One of the few fun things that has come out of the ongoing sports shutdown is some of the video gaming that athletes are taking part in. It has allowed us to see a different side of some of these athletes, and also test their skills on the sticks.
On Monday, that will be taken to a new level of rivalry, as members of the 2016 and 2018 Villanova national title squads face off in a customized version of NBA2K. Members of the two teams have often argued about which team would beat the other, and decided to use this as an opportunity to find out.
The event will raise money for Philabundance, a hunger relief organization in Philadelphia.
“We’ve had some spirited arguments about which team would win if we went head-to-head,” organizer and 2016 Wildcat Kevin Rafferty said in a news release, via Myron Medcalf of ESPN. “Now we’ll have an answer and help support a great cause in the process.”
The stakes are high, according to Kris Jenkins, the man who hit the buzzer-beating shot to win the 2016 title.
“They were talking trash. They were talking crazy,” Jenkins said of the 2018 team. “They said they would smash us.”
2018 players rated the 2016 squad and created the players, and vice versa. Those who were members of both teams got to choose which team they would play with.
The 2018 team beat every NCAA Tournament foe by double digits and would be a very tough foe, but the 2016 team produced one of the most memorable moments in college basketball’s recent history. This should be a pretty fun event.
