The madness of college basketball in March is here, ladies and gentlemen. On Thursday afternoon, a Seton Hall team that hadn’t won back-to-back Big East games in two years won their second straight in the Big East tournament, upsetting Villanova, the No. 3 team in the nation. Sterling Gibbs had the game winner at the buzzer in a game that featured a 16-0 Villanova run, and an eight-point Seton Hall lead at half time. Stunning.
Seton Hall goes on to face the winner of this afternoon’s St. Johns-Providence game. The Pirates will still need to win that game and pull another upset over (likely) Creighton in the final to win their way into March Madness.
But the big question on most college basketball fans’ minds has nothing to do with SHU…What does this mean for the Villanova Wildcats, a team that whose stock had been rising as a national contender since Christmas? With that in mind, let’s look at how this first major upset affects the March Madness bracket that will be announced on Sunday.
What the Villanova Upset Loss Means to the March Madness Bracket
1. Top-Ranked No More
Let’s start with the big one: Villanova will not be a March Madness No. 1. Just a week after taking over one of the top rankings in college basketball, Villanova’s loss to the lowly Seton Hall eliminated the possibility that the Wildcats will be a No. 1 when the selection committee lays out the bracket on Sunday.
The expectation was that Jay Wright’s team would have had to run the table in the Big East tourney, beating Creighton, to guarantee the top seed designation, and they’ve fallen far short of that.
2. Big Ten Championship May Crown Wisconsin or Michigan a National No. 1
With ‘Nova down and out, the door has been left open for the teams on the edge of number one seed, two of whom are playing in the Big Ten championship this weekend: No. 8 Michigan and No. 12 Wisconsin.
The Wolverines and Badgers are the top seeds in their conference and are favored to play in the Big Ten final on Sunday, though Michigan State and Nebraska won’t go out quietly. If either team wins The Big Ten championship, they will be in good standing to fill the void left by the Wildcats as a Madness No. 1.
3. Villanova Earns Tougher Road to the Final Four
With their fourth loss of the season, the Wildcats will likely slide into a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, and will have a much tougher road to the Final Four than they would have had they beaten the Pirates.
As a No. 1, Villanova would have had a couple rounds to get comfortable playing closer to home and against lowly teams before playing a team like Creighton or Michigan State in the Sweet Sixteen. As a probable No. 2, ‘Nova will be playing away from home sooner, and will face a stiffer test in the Round of 32 against a team like Massachuesetts or VCU.
Bottom line? The Madness is underway. Buckle up sports fans, this is just the beginning.
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