Jay Wright's Villanova squad is feeling something unfamiliar out on the Main Line on this cloudy Monday.
Yes, the stunning loss to St. John's this past Wednesday is still stinging. Yes, finally conquering the Butler demons is still sinking in. But those aren't it.
For the first time in five weeks, the Wildcats aren't sitting pretty atop the AP poll.
The loss to the Red Storm, which was previously winless in the Big East, pushed the 23-2 Wildcats down to No. 3 in this week's poll.
Virginia, despite a home loss to unranked Virginia Tech on Saturday night, moved up to No. 1 for the first time since 1982. Michigan State, on the strength of a win over then No. 3 Purdue, moved up to No. 2.
Fellow Big East foe Xavier checks in at No. 4 and Cincinnati moved up to No. 5.
Villanova hits the road to Providence on Wednesday night and then heads to Cincy to for a mammoth matchup with 23-3 Xavier on Saturday afternoon at 4:30. As of Monday morning, the Musketeers actually have an edge on the Wildcats for the top seed in the Big East tournament as Xavier has an 11-2 conference record compared to Villanova's 10-2 conference record. Xavier hosts Seton Hall on Wednesday night before the Wildcats come to town.
All the while, Villanova will remain shorthanded without redshirt junior Phil Booth and junior Eric Paschall. Booth is out several more weeks with a broken hand that has yet to be removed from a cast. Paschall is out indefinitely with a concussion and Wright did not sound optimistic at all after Saturday's win over Butler that Paschall would be ready to go at any point this week.
Both Booth, who averages 11.3 points per game, and Paschall, who averages 10.1 points per game, were in the lineup when the 'Cats ran the Musketeers out of the Wells Fargo Center with an 89-65 beatdown in January.
To make Saturday's game even more juicy, both Villanova and Xavier were pegged as top seeds by the NCAA Tournament selection committee in its first rankings of the season, which were released on Sunday. Villanova was the No. 2 overall seed and the top seed in the East Region while Xavier was the No. 3 overall seed and top seed in the Midwest Region.
So, needless to say, there's just a little bit riding on Saturday's showdown.