Villanova Bracketology: Wildcats Still in Limbo

Villanova Men’s Basketball continues to hover on the edge of the NCAA Tournament bubble, checking in at the No. 76 spot in ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s latest rankings published on Friday, Feb. 28.

Eight spots out of the tournament’s field of 68, the Wildcats wouldn’t make the postseason if it began today.

Following their home upset of then-No. 16 ranked Marquette, the Wildcats (17-12, 10-8 Big East) climbed as high as the No. 75 spot before slumping down to No. 77 as a result of the better part of a week off. Now their stay in limbo continues with a slight promotion thanks to a less than inspiring road win over a miserable Seton Hall team.

Right now, Villanova’s chances of securing an at-large bid to the Big Dance hover around 1.4 percent per teamrankings.com. At minimum, they need to win their final two regular season games and then pick up at least two more wins in the Big East Tournament… and even that won’t give them much margin for error, leaving them at the mercy of the selection committee.

The Wildcats — who remain firm at No. 51 in the NET rankings — currently hold the No. 6 seed in the Big East, putting them in line to play in the opening round of the conference tournament. Just ahead of them is No. 5 Xavier, the last team to possess a first round bye. While beating up on a team like Seton Hall or DePaul in the first round should give Villanova an easy win to add to their résumé, anyone who’s watched the Wildcats this season knows that’s far from a sure thing… and Villanova probably has to leapfrog Xavier in order to sneak into the tournament anyway, with each win they pick up at an absolute premium.