'Nova might be returning to Wells Fargo Center in a few weeks

MY NO. 1 NCAA seeds if the selections were today.

East: Villanova

South: Michigan State

Midwest: Kansas

West: North Carolina

After overwhelming Georgetown Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center, 84-71, Villanova (27-4, 16-2 Big East) has gone a crazy 84-9 in the last three regular seasons. The players who did that will be able to look back on that someday with great pride. But it's no secret that everything these Wildcats have done this season will be judged in the context of how they do during the next two weeks in New York, first at Madison Square Garden in the Big East Tournament and then in the NCAA Tournament at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

If everything goes well, the 'Cats will come back to WFC on March 25 to play in the East Regional Sweet 16. I think Kansas is locked into a No. 1 seed, Michigan State is going to win the Big Ten Tournament to get a 1 and North Carolina's regular-season ACC title will get it a 1.

I think the last No. 1 is going to be Villanova, but Virginia definitely will get consideration, especially if it wins the ACC Tournament. If Virginia does pass 'Nova, the 'Cats likely would be the top No. 2 seed and end up in the East anyway, with UNC or Virginia as the No. 1 in the region.

Whatever happens on Selection Sunday, the 'Cats begin Big East play Thursday at noon against the winner of Wednesday night's DePaul-Georgetown game, two teams the 'Cats beat easily last week. There were 20,173 at WFC to see 'Nova go off at the start for a 27-6 lead against the Hoyas (14-17, 7-11). Georgetown got to 11 with a nice second-half run, but was never going to catch up.

Josh Hart had 18 points, Kris Jenkins 17 and Ryan Arcidiacono 16. Jenkins has become a very reliable scorer down the stretch with 31, 19, 22 and 20 in the preceding four games. Arch has a ridiculous 40 assists and four turnovers over his last six games. The 'Cats, one of America's best passing teams, had 23 assists on their 27 field goals.

Saint Joseph's lost some games along the way in a surprise season, but never really played poorly. The Hawks played poorly in a 78-70 home loss to Duquesne, which had lost eight straight. The Dukes (16-15, 6-12 Atlantic 10) shot 50 percent, made 11 threes and led for the game's final 32 minutes.

St. Joe's (24-7, 13-5) was always just behind, but could never catch up, shooting terribly (25-for-72, 34.7 percent) and taking as many threes (36) as twos. Shavar Newkirk, James Demery and Papa Ndao were a combined 2-for-22. The defense was not great either as the Dukes' backcourt of Micah Mason (28 points) and Derrick Colter (18 points, 11 assists, eight rebounds) more or less did what they wanted.

A win would have gotten the Hawks a share of the A-10 regular-season title as part of a four-way tie. SJU is still in the NCAA field at the moment, but put itself in a bit of jeopardy heading to Brooklyn for the A-10 Tournament.

SJU will be the No. 4 seed and play in Friday's quarterfinals at 2:30 p.m. against the winner of Thursday's game between George Washington and the winner of Wednesday's George Mason-Saint Louis game. Be a good idea to win that quarterfinal game, at least.

Zeke Miles had 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Hawks, who did not score in the game's final 2 1/2 minutes.

This group has played freely most of the season, but just never looked comfortable and played out of character. It was somewhat reminiscent of two years ago when a Hawks team having a very good season lost its home finale to La Salle. That team won the A-10 Tournament. This team had a bad week, but an excellent season and every chance to construct a good ending.

Whatever chance Drexel had for any success this season ended last spring when star Damion Lee announced he would spend his final college season at Louisville. It was never going to be good, but 6-25 wasn't really on the radar. But that was the final record after an 80-67 quarterfinal CAA Tournament loss to Hofstra in Baltimore.

The Dragons got 20 points from Rodney Williams and 18 from Kazembe Abif. They never led against a team that is a very bad matchup. Drexel lost 16 games by fewer than 10 points and nine by six or less. With Lee, many of those close losses are wins. Without him, it was a 31-game nightmare. Ironically, Lee's college career ended 8 hours after Drexel's season when Louisville lost at Virginia.

Penn swept the Dartmouth-Harvard home weekend and got swept on the road after losing 74-56 at Harvard. Penn (11-16, 5-8 Ivy) shot just 22-for-68 (32.4 percent) while allowing Harvard (14-16, 6-8) to shoot 27-for-50 overall and 8-for-14 from three.

It was 23-5 after 12 minutes and not very competitive after that. Penn's season ends Tuesday night at Princeton, which was eliminated from the Ivy race when Yale beat Columbia to clinch its first Ivy title since 1962.

La Salle was tied 25-25 with 2 minutes left in the first half at Massachusetts before following a familiar script, especially on the road, where it did not win a game against a Division I opponent. UMass (13-17, 6-12 A-10) blew the game open early in the second half and won easily, 69-52. La Salle (8-21, 4-14) shot poorly from everywhere - 16-for-64 (28.1 percent) overall, 6-for-30 from three and 10-for-24 from the foul line.

The No. 14 seed Explorers play No. 11 Duquesne Wednesday (9 p.m.) in the opening round of the A-10 Tournament. Win and La Salle would play No. 6 Davidson Thursday.

jerardd@phillynews.com

@DickJerardi