Villanova is putting together one of the better seasons in the school's history as they continue to ride a 14-game win streak, the best for the team. After several years of early exits, Villanova finally stands on the brink of the Big East conference tournament championship if they can get one more win. The No. 4 Wildcats will now go take on Xavier in hopes of ending their long championship drought.
Villanova is battling for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Reaching the Big East finals and winning them would be the easiest way to guarantee that idea happening. However, the Big East championship game has been a major hurdle Villanova has failed to get over in recent years. The team is in the finals thanks to a win over Providence on Friday after Ryan Arcidiacono's two free throws as the clock ticked down.
The Wildcats are capitalizing on balanced scoring. Josh Hart led the way coming off the bench with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting. He is averaging 17.0 points on 66.7 percent shooting in Big East conference tournament play. Daniel Ochefu affed 15 points and 13 rebounds while Arcidiacono returned from a rib injury to earn just six points. He is shooting just 33.3 percent in his last three games. He is in a rut along with Darrun Hilliard who is averaging 10.4 points on 35.7 percent shooting in his last five games after putting up 14.1 points per game.
Xavier almost did not make it to the conference finals. The No. 6 seed blew their 21-point lead before getting the 65-63 win over Georgetown. They have a three-game win streak while keeping them mostly close calls. They can reach the tournament by beating Villanova and earning the automatic bid for the Big East.
Villanova has not been in the finals since 1997. They have one championship win in 1995. Since then, early upsets and surprising losses caused the Wildcats to fail to get close to a championship. However, the team has the bigger picture in mind and winning the championship game is the only way to achieve it.
