Villanova Bracketology: Wildcats Slide Off the Bubble

Villanova Men’s Basketball fell out of ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s tournament field following their first week of the season, where they played No. 8 BYU close in Las Vegas before putting together a sloppy home win over Queens (N.C.). The Wildcats checked in as the “Last Team In” during Lunardi’s final preseason assessment after battling through a rash of injuries on the way to strong exhibition performances, but they didn’t even make it on the tournament bubble in his most recent post, published on Tuesday, Nov. 11.

Villanova also didn’t appear in Lunardi’s post of teams he considered, which contained teams like Wake Forest (listed at No. 93), Providence (No. 94), Pitt (No. 95) and Minnesota (No. 99). Whether that’s an oversight on his part or not remains unclear. Wildcats head coach Kevin Willard agrees that his team isn’t playing good basketball right now, but falling out of consideration entirely seems extreme.

Just two games into the regular season — the Wildcats look to climb above .500 when they host Sacred Heart at 7 p.m. — bracketology only matters so much, but Villanova does need a strong performance in their out-of-conference slate with the Big East expected to go through another down year.

Around the Big East, UConn, St. John’s, Creighton and Georgetown all made the field of 68 in Lunardi’s projection, while Marquette landed on the bubble after a blowout loss to Indiana.