It was all so new for Villanova.
Jay Wright has had plenty of success coaching the Wildcats, but when Villanova rose to No. 1 in the AP poll Feb. 8, it was the first time in program history they were ranked that high.
It lasted three weeks. A misstep at Xavier last Wednesday dropped 'Nova from No. 1 to No. 3 in the national rankings, behind Kansas and Michigan State.
But Wright says he and the team learned a lot of lessons in those three weeks.
"The experience of being No. 1 is a challenge and we didn't know anything about it until we got there," Wright said Monday. "And you get there and you're learning the whole time. How you handle it day to day, how you handle it for each game, how you handle it when you lose it. It was all new to us.
"I like the way we handled it … we still learned a lot."
After losing by seven at Xavier last week, Villanova (25-4, 14-2 Big East) defeated Marquette on the road Saturday. Xavier, meanwhile, lost at Seton Hall on Sunday. As a result, the Musketeers didn't move from their No. 5 ranking.
News
In all, Villanova spent six games in the No. 1 spot, going 5-1 with wins over DePaul, St. John's, Temple, Butler and Marquette.
Wright cautioned heading into the Xavier game not to look at the result from their previous meeting, a 31-point Villanova win on New Year's Eve. The Wildcats knew Xavier was a very good team and knew to be prepared for every team's best shot.
"It was definitely a ton of pressure being No 1 but it was pressure that we liked," point guard Ryan Arcidiacono said. "We had to bring it every single day and we knew every team was gonna bring it. We still know that."
Two games remain on Villanova's regular-season schedule: tonight vs. DePaul (9-19, 3-13 Big East) and Saturday vs. Georgetown (14-15, 7-9).