Villanova Metrics Take Slight Hit After Top 5 Road Loss

Villanova Men’s Basketball fell one spot in the NET rankings after their Saturday, Jan. 24 overtime loss at No. 2 UConn, checking in at No. 34 the following morning.

The Wildcats (15-5, 6-3 Big East) hold a 3-4 record in Quadrant 1 games, a 1-1 record in Quad 2, and a combined 11-0 record in the third and fourth quadrants. While their struggles against the cream of the crop might indicate that they aren’t quite ready to make a deep tournament run, Villanova’s ability to win the games they were supposed to marks an important change from the last three seasons, and a big reason why their NCAA Tournament odds stand at 98.2 percent (teamrankings.com).

Villanova fell one spot to No. 27 in the KenPom ratings, which rate their offensive (No. 30) and defensive (No. 39) in the top 40 nationally. Heading into their road date with UConn, Villanova occupied a No. 6 seed in ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s tournament assessment.

They don’t have many opportunities to pick up a signature win the rest of the way, given a down year for the Big East. Winning on the road at St. John’s (Feb. 28) or the return game against UConn (Feb. 21) might provide the Wildcats’ best chance to jockey for tournament seeding, which could prove the difference between just getting into the Big Dance and winning a game or two.

After five days off, Villanova will return to action at the Finneran Pavilion on Friday, Jan. 30, hosting the Providence Friars at 7 p.m.