Villanova looked anything but a championship-caliber team in a loss to Butler on Sunday, but the No.10 Wildcats rebounded with a 72-60 win over No.14 Creighton on Wednesday to claim the regular season title of the Big East. This is the seventh time in eight years that Villanova has won at least a league share, although that title has come at a price. All-star guard Collin Gillespie was lost in the first period to a knee injury that coach Jay Wright called “serious” after the game.
The league title may come with a small asterisk in the minds of some detractors. The caveat is that the Wildcats (16-4, 11-3 Big East) are on track to play just 15 league games this season. In contrast, Creighton (17-7, 13-6) will complete a full 20-game Big East roster if Saturday’s regular season finale against Butler is played as scheduled. But the league decided to use winning percentage as the determining factor in crowning a champion.
Even though Villanova loses in their regular season final in Providence on Saturday and Creighton defeats Butler, the Wildcats will still end the regular season with a better winning percentage. The Wildcats and Bluejays could still meet in the Big East title game, which would give them the opportunity to break the tie after splitting their pair of games in the regular season.
While it was banner night for the Wildcats, it was also a worrying night for the program because of what happened to Gillespie. Here’s more on that as we get into an important Wednesday night’s winners and losers in college basketball.
Loser: Collin Gillespie’s senior party
Gillespie was one of four seniors honored at the Finneran pavilion ahead of the game, but the game turned out to be more than a send-off for the decorated overall. Gillespie left the game with a knee injury at 6:38 of the first half after jumping to challenge a shot from Creighton’s Damien Jefferson. Without him on the ground, Villanova sometimes looked lost in the second half as Creighton came back from a 22-point deficit to challenge the Wildcats late in the game. In the end, the Wildcats survived. But it was sad to see Gillespie sitting on the bench on the senior night with a league title on the line, and Villanova’s performance without him reminded him of how essential he is to the team.
The Wildcats are not a deep team, and heading into the playoffs, the severity of Gillespie’s injury emerges as a critical issue for a team that came into the night at the projected No.3 starting line for the NCAA tournament.
Winner: Missouri comes out of a funk
Missouri have been heading in the wrong direction over the past two weeks, starting Wednesday night’s battle against Florida. The Tigers broke their funk in an exciting way, when Dru Smith hit a winning layup in the last second to lead Mizzou to a 72-70 victory.
Missouri needed that one and can enter the playoffs after gaining momentum if they manage to knock out LSU this weekend.
Loser: Minnesota collapsed
When Minnesota handed Michigan their first loss of the season on Jan.16 and improved to 11-4, PA voters rewarded the Gophers by pushing them down to 17th in the next poll. Everything has been going downhill since. With their overall hopes for the NCAA tournament already nearly all along the hits, the Gophers’ misery continued Wednesday in an 84-65 loss to Penn State. That’s now nine losses in 11 games for Minnesota since Michigan won and six in a row. Injuries, including a foot problem for big man Liam Robbins, have hampered coach Richard Pitino’s side lately, but don’t totally excuse a collapse of this magnitude.
Winner: Syracuse wins a bubble
Syracuse picked up another big midlife victory in the bubble on Wednesday as the Orange toppled Clemson 64-54 in a game that, for now, will only count as a Quad 2 win. because the Tigers (15-5, 9-6) entered at # 33 in the NET. But if Clemson does manage to sneak into the NET’s top 30 ahead of the selection on Sunday, Wednesday night’s win would become Syracuse’s first Quad 1 victory of the season. The Orange entered the game as one of the “last four exits” of the NCAA tournament field projected by Jerry Palm, and the victory over a hot Clemson team will be a nice boost as the Orange will now turn to the preparation of the ACC tournament.
On the flip side, winning an important game didn’t stop Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim from reminding everyone he was a crank.
Winner: State of Wichita takes care of business
Wichita State came into the night as the projected No. 10 seed in the NCAA tournament, with bracket expert Jerry Palm noting that their place in the parenthesis “would disappear with a loss to Tulane.” Well, the Shockers avoided disaster, and there’s something to be said about it this time of year. It was a particularly enjoyable night for Trey Wade, who came in with just 5.8 points on average for the Shockers but reached a career-high 23 of 9 of 12 shots. Wichita State had 13 of 31 of 3 shots. points in the game and will pose a serious threat in the playoffs if he can keep shooting the ball like that.
Seton Hall came in as one of Palm’s “last four outs” and did himself no favors by losing 69-58 to UConn. The Pirates play in St. John’s on Saturday, and from now on, that will count as a Quad 1 game. But make no mistake: Seton Hall is fading away. Wednesday night’s loss was the team’s third in a row, and neither is defensible. Georgetown and Butler are teams the Pirates should beat, and bringing UConn home shouldn’t have been so difficult after Seton Hall beat the Huskies on the road on February 6.
Winner: Oregon gels
After an 82-74 win over UCLA on Wednesday night, Oregon has won nine of its last 10 games. The Ducks (18-5, 13-4 Pac-12) are still in contention for the Pac-12 title and appear to click at just the right time after another roster remake under coach Dana Altman. Oregon shot an absurd 60.8% from the ground. While that figure is in part an indictment against UCLA’s fragile defense, it’s also an indication of how the Ducks are finding their rhythm. Chris Duarte has reached 20 points in three of Oregon’s last four games, and transfers Eugene Omoruyi (Rutgers) and LJ Figueroa (St. John’s) continue to shine as well. The victory should also allow the Ducks to expire a bit after entering the night still on the bubble, according to Palm.
Loser: Maryland suffers a nasty defeat
Maryland’s momentum came to a screeching halt Wednesday night when the Terrapins dropped a 60-55 stunner at Northwestern. The Wildcats (8-14, 5-13 Big Ten) had back-to-back wins after beating Minnesota last Thursday, but the Wildcats had lost 13 in a row before that. In contrast, Maryland (15-11, 9-10) came in after scoring five straight wins but now must win against Nebraska on Sunday if they are to avoid ending up with a losing record in the Big Ten game. It was the fifth time this season that the Terrapins failed to reach 60 points. Fortunately, because the loss occurred on the road, it will only count as a Quad 2 loss for Maryland. It would have been their first loss in Quad 3 if it had happened at home.
