Villanova stands atop college basketball’s summit. Delaware could do little but stare up. | Mike Sielski

PITTSBURGH — So which play summed it all up best? Which play, among all the plays that Villanova made Friday afternoon in its 80-60 thumping of Delaware here at PPG Paints Arena, captured fully the kind of program that the Wildcats have become and, really, have been for a long time now under Jay Wright?

There was the six-minute stretch, from late in the first half to early in the second half, that broke the Blue Hens, a stretch they began down by four and in the game and ended down by 18 and out of hope. There were the four off-the-dribble three-pointers that Collin Gillespie hit, each born of a pro-level move that he had clearly spent hours … days … weeks … honing until he could shoot that shot in his sleep. There was Jermaine Samuels hurling himself onto the Villanova bench to save a loose ball, accidentally elbowing assistant coach Dwayne Anderson in the face, leaving Anderson bloodied from a gash in his nose. There was Justin Moore, scoring 21 points, hitting three threes himself, posting up or backing down any defender he drew.

No. Try this. Try the moment that stuck with Delaware coach Martin Ingelsby, with a man who has the perspective and familiarity with Big Five and Villanova history to put such matters in their proper context. So: Blue Hens up, 23-22, still riding the wave of their Colonial Athletic Association championship, feeling confident, Jameer Nelson Jr. off on what looks like an easy breakaway dunk and a three-point lead and maybe some nervousness on the Main Line … except Brandon Slater chases him down, re-introduces himself to Nelson at the rim, and blocks the dunk.

» READ MORE: Villanova wears out Delaware and takes NCAA first-rounder, 80-60

“We had the game where we wanted it,” Ingelsby said. “That’s a dunk for Jameer in the CAA. It just shows you how hard Villanova plays and how they compete. They battled to the last second. They weren’t going to let us get anything easy. That was a little bit of a game-changing play for them. It got the crowd into it. Whether he got fouled or not, that’s a different story.”

Ingelsby’s eyes twinkled on that last line. He knew as well as anyone, and his team did, too: Even if that foul had been called, it probably wouldn’t have mattered. The outcome would be the outcome just the same, little more than a matter of time and Villanova playing as it usually does: hard and smart and so freaking tough. Delaware was loaded with coaches and players with Philly-area ties. It was one of the things that Wright feared most about this particular No. 2-No. 15 matchup in the NCAA Tournament. Wright didn’t dare bring up St. Peter’s upset of Kentucky to his players before Friday’s game. No need to clutter their minds or give them a reason to get nervous if the score stayed close.

No, the bigger concerns were the toll that the Big East Tournament might have taken on his team and Delaware’s collective familiarity with the Wildcats, with their system and their players. The Blue Hens might lose, and they did. But Villanova wasn’t going to intimidate them.

Then Delaware held a 15-8 lead eight-and-a-half minutes in, a wakeup for the Wildcats better than any warning Wright might have delivered. It would have been natural for the Blue Hens to pause and appreciate the moment, and a couple of them admitted that they did.

“As soon as we started appreciating it,” Delaware’s Kevin Anderson said, “they started hitting threes.”

Thirteen in all. Soon enough, the lead was gone and, for the Blue Hens, the game, too. This was a step-forward season for them, for Ingelsby as their coach: first conference-tournament championship, first NCAA Tournament berth, 22 victories, perhaps the seeds of sustained success planted. That’s what Ingelsby has sought since he was hired there in May 2016, less than two months after the Wildcats won the first of their two national championships under Wright.

There was a shift in the sport at the time, a new paradigm for building a program. Villanova is 27-7, a victory away – if it can beat seventh-seeded Ohio State on Sunday – from its sixth Sweet 16 appearance under Wright and its fourth in seven years. The sport hasn’t shifted back.

“Ever since I’ve been at the University of Delaware, Villanova has been the best program in college basketball,” Ingelsby said. “They’ve been the model program. It hasn’t been Duke. It hasn’t been Kentucky. It hasn’t been North Carolina. It hasn’t been Kansas. It’s been Villanova. As I’ve built my program, I’ve tried to model how we do things very similarly to how Jay’s run his program.

» READ MORE: Delaware coach Martin Ingelsby has a great story. Maybe his brother will write it. | Mike Sielski

“Again, they’re really, really good,” Ingelsby continued. “They put so much pressure on you with the way they shoot the basketball. And then they’re so connected defensively. They’re tough. They’re physical. They know who they are. They’re selfless. I could go on and on about how they play and how they do things. I think they’re one of the three-to-five best teams in college basketball. Jay has built an elite, elite basketball program. They’re at the pedestal. There are a lot of teams in the country who want to be like Villanova basketball.”

The challenge these days is finding the teams who don’t.