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Villanova Basketball: 5 reasons why Wildcats should be 2020-21 title favorites

By Matthew Winick

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 16: The Villanova Wildcats celebrate the 74-72 win over the Seton Hall Pirates during the Big East Championship Game to claim the Big East title at Madison Square Garden on March 16, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 16: The Villanova Wildcats celebrate the 74-72 win over the Seton Hall Pirates during the Big East Championship Game to claim the Big East title at Madison Square Garden on March 16, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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Villanova Basketball
PHILADELPHIA, PA – JANUARY 18: Collin Gillespie #2, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl #24, Justin Moore #5 and Jermaine Samuels #23 of the Villanova Wildcats (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /

Villanova Basketball ended last season as the 10th best team in the nation. With a mostly retained core, they should be on a shortlist of favorites for the 2020-21 National Championship.

The 2019-2020 season for Villanova Basketball was supposed to be a re-tooling year for the program. After years of success, the Wildcats had seen five players move on to the NBA within a two-year span. That left their program with no seniors in their rotation and only one double-digit scorer back from the previous year.

Instead of a re-tool, last season was more like a refresher of just how dominant Villanova has been over the course of the decade. A multitude of players stepped up and kept the Wildcats in the top 10 discussion throughout the season. To top it off, they tied for first in the Big East, giving them six out of the last seven regular-season titles.

With the combination of a young roster and previous success, the 2020-21 rendition of the Wildcats is in a rare situation. With all but Saddiq Bey returning from last year, Villanova may have the perfect blend of experience, youth, and talent. We’ve seen consistently in the past that experience wins championships, but the talent on championship rosters must still be elite. There simply haven’t been many cases of both qualities shown as prominently as this year’s Wildcats roster.

While there are still questions to be asked, and roles to be filled, the nucleus of this team has shown no reason to expect anything less than elite-level offense with scrambling, smart defense. With that being said, there are a few pieces that must come in to place correctly for this squad to truly maximize their potential. If so, we could be crowning the Villanova Wildcats national champions for the third time in their last five tries.