Villanova Leaps Up NET Rankings; Still Needs to Boost Résumé

Villanova Men’s Basketball picked up their sixth win in a row on Monday, Dec. 1, taking down the Temple Owls 74-56 at home in order to secure a spot in the championship game of the Big 5 Classic. They climbed 11 spots in the NET Rankings as a result, from No. 64 to No. 53, but have yet to pick up a win outside of Quadrant 4, the lowest quality tier in the ranking system.

The Wildcats will face Penn in the Big 5 Championship game, their seventh consecutive Quad 4 matchup. After that, their path will become significantly harder: their next three games include a road date against Michigan, currently 7-0 and the No. 1 team in the NET rankings, and a neutral site game against Wisconsin in Milwaukee that will give the Badgers de facto home court advantage without the rankings boost of a road game, a matchup that head coach Kevin Willard said he didn’t know why he scheduled earlier in the offseason.

Having played just two games in the past 12 days, the Wildcats have also slid down other ranking systems as teams with busier schedules jockey for position. ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi has Villanova as the No. 73 team in the 68-team tournament field, the first program listed in the ‘Next Four Out’ category in his weekly tournament assessment published on Tuesday, Dec. 2.

The KenPom Ratings, meanwhile, feel much more strongly about the Wildcats, listing them as the No. 39 team in the country.