PITTSBURGH — Maybe it’s the name of the school. “Villanova” just doesn’t conjure up the same sense of awe as Kentucky, Duke or North Carolina.
Maybe it’s their balance. The Wildcats don't have anybody averaging even 14 points per game.
Maybe it’s the absence of an NBA lottery pick. Villanova has a few guys who could become pros but hardly an NBA lock.
Maybe it’s the way it plays the game. Nobody ever makes Plays of the Day for making one extra pass or burying a wide-open three.
Maybe it’s the résumé. Villanova still doesn’t have a signature win this year.
Whatever the reason, there’s a sense you get listening to national analysts, looking at brackets or just following along on Twitter that people are skeptical.
Despite 33 wins, despite a No. 2 national ranking, despite a 16-game winning streak and despite a No. 1 seed in the East, it seems like Villanova still has plenty to prove.
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They hear it.
“I’m sure people are expecting Villanova to go down and not go where we’re supposed to go,” senior Darrun Hilliard said. “I’m sure a lot of people are doubting us, and that’s fine.
"We just answer to each other in the locker room and answer to our coaches. We know how good we are and how good we can be. That’s fine with us. We don’t look into that.
“We’re not really agreeing with them or disagreeing with them. We know we’ve got the talent to play with anybody. We know anybody from this team could go to another team and be a star. We just make that sacrifice. There’s a reason why we had seven players in doubles figures last night (vs. Lafayette). There’s a reason anybody could go for 20 points on any given night. We make that sacrifice.
“We’re going to play Villanova basketball, and if a team beats us, they deserve it.
“We have a mental toughness about us. We just keep everything inside. We just have a thing where nothing can break us and we’re going to keep coming after you.”
Villanova faces No. 8 seed North Carolina State at 7:10 p.m. Saturday at CONSOL Energy Center, with the winner advancing to the Sweet 16 in Syracuse.
The Wildcats do have a pretty good résumé — 5-1 vs. top-25 RPI and 13-1 vs. top-50 RPI — but there’s still a sense that they have yet to prove they belong in the rarified air of No. 1 seeds and Final Four favorites.
“I think no matter what, no matter what level we get to, what round we get to, people are going to say that we can’t get over the top this weekend or we can’t make it to the Sweet 16 or there’s no way we can get to the (Elite) Eight,” Dylan Ennis said.
“It’s always going to be there, but it doesn’t affect us whatsoever. It’s about us and what we think, and we have a lot of confidence in each other and a lot of trust, and I think that should carry us far in this tournament.”
Villanova is as hot as anybody in the country other than Kentucky, but the Wildcats are doing it with balance instead of with one or two superstars.
Hilliard is their leading scorer with 13.9 points per game but hasn’t been the Wildcats’ leading scorer in a game in almost a month. Five others average between 9.4 and 10.3 points per game. Two more are between 5½ and 6½.
Villanova has had seven different leading scorers this year, five in the last eight games.
“What’s different is scary to people,” Ennis said. “They’re not used to it. Us being a balanced team, it’s different than a lot of teams in this tournament and maybe that’s why we have our naysayers, but we’re going to stick to what we’ve done, because what we’ve done is working so far.”
Hilliard is a third-team All-American. Ryan Arcidiacono was Big East co-Player of the Year. Josh Hart was Big East Tournament MVP. Ennis has been the leading scorer in the postseason.
Nobody plays like this. Not at this level.
But for this team it works.
“It is unusual,” Wright said. “So usually, when you can’t fit something into a box, you don’t know what to do with it. You don’t know how to describe it, you don’t know how to deal with it. And we are just a bunch of basketball players. That’s what we try to be. We’re just a bunch of basketball players.
“I don’t have a definition for it either, really. We try to pick guys who fit our culture, first of all, and then are good basketball players. And that are junkies. That love not just to play the game but they love to be in the gym and work on their game. Try to find those guys. So this is really a byproduct of finding those kind of guys.”
A win Saturday gives Villanova its first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2009.
A win would also silence some of the Wildcats’ doubters.
At least until they play Friday at the Carrier Dome against the Northern Iowa-Louisville winner.
“There’s always going to be a little bit of doubters, but that’s with all teams unless you’re a team like a Kentucky or a Duke, one of those historic programs,” Hart said.
“None of us are going to be first-round lottery picks this year, but I think that helps us out. It’s definitely a different kind of style than people are used to. We don’t have that one go-to player, but I think it really helps us out at the end of the game.
“All of us are really unselfish, and that’s kind of different, but it helps us out. It’s how we play, and we like it.”