Leads Wildcats with 21 points, 13 boards

The thought crept into his mind.

Villanova overcame a sluggish first half in the opening round to rout No. 16 Mount St. Mary’s, 76-56.

No. 1 overall seed Villanova faces a stiff test on Saturday afternoon against No. 8 seed Wisconsin. Would this be the first time a number-one seed lost in the first round?!

The hero from last season’s national title game was 2-of-13 against the Hokies and is 2-of-17 from 3-point range over his last three contests.

“What I see in Villanova is a championship program type swagger”, Gard said.

And 129-0 is now 130-0.

3 The victor will face either No. 4 seed Florida or fifth-seeded Virginia in the Sweet 16.Wisconsin is the only team in the nation that has advanced to the Sweet 16 in each of the last three years. The Wildcats only could mount a seven-point lead with 5 minutes 28 seconds left, but the Badgers then scored the game’s next seven points to tie the score and set up the dramatic final 3 1/2 minutes. But again it’s on all of us.

“We’ve seen that they like to pressure the ball, and pressure off the ball as well”, freshman guard Markus Howard said. “We know we’re in for a battle”. He seemed okay when i talked to him more than a couple days. Stats, history and basic logic all goes out the window when picking a champion to win the field and sometimes you just have to get weird.

“It’s a blessing for me to be part of the three teams that have been in the NCAA Tournament”, said Reinhardt, who averaged 10.9 points and 2.8 rebounds. You’ve got to give them credit. “We gave it our all, we just came up short”. He came off the bench on Thursday night and provided a huge lift by scoring a team-leading 21 points with a career-best 13 rebounds. The Wildcats have 15.6% lower win odds than the last No. 1 seed, Gonzaga, does in its second-round game. On their first possession of the game, guard Justin Bibbs splashed a three-pointer and was fouled in the process.

“We weren’t looking ahead. They do a lot of similar things that we do”. “So just pinpointing that in preparation for us has been a key part of what we’ve been doing to practice and prepare for SC”. They can play fast or slow, with finesse or brute strength.

But what really turned this game was energy.

Fans in Buffalo couldn’t have asked for a much better draw for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. “We got to forget about it”. We take pride in it.

“That’s what I told myself”. We didn’t. I honestly don’t have an answer. “The beauty of the tournament is, if this was the season, I’d say, all right, we got to address this right now”.

Josh Hart appreciates the efforts of the Villanova band.

“It’s not necessarily just stop their one guy”, sophomore swingman Khalil Iverson said. The Badgers boast a top-10 defense in adjusted efficiency and are well-equipped to take advantage of carelessness with the ball. “Most of the season, they’ve been in the top 10 for 3-point shooting”. The third-ranked Wildcats beat the Badgers 66-58.