No. 8 Oklahoma | No. 10 Wichita State | Full List
No. 9: VILLANOVA WILDCATS
Last Season: 33-3, 16-2 Big East
Sixty-two wins. Eight losses. An average NCAA tournament seed of 1.5. In the past two seasons, few programs have been more consistently successful than Villanova from November -- and no program has been quite so dissatisfied come March. In two straight seasons, the Wildcats were upset in the second round of the NCAA tournament. At least the 2014 meltdown came at the hands of eventual national champion UConn. That was forgivable. Last March's mess -- a 33-2 No. 1 seed outworked by boom-or-bust 8-seed NC State -- wasted months of near-flawless work in the matter of an evening.
"I know we have to answer to the fact that we did not get to the second weekend again," coach Jay Wright said just minutes after that loss. "We have to own that."
The good news, of course, is that Wright's program is back among the recurring national elite -- which is how it can lose crucial seniors JayVaughn Pinkston and Darrun Hilliard, swap in elite freshman point guard Jalen Brunson, and still be a top-10-ranked Big East title favorite. The bad news? If the season ends with another early tourney exit, none of that will matter. -- Eamonn Brennan
Best Case: The Wildcats have another amazing regular season and enter the NCAA tournament as a top seed but win once they get there. Last season, Villanova had a terrific offensive team, one that was rated eighth in the nation in offensive rating and ninth in points scored per play. Yet, few outside of the basketball cognoscenti seemed to know the Wildcats' players. Then, when Villanova lost in the NCAA tournament, the regular-season success was seen as something of a fluke. It wasn't. Villanova has won 62 of its 70 games over the past two years. With Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo joining Josh Hart, Kris Jenkins, Daniel Ochefu and Ryan Arcidiacono, Villanova will be balanced and have great guard play. Wright could return to the Final Four for the first time since 2009 with this crew.
Worst Case: The Wildcats go into blackout in conference play and drop a close one in the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. Like Virginia, Villanova needs to close the deal in the NCAA tournament for all of us to pay more attention to the day-to-day success the Wildcats have had under Wright. But it's pretty clear that the worst case for Villanova is another early exit and the stigma that comes with it.
"They've been the standard the first two years of the league. They have toughness, play extremely hard and play together. I don't expect that to change even though they lost a couple of key guys. They will try and turn you over defensively and rely heavily on the 3 again. I think they have four guys back who shot over 38 percent from 3. They added a really good point guard in Brunson and can play inside-out if they want with Ochefu."
No. 8 Oklahoma | No. 10 Wichita State | Full List
