Villanova's Jay Wright has to convince his team their recent troubles are in the past

Here is the sell Jay Wright has made to his Villanova team over the last couple of days:

The losing streak is over. That is in the past. The NCAA tournament is upon us. Every game is a big game. Go be yourselves. Play loose. Remember that you have been there before. And, oh by the way - no one outside of the program is expecting much out of you. Use that to your advantage.

 It is a smart, reasonable approach, but this is still all about confidence for the Wildcats. Against a solid opponent such as No. 8 seed George Mason, a team that won 16 consecutive games before losing in the semifinals of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament, can Villanova manufacture confidence even though their confidence has been eroding for more than a month?

That is going to be a tougher sell.

The good news for Villanova is that after collapsing down the stretch, they are in the tournament as a nine seed, and they did not have to go to Dayton for one of the new play-in games between the last four at-large teams selected. The bad news is they have to play a hot George Mason team, and they barely beat the Patriots the last time they played, in Puerto Rico early last season.

So George Mason has an abundance of confidence, and will be armed with the additional ammunition of revenge. The Wildcats will have their hands full.

"What's going to be most important for us is us - that we're right," Wright said.

To ensure that the Wildcats are "right," Wright treated the three days leading up to Sunday night's announcement of the field of 68 as a training camp. He reviewed all of the basics with the team. Offensive and defensive sets. Rotations. Inbounds plays. End-of-game situations. For the first time in a while, everyone practiced, even Mouphtaou Yarou, who is still sore from the fall he took in the Big East tournament loss to South Florida but was on the floor when Wright was simulating plays.

Corey Stokes is healthy. Corey Fisher is healthy. Although Yarou was basically practicing with only one arm over the weekend, Wright said the 6-foot-10 center should be close to 100 percent on Friday, when the Wildcats play George Mason in Cleveland.

Wright wanted the players to remember who they were when they opened the season 16-1, and not worry about the circumstances that contributed to them losing 10 of their last 15 games.

Today Wright will show the players tape from last year's 69-68 win over George Mason. It was the third game of the season, and Patriots coach Jim Larranaga created all sorts of mismatches that gave the Wildcats fits. George Mason led the entire game until the very end, when Scottie Reynolds got double-teamed and passed to Isaiah Armwood.

The freshman had not taken a shot the whole game, and he buried a three-pointer to give Villanova the lead. George Mason had one more possession but did not get off a final shot.

"When we came out of that game we said, 'We're so lucky to have won that game,' " Wright said. "They played harder than us. They played better than us. I know our guys know, but we're going to watch the film. They kicked us."

It could happen again if the Wildcats do not have their heads together. That is what this will be about for this team. Mental toughness and confidence. If a game like the one in Puerto Rico unfolds, where George Mason maintains the lead, will this team be mentally tough enough to hang in, and will any player have the confidence to knock in the game-winning shot?

After losing to South Florida, 70-69, in the Big East tournament last week, Wright said his team played "tentative." If that is the case again against George Mason, the Wildcats will be one-and-done. The season will be over.

"I probably shouldn't have said that we got tight or anything, but I said it," Wright said. "It's more they just wanted [the losing streak] to be over. They're such good kids. Sometimes you have kids that don't give a crap, they're just so tough they don't care what anybody says about them and they just go play. Our guys take so much pride in all this, they just wanted it to end, and every time it didn't end, I think they just felt like, 'Oh my God.'

"That's why I'm saying - it's over. We're starting the NCAA tournament, it's over. . . . It's new life, here we go. Let's just go play, be us."

But what us will they be? The ones that excelled defensively and were lethal from the perimeter? Or the ones that made dumb mistakes and looked afraid to lose?

Wright is hoping for the former - but that, too, is going to be a tough sell.