Villanova Focused On Xavier, Not Rankings
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- For the first time in five weeks, Villanova is not the number one team in the nation. The Wildcats aren't losing any sleep.
A loss to Butler last week dropped Villanova to number three in this week's poll behind Baylor and Kansas. The Wildcats will now turn their attention to the 15th-ranked Xavier Musketeers, who will visit the Main Line on Tuesday night. Jay Wright enjoyed his team's recent ride at number one, but will not let a drop in the polls affect his team's preparation.
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"I'd rather be number one than three," said Wright. "But there's a lot of challenges to it, too. Mostly, we were just concentrating on the next game and to trying to get better because it's most important where you end up at the end of the season."
The Wildcats and Musketeers split a pair of games last season, but Xavier looks to be a better version than the team which faced Villanova last year. The Musketeers are 13-2 overall and 3-0 in Big East play. Guard Jalen Brunson knows the Wildcats will have their hands full on Tuesday night.
"They're just a great team," Brunson said. "They can all shoot. They're just a well-rounded team defensively and offensively. There's not much bad you can say about them. We've just got to be prepared to go to battle with them."
This will be the third game in less than two weeks for Villanova against a Top 25 team. The Big East appears to be stronger than a year ago when there were fewer teams ranked among the nation's best. Wright added that several of the teams that are not ranked have also improved and that the conference has made a strong impression in the college basketball world.
"You see the games and you see that Top 25 teams are playing each other night in and night out," said Wright. "It tells you the quality of play. You can see how tough these teams are and you can see what they've done against other teams across the country. Xavier's a good example."
For the Wildcats, the focus remains on the next game. After losing at Butler, Villanova was able to rebound with a win over Marquette at the Center on Saturday night. Senior Guard Josh Hart believes there have been lessons learned in both victory and defeat.
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"I think we've handled it well," Hart said. "The big cliche is you have to lose to learn. That's something I think we did very well. We won, but we learned from those wins. It didn't take a loss for us to regroup. We just kept learning and learning."
