College basketball aficionados are not aware of how good this Villanova basketball team truly is.
At 28-3, 16-2 in the Big East (outright champs), Villanova blew Georgetown out of the building today in the season finale. The Wildcats, #6 in the nation, RPI #4, are still in play for a #1 seed, but you wouldn’t know it because no one is talking about them.
Their three losses: Syracuse at the Carrier Dome, at Creighton, and versus Creighton when the Blue Jays had an insane record shattering night of three point shooting. This Villanova basketball team is legit. As I’ve pointed out in the past, they’re as strong a national title contender with “team” superseding “talent.”
“I’ve never come across a quieter 26-3 team, Villanova is really good,” ESPN Analyst Jay Bilas said on conference call earlier this week.
“Jay Wright should be in the conversation for national coach of the year and you never hear his name.”
The biggest testament to Wright’s masterful coaching job this year is the complete lack of NBA talent on his roster. The biggest testament to the decline of the Big East conference is the exploring how overlooked Nova truly is; despite the tremendously successful season.
“I think of all the programs that have been damaged by the break-up of the Big East, no one has taken it on the chin more than Villanova. I don’t think the average fan knows that they’re 26-3, they may know that they’re having a good year,” Bilas continued.
“This looks like a vintage Jay Wright team, I would challenge any college basketball fan to name more than two starters on their team,” said ESPN Analyst Fran Fraschilla on the same conference call.
“That’s the remarkable thing about Jay’s team. They’re pretty good offensively and defensively, but I hate to say it- in some strange way they’re under the radar heading into the NCAA Tournament, and it wouldn’t shock me to see them make the Final Four,” Fraschilla continued.
It’s not Villanova basketball’s fault that the league has sunk this low in it’s first year of restructuring.
Creighton is very solid.
St. John’s, Georgetown, Xavier, Providence and Marquette are very mediocre.
Seton Hall is kind of blah.
Butler is a train wreck.
And DePaul has made decisions that make you wonder if they’re even really trying to compete at all.
Villanova basketball’s success this year comes from great ball movement. They’re very reminiscent of the 2004-05 Illinois Fighting Illini: guard centric, guard heavy, great passers, and they beat you by moving it around in their half-court set and freeing open the shooter. They don’t just make the extra pass; they make the extra extra pass.
Villanova basketball has produced four Final Fours, 33 NCAA Tournament appearances, a tourney record of 49-33 and a national championship in 1985. There’s no reason for this team to be “a sleeper,” given all that the program has accomplished.
Except for the decline of the conference; that’s the reason.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on news talk radio; with regular segments on ESPN,NBC, CBS and Fox. A former NBC Chicago and Washington Times writer, he’s also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)