Villanova Bracketology: Wildcats in Limbo for Now

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the Villanova Wildcats’ tournament résumé won’t be either. Even after a tough road loss to St. John’s on Saturday, Jan. 11, Villanova Men’s Basketball continues to see their chances of making the NCAA Tournament improve incrementally on a week to week basis.

Following their win over DePaul, the Wildcats’ tournament chances sat around 33.3 percent, per teamrankings.com: as of Tuesday, Jan. 14, they’ve ticked up to 33.9 percent. Their most likely path to the Big Dance rests in an at-large bid (26.8 percent chance), although a 7.1 percent chance of winning the Big East — they currently sit in fourth place in the 11 team conference — and earning an automatic bid is nothing to sneeze at in the hyper-competitive conference.

Villanova (11-6, 4-2 Big East) remains on the edge of the bubble, holding the No. 76 spot in the 68 team field as part of ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s “Next Four Out” category. The NET rankings, which take strength of schedule, game, location, and margin of victory into account, rank Villanova as the No. 51 team in the country, while the KenPom ratings slot them in at an even better No. 48.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats and their fans, tournament bids aren’t restricted to the best 68 teams. Auto bids for conference tournament champions eat up 32 of the spots. As such, Villanova needs to do more to improve their chance of making the tournament… and a Quadrant 1 road matchup with Xavier on Jan. 14 gives them their next big shot.