This year’s March Madness will see the Philly region represented by Villanova and two other Philadelphia region teams in the men’s and women’s brackets, writes Evan Macy for PhillyVoice.
The 8-seeded Villanova men, a one-time Big East powerhouse, are favored in a game against 9-seeded Utah State because of their conference experience and name recognition.
They were expected to be much better seeded last week, but were upset in the conference tournament by Georgetown, which hurt their tournament standing despite a solid 24-8 regular season.
The Wildcats take on San Diego on March 19. If they clear that game, they will have to unseat 1-seed Arizona, which is expected to take 16-seeded Long Island in their tournament opener.
The Villanova women were also solid in the regular season, earning the second-best record in the Big East at 25-7.
Then they were hit hard in the tournament final by UConn, the No. 1 overall team in the country, losing with a score of 90-51.
The Villanova women’s basketball team is the 10th seed in the Sacramento region of the NCAA Tournament. They take on No. 7 seed Texas Tech on March 20.
Read more about the Wildcats and the Philly region teams in Philly Voice.
