith Trophy winner Buddy Hield 95-51 in the most lopsided Final Four game ever.

Neither of those victories, though, matched what happened Monday, when Jenkins took a pass from senior point guard Ryan Arcidiacono in the waning seconds, elevated above the outstretched arms of North Carolina's Isaiah Hicks on the right wing—well beyond the three-point line—and buried a shot that propelled what had already been an epic game into legendary status.

Jenkins' heroics came after North Carolina's Marcus Paige rattled in a three-pointer to force a 74-74 tie with 4.7 seconds left. The Tar Heels had trailed by as many as 10 with 5:29 remaining.

"We've got 4.7 seconds to play defense," Paige said he told his teammates during an ensuing timeout. "Just 4.7 more seconds and we'll go to overtime, and this game will be ours."

Thanks to Jenkins, the Tar Heels never got that chance. As Villanova players cut down the NRG Stadium nets, sobs could be heard from the showers in North Carolina's locker room, where Paige lamented what went wrong.

"It's going to be impossible not to see that shot," Paige told reporters. "It's one of the great shots in NCAA history, a buzzer-beater in a championship game. I'm going to see it for the rest of my life and it's going to hurt every time."

For more than three decades, North Carolina State's triumph over Houston in the 1983 title game had been regarded as the best championship ever. That contest ended when Lorenzo Charles rebounded a teammate's air ball under the basket and threw down a dunk for a 54-52 win as time expired.

"This game was better," longtime CBS broadcast Jim Nantz said late Monday night. "It's the best I've ever seen. It will take an awful lot for somebody to come up with a script that can top this one."

Perhaps it's only fitting, then, that the central figure of one college basketball's most dramatic games ever has a heartwarming tale of his own.

Jenkins was 11 in 2005 when he and North Carolina guard Nate Britt became AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) teammates in Washington, D.C. Soon after, his family moved to South Carolina when Jenkins' mother, Felicia, was offered a basketball coaching job at Benedict College in Columbia.

Felicia, though, feared her son may go down a wayward path in his new environment, so she phoned the Britt family and asked if Kris could move in with them. They obliged, and Kris now refers to the Britts as his adoptive family.

"They changed my life," Jenkins said Monday. "I owe them everything."

While Nate Britt was regarded as one of the top high school guards in the country—turning down offers from Arizona, Duke and others to sign with North Carolina—Jenkins' path to college was much tougher. Recruiters feared he was too heavy to play at the Division I level, forcing Jenkins to change his diet and dedicate himself to cardio exercises to prove his commitment to the game.

Since arriving at Villanova three years ago, Jenkins said he's lost 40 pounds.

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

"Villanova believed in him," Felicia said Monday. "When everyone was else was telling him he had a bad body, Coach Jay stood by him. He gave him a plan and kept his foot on his neck. It wasn't easy. They didn't always see eye to eye. But Coach Jay held his feet to the fire the entire time, and it paid off tonight."

For a time Monday night, it looked as if it wouldn't unfold that way for the Wildcats, who trailed 39-34 at the intermission.

Moments after entering the halftime locker room, forward Daniel Ochefu asked Villanova's coaches, trainers and managers to go into the hallway so the players could hash out their problems among themselves.

"[Ochefu] was like, 'Can y'all get out? I only want players in here,'" Hart said. "It shows his leadership. He's a fiery guy. We had to get dialed into the game plan. We knew if we did that, we'd have a chance to win in the end."

Henry Lowe, a seldom-used reserve, said Ochefu told the Wildcats to "stick to their principles. To defend, rebound, run, execute, play hard, play smart, play together, play with pride."

After all, those were the philosophies that had helped Villanova flourish during a postseason when so many expected it to flounder. The Wildcats advanced to the Final Four in 2009 but hadn't reached the second weekend since. Chokers, they were often called.

Villanova's success this season also came despite a void of high-level talent. In all likelihood, the 2015-16 squad will become the first team in 29 years to win a title with a roster that features zero first-round NBA draft picks.

That certainly didn't matter to Jenkins, who scored 14 points Monday and averaged 15.5 points in the NCAA tournament.

Jenkins' birth parents said they sensed Kris had something special in store when they visited him Sunday night at the Royal Sonesta hotel. Felicia asked her son if he had strong shoulders, and Kris nodded.

"Then carry your team," she said.

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Kelvin, Kris' father, said Kris is normally jovial the night before a game. But on Sunday, "He was all business." Thrilled as he was with Kris' historical shot, he said he wasn't surprised when the ball found the bottom of the net.

"He's been hitting big shots all his life," Kelvin said. "I said he was going make it before he ever shot it. I turned to my brother [during the final timeout] and I said, 'They need to get the ball to Kris. He's going to score the last bucket.' He shot it and it left his hand and I knew it was good."

Jenkins sensed it, too.

Following the final timeout, Jenkins inbounded the ball to Arcidiacono on the far baseline and sprinted down the court. While most expected Arcidiacono—a senior who grew up outside of Philly—to take the final shot, he penetrated to the three-point line and then flipped the ball back to Jenkins after hearing him yell, "Arch! Arch! I'm open."

Seconds later, Jenkins released the shot with 0.4 seconds on the clock. As the ball sailed toward the basket, Jenkins had one thought.

"Ball game!" he said.

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

The postgame scene was almost surreal, with security guards putting all their weight against guardrails to keep Villanova students from plowing over them to get to the court. Massimino, now 81 and soft-spoken, teared up as he spoke with reporters while the Wildcats snipped away at the nets.

"I'm not surprised," he said of Villanova's championship. "The kids were very cohesive with each other. The chemistry was great all year."

Standing nearby was Pinckney, the MVP of the Final Four in 1985, when Villanova upset Georgetown by shooting an NCAA title-game record 78.6 percent from the field. Now an assistant with the Denver Nuggets, Pinckney said all but one member of that championship team was in attendance Monday.

"This game was better," he said. "This game was better."

All because of Jenkins' shot at the buzzer, which sent the 74,340 fans at NRG Stadium into a frenzy.

Well, all but one.

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

Jenkins' adoptive mother, Melody Britt, watched the final seconds on a television monitor above an NRG Stadium concession stand. Melody said she spent the entire game pacing the concourse because she was too nervous to stay in her seat.

"I started running down the steps," she said. "I was pushing people out of the way."

Across the court, Felicia collapsed into the arms of a friend as the ball dropped through the net. Memories and images from her son's journey—his hard work, his sacrifices, his hardships and successes—flooded her mind.

"Time just stood still," Felicia said. "I went numb. My friend grabbed me and I said, 'What just happened?' She smiled and said, 'Your baby just won the game. He did it.

'Your baby just won the game.'"

Jason King covers college sports for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JasonKingBR.