Villanova Bracketology: Big East Champs or Bust for Wildcats

Villanova Men’s Basketball blew a late lead for the umpteenth time this season on Tuesday, March 4, leading Georgetown 69-60 with little over three minutes to play before losing on a last minute layup 75-73.

The basic formula could fit half a dozen games the Wildcats lost this season, including a mirror image result — down to the game-winning layup — at home against the Hoyas back in January. Villanova (18-13, 11-9 Big East) concludes the regular season as the No. 6 seed in the conference, slated to play the No. 11 seed (either Seton Hall or DePaul) during the first round of the Big East Tournament on Wednesday, March 12 at Madison Square Garden. From there, they’d need to run the table and claim a conference championship in order to sneak into the Big Dance.

The loss drops Villanova down two spots to No. 53 in the NET rankings, while they remained at No. 55 per the KenPom ratings. Even if the Wildcats were to pick up three wins in the conference tournament, putting them at 21 on the season, they’d have just a 3.3 percent chance of securing an at-large bid per teamrankings.com.

If there’s any glimmer of hope for the Wildcats, it’s the fact that they’ve won plenty of games they had no business being in this season, knocking off teams like UConn, St. John’s and Marquette… three of the Big East’s current top four. The problem has been their maddening ability to lose games they should’ve managed to sleepwalk through, especially in their Quad 3 loss to St. Joseph’s and their Quad 4 loss to Columbia. The way Villanova’s season has gone, their toughest matchup in the conference tournament might just end up their first round tilt against the No. 11 seed.