Kyle Lowry, now with the Houston Rockets, was just a freshman when Villanova battled North Carolina in the Sweet 16 in 2005.
It was four years ago when Villanova and North Carolina played. In Villanova circles it’s remembered by, “the call.” In the waning seconds the whistle blew and everyone figured a foul was going to be called. Instead the referee signaled travel, negating the made basket, negating a free throw attempt that might have forced overtime, negating a shot at an epic upset.
Four years later the dust has settle for Villanova and they have got their rematch in the Final Four with North Carolina, but the question has to be asked again:
How did this happen?
How did a team with no evident NBA prospects on its roster get to the Final Four.
The answer is in that 2005 game against North Carolina.
"Carolina had a bunch of pros and nobody knew who we were," said Kyle Lowry. "We weren't a national team or anything like that, so no one gave us a chance. But in that game, we really showed our resiliency. We weren't going to back down from the fight and that's the kind of team we decided to be. That's the kind of program Villanova is now."
Sports teams always talk about developing an identity and passing it down.
Villanova has established a predictable persona. Villanova is going to be tough. Theirs a trait passed down like a treasured family heirloom from generation to generation.
Asked to characterize his team's attitude, Scottie Reynolds said, "No excuses."
Former guard Mike Nardi was reached by phone as he was sitting in his beachfront apartment on the Adriatic Sea in Italy, explained Villanova this way, "No matter what you take care of your business. Guys might be sick, injured, maybe you have homework to do, we don't care. You take care of business."
Senior co-captain Dante Cunningham described it, "It doesn't matter what the refs call or what happens in the game, we just play."
Kyle Lowry, now with the Rockets, said, "We don't back down from a fight, doesn't matter what the odds are."
Shane Clark, another current senior shrugged his shoulders, "Everybody is going to have bumps along the way. You can't worry about it."
Randy Foye, who now plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves described it simply, "We don't quit."
And so the identity was born in 2005.
After two years, one great recruiting class, two NIT berths and probation to show for it, Jay Wright was on the hot seat.
Villanova started the year slowly.
Then the Wildcats won their final seven games of the regular season to earn a No. 5 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Wright became an instant hero.
But early into the second-round game against Florida, Curtis Sumpter crumbled to the floor. Sumpter averaged 15 points and 7 boards.
The diagnosis was immediate: a torn ACL. He was done.
"We were building a power team, not this little four-guard team," Wright said. "And then, bam! Curt goes down and we changed everything."
The Wildcats dispatched of Florida 76-65 to roll to the Sweet 16 showdown with North Carolina.
Most people figured good enough.
After all, Lowry wasn't exaggerating. That Tar Heels team sent four first-round picks to the NBA that June. Without Sumpter the Wildcats were basically six deep.
"I vividly remember Jay saying to Mike Nardi and Kyle, the two smallest guys on the team, 'if you get switched off on any big guys, you better not get posted up,'" said Pinckney, then an assistant on the Villanova bench and now with the Timberwolves. "They took that to heart."
From the opening tip, Villanova went at Carolina. Foye drained 11 points in the opening 4:30, delivering the message: GAME ON.
"One thing I've learned, players look at games completely different," said Brett Gunning, then the associate head coach at Villanova and now on the Rockets staff. "Fans are thinking, 'No chance.' As coaches we're thinking, 'Oh my God,' but players are just thinking, 'Let's play.' Do you think Allan Ray was scared? Or Kyle or Randy? No way. They don't see pressure. They see an opportunity."
The Tar Heels trailed 33-29 at the half and with Raymond Felton on the bench already fouled out, would have been in deep trouble had the game gone into OT.
Instead Ray was whistled for the travel, Rashad McCants hit one free throw and Lowry's 3-pointer was too little, too late. Final score 67-66.
"It wasn't a moral victory," Wright said. "We thought we could win, but there was something about everything that we overcame I felt like we had something starting. We didn't just hang with Carolina. We could have beaten them."
It is one thing for that attitude to permeate the team the following year, when Foye, Ray, Fraser and Sumpter were seniors.
It is another for a program a full class removed to continue with the same attitude.
But Cunningham, Clark and Dwayne Anderson were like kids sitting at the knees of wily veterans when they got to Villanova.
They watched players who would go on to NBA paychecks trying to win Attitude Club -- where points are awarded for taking charges, diving for loose balls and making other hustle plays.
They bought in and when Foye, Ray, Fraser and Sumpter graduated and Lowry bolted early for the NBA, the next class passed it on like some attitudinal game of whisper down the lane.
"Coach always would say, 'That's the way Randy did it,' or 'This is how Kyle did it,' and of course it gets old hearing it," Reynolds said. "But at the same time, they earned it. They made us reach to be what they were. They set the bar for everything that we wanted to be and how we wanted to play."
