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Villanova has one last hurdle: North Carolina

HOUSTON - It has been Jay Wright's customary answer every year when Villanova is about to embark on a new season and he is asked about the team's goals.

HOUSTON - It has been Jay Wright's customary answer every year when Villanova is about to embark on a new season and he is asked about the team's goals.

You will never hear him say what you anticipate a coach in his position would say: a Big Five championship, the Big East regular-season title, the conference championship, a deep run in the NCAA tournament. Instead, his stock saying is, "We want to be the best team we can be by the end of the season."

The success of the 2015-16 Villanova season has been a lot easier to measure. The Wildcats (34-5) have made it all the way to the final college basketball game, the one for the national championship, against top-seeded North Carolina (33-6) on Monday night at NRG Stadium.

There doesn't seem to be much doubt that the Cats were at their ultimate best on Saturday night when they demolished Oklahoma, 95-51, in the semifinals. The 44-point margin was the most in Final Four history, and their 71.4 percent shooting from the field was second all-time behind the 78.6 percent mark in Villanova's win over Georgetown for the national title in 1985.

As his team prepares for the tall and talented Tar Heels, Wright says the Wildcats have been on an upward track throughout their deep NCAA run.

"I do think that this team has taken advantage of the opportunity to play games and has gotten better," said Wright, who was named Naismith men's coach of the year on Sunday. "Even going into the Oklahoma game, I thought we had our best week of practice in terms of commitment to detail.

"We're going to try this one more time here right after this [news conference] and see if we can get a little bit better. In that sense, it's the best team we've ever had in terms of continuing to get better. I thought our '09 Final Four team did that. I think this team is doing the same."

The Wildcats have picked a good time to play at their peak. In five NCAA games, they are averaging almost 85 points and shooting 58.2 percent from the field and 49.0 percent from three-point range. Defensively, they're limiting opponents to 60.6 points per game and 42.0 percent shooting while forcing 14.4 turnovers per game.

Veteran guard Ryan Arcidiacono has seen his team succeed and fall short of playing its best at the end of the season in his four years. It did well his freshman year even though the Wildcats lost to North Carolina in the first round of the NCAAs, but not the following season when they dropped postseason games to Seton Hall (Big East tournament) and Connecticut (NCAA second round).

Last year, the Wildcats were a No. 1 seed and lost in the second round to North Carolina State, but Arcidiacono felt they were playing at their best "and we ran into a hot team."

As for this season, "It's something we've taken great pride in this year, playing our best ball, and we're continuing to try to get better."

In setting a program record for most wins in a season, Villanova has had five winning streaks of five or more games. However, all of the Wildcats remember their last loss, 69-67, to Seton Hall in the Big East tournament championship game, because of the lessons they've applied to their NCAA run.

"A lot of mistakes happened in that game and we started that game off terribly," senior center Daniel Ochefu said. "We've been talking in the huddles, even when we have big leads, remembering what happened in this game and that game. Using those situations make us even better."

Wright said he likes how the loss to Seton Hall impacted his team. In film study after that game, he showed the players the first five or six possessions and got the message home.

"Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't," he said. "But the fact that they keep bringing that up, it must have been impactful and I'm glad they have something to refer to, and we've got to do that one more time. We have to start with intensity one more time."

One more time. One more game. It would be a lot to ask of the Wildcats to improve on Saturday night's performance. But if they can, they have a good chance of cutting down the nets Monday night.

jjuliano@phillynews.com

@joejulesinq