Young Villanova happy to be playing

Villanova might not be the team of the year in Philadelphia basketball. That will be determined during the NCAA tournament as Temple and La Salle make their own cases for that distinction.

But the Wildcats are definitely the surprise of the year, at least from a positive perspective. How big a surprise that the same team that lost by 18 points to Columbia in November heads into the tournament as a nine seed? Big enough that the coach is nearly as surprised as you are.

"Early in the year, I'd have been very pleased if we played in any postseason," Jay Wright said. "Even if it was the CBI, I would have taken any opportunity. We needed to play. We needed to get experience. For this team to be able to make the [NCAA] tournament is a great accomplishment."

If someone slid the deal in front of Wright in those dark November and December days - sign here and you are guaranteed a spot in the NIT - he probably would have grabbed the nearest pen.

Perspective comes best from inside, and Wright's view of the team was that it was young and would struggle. It would get better, but that progress might not really be apparent until next season. He liked the pieces but knew that fitting them together was not a project that could be placed on a schedule.

For a program that didn't get invited to any postseason in 2011-12, breaking a streak of seven straight NCAA appearances, not going again would have raised the volume on the grumbling among fans and benefactors of the program. Wright knew that was more than just possible.

"Every year when we went on that run for seven years, at our banquet I would say, 'Appreciate where we are because it doesn't happen every year.' Last year made everyone realize what I was talking about," Wright said. "This is so hard to do, and this is a day to enjoy the rewards."

It's a day to be happy he didn't sign a deal either with the devil or the NIT, too. Maybe getting to any postseason was a goal he could embrace, but that wouldn't have played well in every corner of the campus.

"I know what the perceptions would have been if we didn't go for two years in a row, but I also liked where we were going," Wright said. "On the inside I'd have been fine with it because I didn't expect [the improvement] to be this quickly. But I knew we were going in the right directions. Two years ago, we were in the tournament, and everyone was happy, but I knew we weren't going in a good direction. So there are two sides of it."

The best way is to have what Wright and Villanova think they have now - a team on the rise that doesget rewarded with an NCAA bid, no matter how unexpected. The experience will be good, even if the experience of playing North Carolina doesn't turn out the way the Wildcats would like.

As it is, Villanova wasn't just rewarded. It was bumped up generously in the tournament bracket. That's a payoff for big wins against Louisville, Syracuse, and Georgetown this season, but it is also a little bit of residual pay for the quality of the program over the last decade and a farewell nod to the power of the old Big East.

Wright wasn't expected to be seeded that highly. In fact - and this might be an indication that he still views his team somewhat tentatively - the Wildcats had a long practice on Sunday because Wright thought they might be a play-in team in Dayton as early as Tuesday.

"I didn't tell them that because they might think I was crazy, but we had a hard practice," Wright said. "We went over playing against different styles of play because you don't know. If we played Tuesday, we had one day. Now we've got four more days to practice and four more days to get better."

They have some things that need to get better if this trip to the tournament is more than just a sightseeing experience. Against a fast-paced Carolina team, the Wildcats will need to either control the tempo of the game or somehow keep up with it. Against Louisville in the Big East tournament, Villanova chose to match a pace a little quicker than the Wildcats prefer.

"That didn't work real well," Wright said.

By the middle of March, the decisions and the opponents always get tougher. Every coach will gladly accept that challenge, though, particularly in a season when it was anything but guaranteed. Having tough decisions beats having no decisions every time.