Naturally, last night’s dramatics in Houston have a connection to college football.
North Carolina’s Marcus Paige offered up the first dagger of the evening, hitting an off-balance, double-clutch three-pointer to tie Villanova with just under five seconds remaining in the men’s basketball championship game. That shot proved to do nothing but compound UNC’s ultimate heartbreak as, with the seconds quickly ticking off the clock, ‘Nova’s Kris Jenkins trumped Paige’s dagger with one of his own, a three-pointer at the buzzer to lift the Wildcats to their first national championship in three decades.
Setting up Jenkins’ last-second heroics was Ryan Arcidiacono, who put the finishing touches on a sterling collegiate career by being named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player. Arcidiacono is also the cousin of Nick Arcidiacono, the Rutgers senior starting tight end who took to Twitter shortly after one of the greatest games the sport has ever seen to congratulate his relative on both the individual and team honors.Congrats to my cousin, the final four MVP, and now NATIONAL CHAMPION!! What a career. So proud & pumped #novanation pic.twitter.com/Fgu7cSCmtl
— Nick Arcidiacono (@NickArch5) April 5, 2016
Ryan Arcidiacono’s connection to the college gridiron goes deeper than just one cousin. Much, much deeper, actually.
Another cousin, Mark Arcidiacono, played offensive line for Joe Paterno at Penn State. Mark Arcidiacono’s brother, Brandon, played with Nick Arcidiacono at Rutgers. Brandon, Mark and Nick are all brothers, and their father played his college football at Temple.
Finally, the Final Four MVP’s father, Joe Arcidiacono, was a captain on the Villanova football team in the seventies and was teammates with future Hall of Famer Howie Long.
