College Basketball Power 10: Welcome To The Top 10, Cincinnati Bearcats
By Jeremy Karll
2. Villanova (22-2)
Villanova had a much better week. They beat Providence by nine and St. John’s by 13 to improve to 22-2 on the season and 9-2 in the Big East, holding a 1.5-game lead on Xavier.
The Big East is theirs to lose and it’s hard to imagine them not winning their fourth straight regular season championship.
After a couple of poor games from Josh Hart a few weeks ago, he has started to get back to his normal production. Over the past four games, Hart is averaging 17.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game.
Against St. John’s, he recorded 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Villanova can hurt teams in multiple ways and is extremely deep, but they need Hart to play well down the stretch and act as their star player.
Jalen Brunson is quickly proving why many believe he is Villanova’s next star after Hart graduates, but Villanova is a much better team when Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Kris Jenkins are complimentary pieces.
Villanova hosts Georgetown and travels to No. 24 Xavier and DePaul this week.