Villanova lost four of its first 11 games, which included a humiliation at the hands of Baylor and a 20-point loss to Creighton in the Big East opener.
It wasn’t the best of starts.
But, at this point, it’s pretty clear the Wildcats have figured out most of the things they needed to figure out. They’re now on a six-game winning streak thanks to Sunday’s 82-42 destruction of Butler.
“We’re starting to be able to do this for 40 minutes,” Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright told reporters afterward.
Such was certainly the case Sunday.
Incredibly, Villanova shot 59.6% from the field, 63.2% from 3 and 93.3% from the free throw line in Sunday’s 40-point beatdown, which qualified as the largest margin of victory for the Wildcats in any Big East game in history. (FYI: Villanova has played 700 Big East games!) In other words, it was some kind of performance — one that improved the Wildcats to 13-4 overall and 6-1 in the Big East. KenPom now projects them to win the league by multiple games. If it happens, Villanova will take at least a share of the Big East regular-season title for the eighth time in a nine-year span.
It’s obviously impressive.
The Wildcats remain No. 10 in Monday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 and 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Auburn is still No. 1 for the sixth consecutive day thanks to the fact that the Tigers are 16-1 overall, 5-0 in the SEC and in possession of the best strength of record in the nation. They’re 4-1 in Quadrant 1 and 4-0 in Quadrant 2 — or 8-1 in the first two quadrants, which represents the sport’s best winning percentage in the first two quadrants. The Tigers are also the only Division I team that hasn’t lost in regulation, and their 13-game winning streak is tied with Davidson’s for the longest in the nation.
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