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With last season's national title and a 31-3 record this year, Villanova has certainly earned the respect of the NCAA selection committee.
The defending champion Wildcats rose with excitement when they learned Sunday evening that they are the No. 1 overall seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament (see story). Traveling to Buffalo for the first two rounds, the Wildcats will play the winner of the play-in game between Mount St. Mary's (19-15) and New Orleans (20-11) Thursday at 7:10 p.m.
Each player beamed with excitement to see the team featured at the beginning of CBS' selection show, marveling at both earning the No. 1 seed and seeing themselves on the big screen in front of them.
"Very proud," coach Jay Wright said of being No. 1 overall. "It's a great accomplishment. I want the guys to enjoy it tonight, and then tomorrow we're just one of 68 teams."
Wright was already prepared with some notes from his assistants on Villanova's potential first-round opponents. Wright said he hadn't seen New Orleans play but had watched "a little bit" of Mount St. Mary's. Even while the rest of the bracket hadn't been unveiled, the Wildcats' staff seemed to already be preparing for their next challenge.
NCAA
Villanova is 10-1 all-time against Mount St. Mary's and 1-2 vs. New Orleans.
Looming in the second round is a matchup with Big Ten runner-up Wisconsin or Virginia Tech out of the ACC. If the Wildcats make it out of their two games in Buffalo, they head a little south to New York’s Madison Square Garden, where they just won the Big East Tournament.
Questions were raised about Villanova's seemingly muted celebration after winning the conference tournament, but the players didn't see it as a big deal.
"We don't want to get too high or too low about anything," sophomore guard Jalen Brunson said. "We're happy with what happened last night. We're happy we won the Big East Tournament. We may not honestly show it with our facial expressions and things like that, but we're definitely excited. We know we've still got a lot of work to do to be the best team we can."
During the selection show, there were audible gasps from guests in the room as Duke was announced as the No. 2 seed in Villanova's region, setting up a potential marquee matchup between the Blue Devils and Wildcats at MSG in the Elite 8. With the East Region also featuring No. 3 seed Baylor, No. 4 seed Florida and No. 5 Virginia -- which played Villanova close in late January -- there is no doubt Villanova faces a tough road.
"Sometimes we've had brackets that have seemed easy and we've never got out of it and sometimes we've had brackets that have seemed impossible and we advanced," Wright said. "I remember the year we went to the Final Four in '09. That bracket looked daunting. As of a matter of fact, Duke was in that bracket, too. And we came out of it. You've just got to play the tournament."
"We know we've got a tough bracket," senior captain Josh Hart said. "So does everybody else. UNC and Kansas, they've got tough brackets too.
"None of these games are cakewalks and if you go in thinking it's going to be a cakewalk, you're going to be humbled. This game will humble you."
Before 'Nova can even think about Duke or a return trip to MSG, the team still has to get past the winner of the play-in game. Both Wright and his team were quick to say they were focused on the play-in game, which they will watch as a team on Tuesday. That watch party will take place in Buffalo because the Wildcats are planning to leave early to avoid a potential snowstorm (the Philadelphia area is expected to get about a foot of snow beginning late Monday night).
Wright has experienced playing the winner of the play-in game before. The 2005-06 Villanova team faced Monmouth hot off the play-in game and the Hawks challenged the Wildcats in Philadelphia. Wright said it was "actually tougher" to face the play-in winner rather than receive a set No. 16 seed because of the lack of time to prepare.
Villanova will be under extra scrutiny during its quest to repeat. No one has repeated as champions since 2006-07 Florida, and 1991-92 Duke was the last team before that. Most national champions lose players who are seniors or leaving early for the draft. But the Wildcats could just be different.
Per ESPN, Villanova's 31 wins are the most by a reigning national champion. And 'Nova is the first school since that Florida team in 2007 to earn the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament a year after winning the national championship.
"When Duke repeated, that whole team returned," Wright said. "We lost three great players with Phil Booth (to a knee injury), [but] we've been pretty fortunate so far. Still, makes it difficult to repeat. We've got a lot of work to do."
Still, it's hard to say that the Wildcats aren’t prepared. While they lost Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu to graduation, players like Brunson and Darryl Reynolds have filled in to replace them. The experience of last year is in their back pockets, and they made it through a grueling regular season with a strong core, having won their last five games. Now they have six more to win, one at a time.
"We know the grind that it takes," senior forward Kris Jenkins said. "We know what we have to do. We're going to leave it all out on the line, too. We're going to give it our best shot. We're going to play Villanova basketball for 40 minutes and if a team beats us, then we'll tip our hats to them.
"But we know if we do what we're supposed to do and take care of business, we'll be fine."