Villanova Bracketology: Wildcats Give Too Little, Too Late?

The Villanova Wildcats snapped a three game losing streak when they took down a banged up DePaul team 59-49 in Chicago on Wednesday, Feb. 5.

Just their second road win of the season (and their first win of any type in close to three weeks after a 1-5 skid put their postseason hopes all but out of reach), this currently counts as a Quadrant 2 win for the Wildcats… although with DePaul currently ranked No. 133 in the NET rankings and dealing with a rash of injuries, it could drop down to Quadrant 3 in the blink of an eye. Even so, there’s good news for Villanova in what feels like the first time in forever, and their tournament chances improved slightly as a result.

The Wildcats ticked up two spots in the NET rankings from No. 57 to No. 55; KenPom has them all the way up at No. 52.

Villanova holds an 0-5 record in Quadrant 1 matchups this season, with wins over both UConn and Cincinnati dropping down to Quad 2 as those teams fell out of the top 30 in the NET rankings; 4-2 and 3-2 records in Quadrants 2 and 3, respectively, and a 6-1 record in Quad 4. Recent game results provided another low blow for the Wildcats with prior opponents struggling, causing ugly early season losses to Virginia and St. Joseph’s to drop into Quad 3, ditto with Columbia into Quad 4.

The Wildcats’ tournament odds now sit at 6.4 percent, up from 5.7 percent ahead of the start of play yesterday. Their most likely path to the Big Dance would be through a Big East championship, with their chances of an at-large bid hovering around two percent.