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Villanova men, women celebrate NCAA Tournament selections

03/14/2022, 12:15am EDT
By Matthew Ryan

Matthew Ryan (@matthewryan02)

VILLANOVA, PA — For half an hour, the Villanova women’s basketball team sat and waited.

After losing to UConn a week ago in the Big East Tournament Championship, the Wildcats were on the NCAA tournament bubble and spots were running out.


Villanova head coach Denise Dillon (L) and star Maddy Siegrist (R) nervously await Villanova's mention during the selection show. (Photo: Matthew Ryan/CoBL)

With every passing moment, the stress of the situation grew and grew. As the teams were revealed and the end of Selection Sunday was near, the unison gasps and groans inside of the Finneran Pavilion became louder and louder.

Until, with one simple graphic on the TV, all that built up stress turned into euphoria.

The Wildcats were headed to the NCAA Tournament.

“I mean, I was pretty confident that we were going to get in, but [the selection show was] really making us sweat it out towards the end,” standout forward Maddy Siegrist said.

“It's definitely really stressful. I'm sweating a lot, and I'm sure everyone else was too,” sixth-year forward Brianna Herlihy said. “Names were just going up, and they were going through every region, and, towards the end, I started to get a little bit nervous. I was like, ‘are they really not gonna call our name? Are we really not gonna get in?’”

After waiting through three and a half regions to be revealed, 62 of the 68 teams to be exact, the Wildcats (23-8) were chosen as a No. 11 seed in the Wichita Region where they will play No. 6 BYU (26-3) in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Mar. 19.

Villanova started the season off just 3-5, but with the return of Siegrist, the nation’s second-leading scorer at 25.9 points per game, the Wildcats rattled off 20 wins in 23 games to just barely put them into the tournament. But just barely is all you need.

“I kept thinking like the nine, 10 11, 12 [seed],” Siegrist said. “I’m like, ‘all right, maybe this one,’ then it wasn't. So I was just, patient, waiting. But I couldn't be happier. We're so excited. It's gonna be a lot of fun.”

The selection puts the Wildcats in the tournament for the first time since 2017-18 and gives the Big East a total of four teams in March Madness.

Denise Dillon, who was previously the head coach at Drexel, took the Dragons to the NCAA Tournament in 2009, marking the program’s first appearance in school history. But, in just her second season at the helm for the Wildcats, this is the first time she’s made it to the big dance at Villanova, the school she attended and program she played for.

It’s safe to say this means a lot to her.

“Every day I'm here, it's an absolute dream,” Dillon said. “I mean, I feel this is where I belong. And I'm doing what I love with some amazing young women. But when you see them succeed at the level, the vision you have for them, it's extra special.”

~~~

Villanova men draw familiar foe in opener

Heading into Selection Sunday, Villanova head coach Jay Wright expected something crazy to happen. And when Delaware popped up on the TV at the Finneran Pavilion, his expectation became reality.

As the No. 2 seed in the South Region, the Wildcats (26-7) will face the No. 15 seed Blue Hens (22-12) who are coming off a CAA Tournament victory. But the connection between the two schools goes far beyond them being just a short 45-minute drive apart.

Delaware head coach Martin Ingelsby is the son of 1970-73 Villanova guard Tom Ingelsby and the nephew of former Wildcat Ed Hastings, and Delaware center Dylan Painter was a member of the Wildcat’s 2017-18 national championship team.

“I expect it to be something crazy, and I just thought, like, ‘alright, that's what it is,’” he said. “It's the crazy connection with Martin Ingelsby and Dylan Painter.”

Painter spent three seasons with the Wildcats, playing in his first and third season while redshirting in-between. During his time on the Main Line, Painter, a 6-foot-10 big man, only averaged one point per game, but he is very familiar with the program, something that concerns Wright heading into the matchup.

“The thing about Dylan is he was like the ultimate Villanova basketball player,” Wright said. “He did all the dirty [work]. He got everything that we were about. He was really intelligent about what we do. Like if anybody could explain what we do, it's him.”

Villanova's men were relaxed during their Selection Show watch, the only question their seed and location. (Photo: Matthew Ryan/CoBL)

For the Wildcats, this is their ninth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament. But, because of the pandemic over the last two seasons, this is the first Selection Sunday event since 2019.

About five minutes before the show began, the Villanova players and coaches strolled out to their seats in the Fitzgerald Club at the Pavilion, wearing matching outfits from their Villanova shoes to ‘Nova hats.

When the Wildcats were selected, the crowd of fans, family and former players erupted, cheering on their Big East Tournament Champions.

“It never gets old,” Wright said of the selection show. “And this year's kind of special after not doing it for two years. I think we're all kind of back being excited again, and we might be a little overly excited because we haven't done it a couple years.”

“That's always exciting, to be in an environment like this and have the fans come out,” said graduate guard Collin Gillespie, fresh off leading the Wildcats to the Big East championship and earning tournament MVP in the process.

While the Wildcats have made being in the tournament the norm, they know what they’ve accomplished is special and they shouldn’t take it for granted. Just ask graduate forward Jermaine Samuels.

“These are the type of things you only can enjoy once,” he said. “You never know if you're going to be in the tournament the next year, so every time you get a chance to, you’ve got to be appreciative of it. Every time.”


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