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Villanova No. 1 for first time ever

Being the big dog in the Big East in the three seasons since the conference was revamped, Villanova has found the buzz ratcheted up against it on the road in the hostility of the crowd and the intensity of the opposing team seeking the upset.

Being the big dog in the Big East in the three seasons since the conference was revamped, Villanova has found the buzz ratcheted up against it on the road in the hostility of the crowd and the intensity of the opposing team seeking the upset.

But it's a different world coming up when the Wildcats visit DePaul on Tuesday night as the nation's newest No. 1 team in men's college basketball.

Results released Monday of the balloting in the Associated Press vote of 65 media members and the USA Today survey of 32 coaches found Villanova with the most total points in each.

The Wildcats are No. 1 in the AP poll for the first time ever. They finished No. 1 in the 1985 coaches poll after winning the national championship but the AP conducts its final poll before the NCAA tournament.

That just makes the environment for the next game for the Wildcats (20-3, 10-1 Big East) against the Blue Demons (8-15, 2-9) in Rosemont, Ill., that much wilder.

"One of the things we have learned over the last couple of years having won the Big East, is that when we go places, there's a heightened intensity," 'Nova head coach Jay Wright said Monday after practice at the Pavilion. "The Providence atmosphere [Saturday] was crazy. So we're kind of getting used to it.

"Now, we've never done No. 1. We haven't done that. But I think these guys understand we get another level of play when we go on the road."

Word spread quickly across campus after both USA Today and the AP released the results of their polls literally minutes apart. Center Daniel Ochefu said he learned about it after a friend shouted congratulations to him. Then he looked down at his phone, "and it was going off."

"It's great for our university, great for our program," Ochefu said. "But honestly, on the court we can't let that get into our heads at all. Myself and Arch [Ryan Arcidiacono] have to do a good job of staying on the guys. We're going on the road for the next game as the first No. 1 team in school history, so DePaul is going to be coming at us."

Ochefu practiced Monday for the first time after missing three games with a concussion, and hopes to be cleared to play against DePaul.

Arcidiacono, a senior cocaptain like Ochefu, said he enjoyed experiencing the buzz around campus and receiving "a million text messages." But at practice Monday, it was business as usual.

"All of that felt good, but it's Feb. 8," he said. "We don't want to be No. 1 now. We want to be No. 1 at the end of the year. But we'll take it for now. We appreciate all the votes and all the accolades about it. But we just have to get back to work."

Josh Hart, the Wildcats' leading scorer, called the news "cool" but added, "We can't pay too much attention to it.

"It can be taken away as easy as we got it," he said. "We could very well come in with big heads [Tuesday] and we could lose to DePaul. It's a cool feeling with everyone reaching out to us, but we can't get complacent."

That's the challenge for Wright, who has coached three teams that have been No. 2 for a total of four weeks - the latest being the final AP poll of 2014-15 prior to the NCAA tournament.

"The respect is really nice, it feels good," Wright said. "But we also know it brings on a new challenge. Every season has all kinds of different challenges. We never had the challenge of dealing with No. 1, so it's a good one to try out. Let's see how we do."

jjuliano@phillynews.com

@joejulesinq