photo by: Matt Tait

Villanova point guard Jalen Brunson (AP photo)

According to pretty much everybody who uses Twitter and thousands of college basketball fans who don’t, Sunday’s regional championship game between Kansas and Duke was not only the best game of this year’s NCAA Tournament, but an all-time classic.

KU coach Bill Self said after his team’s 85-81, overtime victory that the win was the second best he has had during his 15 seasons at Kansas, with only the win over Memphis in the 2008 national title game ranking above it.

So how in the world can the Jayhawks possibly follow that up with something even close to as good?

Easy. How about a Final Four showdown between the top two candidates for national player of the year honors?

That’s what we’ll get when the top-seeded Jayhawks and top-seeded Villanova Wildcats do battle on Saturday night at the Alamodome in San Antonio. And there’s absolutely no way that the battle will disappoint.

KU’s Devonte’ Graham has been the heartbeat of this Kansas team all season long. In addition to carrying the team in terms of scoring, passing, defense and intensity, Graham has paced the Jayhawks with his vibrant personality and veteran leadership, willing Kansas to victories and big plays time and time again, all the way through Sunday’s thriller over Duke.

Villanova’s Jalen Brunson has been equally as impressive for Jay Wright’s squad, leading the Wildcats to one of their best seasons in school history and doing it with the kind of toughness and no-nonsense approach that has made Villanova one of the premier programs in college basketball during the past several years.

It will not be the first time that these two terrific guards have faced one another. Graham, as a sophomore, and Brunson, as a freshman, both started for their respective teams during the 2016 Elite Eight game in Louisville that featured a hard-fought Villanova victory and propelled Wright to his first national championship.

In that one, Graham finished with 17 points and 7 rebounds in 35 minutes before fouling out and Brunson finished with 7 points and 1 rebound in just 21 minutes.

Both players have substantially bigger roles and more importance this time around — hence that whole player of the year candidate thing — and their matchup, according to one coach who has faced them both this season, will be a battle of contrasting styles.

Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard, whose Pirates lost to the Jayhawks in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Wichita, also lost twice to Brunson’s Wildcats this season.

Asked before his second-round matchup with KU if Graham reminded him at all of the Villanova point guard, Willard laughed.

“No,” Willard said. “Besides the fact that they’re both really, really good. I think Devonte’s much quicker. I’ve gone against Jalen now almost 13 times, Jalen is a little more methodical. He kind of thinks his way.”

Kansas guard Devonte' Graham (4) puts a three over Penn guard Caleb Wood (10) during the second half, Thursday, March 15, 2018 at Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kan.

There are some similarities in a couple of areas of the game, according to Willard, with the ability to make plays with the ball in their hands — albeit in different manners — being the most obvious.

“They’re both extremely good off pick-and-rolls,” Willard said. “I think Devonte’s probably a little bit better scorer at times (and) can shoot the ball with a little bit better distance. Jalen’s a little bit more of a physical guard. He uses his body, he can post you up, he can post up anybody in the country. But they’re both excellent players.”

How Graham and Brunson view each other and what aspects of the matchup they view most important will be determined later this week, when both teams arrive in San Antonio.

But if you’re looking for an easy read on one of this game’s biggest battles, look no farther than the point guard position for both teams.

“It’s amazing to me how these things play out,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said Monday. “We all talk about the matchups in the tournament, you never know what it’s going to be, but to go from (Alabama’s) Collin Sexton to (Texas Tech’s Keenan) Evans to now Devonte’ Graham, it’s like… I don’t think you could’ve gradually gone up a step at that position with any other three guards, maybe the three best guards in the country and Jalen taking a little step up with each one. And now we’re getting to the Final Four and we’re going to play arguably the best.”

Wright added that one of the best things about his point guard’s focus is his ability to block out that kind of noise and Graham has always done the same for Kansas, preferring always to discuss the team’s accomplishments before his own.

“Jalen has been smart about not getting into that confrontation individually,” Wright said. “And it’s hard to do because a lot of people talk about it. If I was a fan, I would love to see this. As a coach, I hope we don’t get into that at all and I don’t think Jalen will. It’ll be Villanova versus Kansas.”

Here’s a quick look at the tale of the tape on these two outstanding point guards: