Villa
nova has no top 25 wins. How good are they really? I wasn’t that impressed myself.
FWIW, I reviewed their schedule and they played 3 ranked teams including us. Two of those 3 were close losses and one a beat down by Michigan. Many of their wins over good to not so good teams were by double digit scores.
I find it strange how all these metrics work but somehow they're ranked 28 without a win over a top 25 team. Makes me wonder if points scored, points allowed and score differential works in their favor.
As for the eye test, they look like a good pesty team that lacks important front court depth. I felt the same about the Hall when we played them, that got conveniently ranked in the top 25 the week we played them. Since then, they're in the throws of a 4 game loosing streak. Their schedule looked suspect with just the 1 top 25 win over NC State that was ranked 25 at the time but like SHU, have 6 losses.
Most BE teams are tough outs, but based on how the conference played OOC, sans UConn, the BE seems to be in a down year. SJU is a dangerous team due to their style of play and depth and are on a roll, but they lost all their ranked OOC games.
As much as I wish things were different, the talent level of the BE this year is not close to the B10, SEC and B12, and behind the ACC as well.
Lastly, the way the league is officiated, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, i.e. allowing ridiculous grabbing off the ball, constant bumping the handlers but then calling tricky-tack calls within the same game, allows lessor talented teams play more competitively against more talented BE teams.
Note that I don't put UConn's close wins completely due to this, since they've struggled at times to execute their offense even when not being held. And they've struggled shooting 3s, making layups and defensive rebounding. They have been much better defending without fouling. But I do feel the officiating has had an impact on how most BE games look like cross gang rumbles.