Big East Basketball Rankings: Is Villanova still at the top after shaky start?
Everyone knows that Villanova basketball struggled to begin this season. Despite entering the season ranked in the preseason top-10, the Wildcats were humiliated in back-to-back home games against Michigan and Furman en route to falling out of the rankings altogether. But yet, here they are at No. 1 in these Big East power rankings. And this is due to how well the team has played since those two losses. Quite simply, it seems as though the ‘Cats have turned a corner moving forward.
Since those two losses, Villanova basketball has won five consecutive games, most of them coming against quality opponents. Most notably, the team handled nationally ranked Florida State to take home the AdvoCare Invitational title. And sure, the team has still come out flat in a couple of recent games but they have shown the fight necessary to persevere when they are struggling from the floor. This Villanova team is not going to score at the same rate as some of their recent teams but their defense can definitely help win games.
Head coach Jay Wright is one of the best in the business and really all he needs, in my opinion, is more time to mold this roster to the game he wants to play. The Wildcats are not back in the AP top-25 following their five-game winning streak and should be there to stay. Villanova has a huge opportunity to prove how good it will be this year with a road battle against Kansas coming up.
Through the early portion of this year, seniors Phil Booth (16.0 points) and Eric Paschall (15.1 points) are predictably leading the team in scoring. It is, though, important to mention that Collin Gillespie has taken on a big role this year and Saddiq Bey has, somewhat surprisingly, emerged as the top freshman so far.
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In summary, Big East basketball is still in strong shape moving forward even if it was not a perfect start. The conference should see a bunch of teams compete for NCAA Tournament bids later this year. It would be nice, though, if a team emerged as a true national title contender (can Villanova improve that much?).