Villanova Metrics: One Quad 1 Opportunity Remaining

Villanova Men’s Basketball dropped outside the top 30 in the NET rankings following their Saturday, Feb. 21 home loss to No. 5 UConn, falling two spots to No. 31. KenPom lists them at No. 28, while Torvik has them at No. 32.

The Wildcats (21-6, 12-4 Big East) now hold a 2-5 record in Quadrant 1 matchups, their road wins against Providence and Creighton sitting on the cusp between the first and second quadrants as those teams vacillate. Villanova needs to root for the Blue Jays to succeed from here on out, as their Jan. 7 loss to Creighton currently rests in Quad 3, a major ding on the Wildcats’ tournament rèsumè.

While they have an NCAA Tournament bid all but locked up with four games to play in the regular season, the Wildcats could tumble down the seed list and deprive themselves of a favorable path once the Big Dance begins.

ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi had Villanova as a No. 6 seed heading into the UConn game; Torvik clocks them as a No. 8 seed in the aftermath, while teamrankings.com splits the difference and sees a No. 7 seed (30.2 percent) as the most likely outcome.

The Wildcats will host Butler on Wednesday, Feb. 25 heading into a road game against ranked St. John’s at Madison Square Garden, their last Quad 1 opportunity ahead of the Big East Tournament.