Villanova now shifts to Selection Sunday, NCAA Tournament, after shocking loss to Georgetown in Big East quarters

By Kyle Morello (@Kylemorello4)

NEW YORK — A night that was supposed to be the start of a new era of Villanova postseason basketball felt all too familiar on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.

The Wildcats were outclassed by 11th-seeded Georgetown in the last game of quarterfinal Thursday at the Big East tournament, losing 78-64 and failing to make the semifinals for a fourth consecutive season.

Villanova entered the Big East tournament as the third seed, its highest finish since the 2022 tournament, when the Wildcats cut down the nets as the No. 2 seed. They were the clear third-best team in the league all season long and had rarely lost to a team worse than them. Only their home loss to Creighton in January was to a team not named St. John’s or UConn in Big East play. They had already beaten Georgetown twice this season. But as the old saying goes, it’s hard to beat the same team three times in a season. 

Especially on a stage like this.

“I think when you have a young basketball team that has played really well all year long, and has had some struggles in big games, that’s part of the growing process and the learning process,” head coach Kevin Willard said after the loss.

Georgetown used its interior presence to give Villanova fits all night. The Hoyas outrebounded the Wildcats, 46-25, and had as many offensive rebounds as Villanova did defensive rebounds (16). Georgetown also outscored Villanova 36-20 in the paint, and 17-8 in second-chance points. 

But it was more than that for Villanova. For a team ranked 42nd nationally in offensive rating according to KenPom, the Wildcats were anything but quality on Thursday. They had multiple stretches of scoreless streaks, including a 6:45 stretch to end the first half where they made just one basket. 

“I thought a little bit of our offense late in the first half dictated a little bit of our defense,” Willard lamented. “That was probably the first time all year that our offense kind of shifted to our defense, instead of the other way around.”

The offense and rebounding was naturally going to take a hit without starter Matt Hodge, who tore his ACL in the loss to St. John’s on February 28. Malachi Palmer has stepped up to fill Hodge’s role, but it’s left a hole in a bench unit that wasn’t very deep to begin with. 

“I think Malachi has done a really good job stepping in for Matt,” Willard said. “Where we struggle is when Malachi comes out of the game, so that’s something that I have a couple days where I’ve gotta try to figure out what we’re doing when (Tyler Perkins is) at the four. We just haven’t had much practice time since Matt’s gone down. We’ve been very delicate in practice.” 

As Willard stated, it’s something Villanova will have just a few days to work on. Selection Sunday is just two days away, and the Wildcats’ first NCAA Tournament game will likely be four or five days after that. 

As for figuring out how to win on the big stage, well, there’s no better time than their first game back in the big dance after a three-year drought.