The Wildcats are almost assured to be the “home team” in the first round of the NCAA tournament next week. The question is what seed those white jerseys will be attached to.
Currently, Villanova is projected as a seven seed by all of ESPN, CBS and FOX. Here are the specifics for how those projections sit at the moment:
ESPN – East region (Buffalo) facing NC State. The two seed is Michigan State.
CBS – West region facing Santa Clara. Michigan State is the two seed here, as well.
FOX – East region facing
TCU. Illinois is the two seed.
My personal opinion is give me the CBS bracket. NC State has been a disappointment this year, but they’re still a talented squad. TCU would be preferred over the Wolfpack also, but Illinois would be a terrible matchup for the ‘Cats. While both Michigan State and Illinois start two big men, the Fighting Illini have the Ivisic brothers rotating throughout the game. Both Tomislav and Zvonimir can step out and hit the three at over 7’ tall. Illinois also has better depth than the Spartans do.
At the end of the day, both potential second-round opponents would be stiff tests for Villanova. The Wildcats would not be favored in either matchup. As per the FanDuel odds, the Wildcats are +8000 to make the Final Four. This is tied for the 33rd best odds with a number of other teams, none of which anyone is talking about as a potential sleeper. Those teams are Texas, UCLA, Utah State, UCF, Clemson and SMU. All of those squads are more on the bubble than the Wildcats are.
Villanova is also tied with Clemson, UCLA and Texas for the 33rd best odds to win the championship at +25000. See here for full odds: https://sportsbook.fanduel.com/navigation/ncaab
We all would have loved this scenario before the season started, where Villanova is comfortably in the tournament less than a week before Selection Sunday. Could a loss to DePaul or Georgetown drop them to an eight seed? Certainly. They could just be an eight seed with a win and subsequent loss to Connecticut, but that seems unlikely given the other projected eight seeds at the moment.
Those same odds exist for getting a six seed with only a quarterfinal win, but add in another win over the Huskies and now we can have a legitimate conversion. I don’t think a five or a nine is in play.
Let us enjoy not having a game on Wednesday for the first time in years, as well as the rest of this ride, for however long it goes. Go Cats!
