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Should Big Games in March Sway the N.B.A. Draft in June? The Numbers Say Yes

Donte DiVincenzo will be waiting for his name to be called Thursday night at the N.B.A. draft in Brooklyn in no small part because of his stellar performance on what had heretofore been his career’s biggest stage.

Villanova defeated Michigan, 79-62, in last season’s men’s N.C.A.A. championship game on the strength of DiVincenzo’s monster game: 31 points on 15 shots, including five 3-pointers; 5 rebounds; and, for good measure, 2 blocks.

“We saw that every day in practice, but he played on a team where we didn’t need him to do that a lot,” Villanova Coach Jay Wright said of DiVincenzo, a 21-year-old guard who was a redshirt sophomore last season.