City of Basketball Love

Austin Petolillo (@AustinPSports)
--

Villanova’s path to defend its national championship is set.

The Big East champion Wildcats (31-3) will play the winner of New Orleans and Mount St. Mary's on Thursday in Buffalo.

Also looming in the East region are No. 2 seed Duke, the ACC tournament champs, plus No. 3 seed Baylor and No. 6 Southern Methodist, the AAC regular-season and tournament champs.

This is the third time in school history that Villanova is a No. 1 seed, and first time ever that they are the overall No. 1 seeded team in the NCAA Tournament.

“I’m very proud,” Villanova head coach Jay Wright told the assembled media on Sunday after his team learned its fate. “It’s a great accomplishment, I want the guys to enjoy it tonight and then tomorrow we’re just one of 68 teams.”

“When we go out there and play, we don’t look at the number next to our name,” Villanova senior forward Kris Jenkins said. “We focus on the team that we’re up against and the task that’s at hand, so that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”

History is not on Villanova’s side, as there has not been a repeat champion since the Florida Gators did it in 2006 and 2007.

Villanova’s senior class of Jenkins, Josh Hart and Darryl Reynolds, is the winningest class in the school’s history, having an overall record of 128-16. That includes four straight Big East regular season titles, two Big East Tournament titles and one national title, but that doesn’t mean the senior class or anyone else is content with what they have accomplished.

“We were national champs last year, Big East regular season champs this year, Big East tournament champs this year,” Hart said. “We have had a lot of opportunities to get complacent and big-headed and that’s something we don’t do.”

“I think we’re just as good if not better than last year’s team,” sophomore guard Jalen Brunson said. “but we have to focus on getting better and not get complacent with what we have done so far. That’s been our mindset.

Coming into the season, many wondered how the Wildcats would fare with two members of their championship team starting lineup having graduated in 2016 in point guard Ryan Arcidiacono and center Daniel Ochefu, but this Villanova team has all the ingredients to make another deep run in March.

They have experience: Villanova currently has five players (six including the injured Phil Booth) that were on the team last season, while Hart, Brunson and, Jenkins were all members of the starting lineup last season.

They have the talent: Hart, Brunson and, Jenkins all average double figures in points (forward Mikal Bridges averages 9.9 points per game), while Hart leads the team and the Big East in points per game at 18.9. Hart was unanimously named to the All-Big East first team along with Brunson, who was also a unanimous selection.

Hart also won the Big East player of the year award and co-defensive player of the year award, sharing it with his teammate Bridges and Creighton guard Khyri Thomas. Redshirt freshman guard Donte DiVincenzo was named to the All-Big East freshman team and Jenkins was named a Big East honorable mention.

They have the coaching: Wright is no stranger to the NCAA Tournament. This will be his 12th NCAA Tournament in 16 years at Villanova, though they've all come int he last 13 seasons. With a National Championship victory under his belt, Wright is one of eight active Division I head coaches who have won a national title at his current school.

They have momentum: Coming off of a third Big East Tournament championship which saw the team, score 108 points against St. John’s, a thrilling victory against Seton Hall, the 9-seed in the South region, and a dominating performance over Creighton, the Midwest's 6-seed, in the Big East championship.

Villanova is the only No. 1 seed who won their conference tournament this week. Kansas lost in their first game in the Big 12 tournament, North Carolina lost in the ACC semifinals and while Gonzaga won their conference tournament, they haven’t played since March 7.

The two teams that Villanova could face both got into the tournament thanks to the automatic qualifier by winning their respective conference championships. Mount St. Mary’s won the Northeast Conference and New Orleans won the Southland Conference.

Head coach Jamion Christian’s Mount St. Mary’s squad is led by their guard duo Elijah Long, who averages 15.4 points per game and Junior Robinson, who averages 14.1 points per game and is the shortest player in Division I basketball standing at 5-foot-5.

Mark Slessinger is the head coach of New Orleans and they are led by forward Erik Thomas who averages 19.5 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.

Wright and the rest of team will be watching Mount St. Mary’s and New Orleans play on Tuesday night to see who their matchup is against.

It’s familiar territory -- in 2006, Villanova had to await the winner of Monmouth and Hampton in a 16 seed play-in game in which Monmouth won. While the final score of the game was 58-45 in favor of Villanova, Monmouth put up a good fight as a 16-seed, cutting the deficit to as close as seven points with 6:21 in the second half.

“It’s actually tougher, you don’t have as much time to prepare,” Wright said. “We did this once before and we got Monmouth and almost got beat in that game...it’s tough, these teams are good.”