This story originally appeared in the April 11, 2016, edition of Sports Illustrated. Subscribe to the magazine here. Get all of Luke Winn’s columns as soon as they’re published. Download the new Sports Illustrated app (iOS or Android) and personalize your experience by following your favorite teams and SI writers.
For Villanova, March 21, 2015, was a hard night in a hotel across a boulevard from the Allegheny River. No one in that conference room of the Renaissance Pittsburgh knew it then, but the water flowing nearby followed a route that would redeem them.