Villanova receives a No. 5 seed, will play Winthrop on Friday in the NCAA Tournament

The Wildcats were looking at a higher seed earlier in the season but a 5-5 finish moved them down to fifth. At 23-1, Winthrop's Eagles are a formidable opponent.

Villanova head coach Jay Wright, center, gives his team instruction against Georgetown in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament last Thursday.Read moreMary Altaffer / AP

by Joe Juliano

Published March 14, 2021, 6:43 p.m. ET

The fact that the Villanova men’s basketball team was able to sit in a large room at a New York hotel Sunday and watch its seeding and its opponent be revealed for the NCAA Tournament was a victory in itself for the Wildcats.

The Wildcats (16-6) were assigned a No. 5 seed by the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee and drew No. 12 Winthrop, which won its first 16 games en route to a 23-1 record. The two teams will meet Friday at an Indianapolis venue to be named.

Although the opponent is a formidable one, Wildcats coach Jay Wright is still happy, and relieved, to be playing.

“There’s a lot of feelings but I think relief is one of those feelings,” he said, “that we made it this far and we made it through the regular season. We made it through the conference tournament and we get to play in the NCAA Tournament. It really is a great sense of relief and it’s a sense of accomplishment. And it’s a great sense of gratefulness that we’ve been able to get here.”

Senior forward Jermaine Samuels, one of only three Wildcats with NCAA Tournament experience, echoed the thoughts of his coach.

“Very, very grateful,” he said. “Last year we didn’t get a chance to play in it. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to play in the postseason, definitely not going to take it for granted.”

The Wildcats flirted with a No. 1 or No. 2 seed during their 11-1 start, but a 5-5 finish and losing point guard Collin Gillespie for the season with a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee on March 3 dropped their seed down the board. The committee seeded them 18th overall, between No. 17 Creighton and No. 19 Tennessee.

Mitch Barnhart, the Kentucky athletic director who chairs the committee, said Gillespie’s injury contributed to “a combination of things” that led to the Wildcats’ seeding.

“They had some losses down the stretch, but they also had some teams that were behind them that were performing at a high level and began to make moves up the seed line, so to speak,” Barnhart said Sunday night in a conference call.

“It’s safe to say their position on the seed list suffered a little bit because of the injury and because of some of the losses they incurred. But there were also some teams behind them that performed really, really well.”

For Wright, who is taking the Wildcats to the NCAAs for the eighth straight time and the 15th in his 20 seasons as coach, all the first-round opponents are difficult no matter the seed.

“You play in the NCAA Tournament and you know you’re going to play a great team,” he said. “We’re playing a great team in Winthrop that’s 23-1, won the regular season and their tournament. They shoot the three, they’ve got good inside players, great shooters, a 6-7 point guard. They’re a really well-coached team.”

Wright said the Eagles reminded him of Creighton, “a lot of three-point shooters, great skill level, great offensive execution, play fast, a tough matchup for us.”

Winthrop captured the Big South regular-season championship, then won three games in the conference tournament by a total of 77 points. The team averages 79.5 points (30th in the nation) and hits 8.5 three-pointers per game.

The Eagles have one of the nation’s unique point guards in 6-foot-7 senior Chandler Vaudrin, who leads the nation with three triple-doubles. His averages of 12.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 6.9 assists all lead his team.

Wright said he watched film of Vaudrin between the announcement of the Wildcats’ NCAA pairing and his Zoom call with the media.

“He’s got great size and mobility and a very high basketball IQ,” he said. “I just get that from watching … just watching him, it’s size, mobility and skill. That combination is rare and he’s got it, and he’s going to be a handful.”

The Wildcats have been in New York since their upset loss Thursday to Georgetown, 72-71, in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals. Wright said the NCAA informed him that it would be best to remain in the hotel’s bubble environment before heading to Indianapolis. He said he expects the team will fly Monday.

The Wildcats are 5-5 in their last 10 games and will be playing without Gillespie.

Justin Moore left the Cats’ March 6 game at Providence with a sprained left ankle but played 27 minutes in the Georgetown game and looks to be ready to play on Friday.