Villanova tosses elephant out of the room

NEW YORK - OK, time for the next question.

And really, wasn't it about time?

The last time Villanova made it this far, in 2009, it went to a Final Four. But there had been way too many second-round missteps since then, as was well documented. And one more might have been, well, too much. The last thing you want to become is a national punch line. Especially when you've averaged over 30 wins the last three seasons with only regular-season titles to show for that.

As if those didn't matter.

It's what makes the NCAA Tournament the fragile entity that it's become, almost to the point where America forgets most of what preceded it.

It's not something the Wildcats have to live with any longer. Not that it was ruining their world or anything. But it's still one less thing.

"I'm glad we can get a lot of third-round questions now," said senior guard Ryan Arcidiacono, after Villanova's 19-point win that wasn't nearly that tight against overmatched Iowa at the Barclays Center. "It's a great feeling. But it wasn't a celebration. More of a big sigh of relief."

Because it's over. He doesn't have to end one of the most iconic careers a Villanova player has ever put together with no Sweet 16s on his résumé. It's hardly a minor detail. Not in today's world. And maybe that's the way it should be. So how would he have felt had his team called it a season on Sunday afternoon?

"Right after, yeah, it would have (been bad)," said their leader, who now has played in more games (140) with more starts (139) than any other Wildcat. "But when I started looking back at my career, all the great times and great teams I was involved with, I would've been fine.

"It was always in the back of my mind. Now that's not the case (anymore) . . . There's definitely a sense of relief that we did. But it didn't give us any extra motivation."

Maybe not. But for the second straight game they played, as coach Nick McDevitt of first-round victim UNC Asheville had put it on Friday, like a team that was weary of answering the same question.

Funny how that works sometimes.

So now the question becomes, can they keep playing well enough to keep it going? And exactly how far is up? Because just getting to this point for a change wasn't at the top of their wish list.

"The Sweet 16 wasn't our goal," insisted junior forward Josh Hart. "Our goal is to win the national championship. We want to make a run. Talking about the little things is what got us this far.

"We were like Cinderella here, not a No. 2 seed. We felt like underdogs. Everybody doubted us. That's how we took it. It feels good not because we made it, but we were successful in our next game. We're not going to change. We wouldn't have changed if we'd lost this game.

"We remember the feeling (of losing in this game), the tears in the locker room. It's something we don't ever want to feel again."

Only one team gets to avoid that feeling. It might not be this one. Miami in Louisville on Thursday could be a completely different animal to deal with. Veteran group, coached by Jim Larranaga, who's also taken a team to the final weekend. And waiting after that could be Kansas. It would have been nicer if they were playing in South Philly, but that's another story. As Hart said, they could be playing in Anchorage against the Warriors and "we'd be happy." That's what happens when you've done something you haven't been able to do in a while.

Even if you did it against an opponent that was ranked third in late January before limping into the tourney as a seventh seed. Some stuff doesn't get remembered. And other stuff, like not having beaten anyone seeded higher than 15 in the previous six years, does.

The elephant in the room had grown quite imposing. A lot of baggage has been removed. You could see it all over Jay Wright's face afterward. And everyone else's. It was only a step. But not taking it for a third straight year as a top-two seed wasn't an option anyone wanted to test.

"I know you guys didn't want to write that story," Wright admitted, through a knowing smile.

It already had been written at least one too many times.

Time to find some fresh material.

Freshman Jalen Brunson, who's played in some big games before, wasn't there for the early departures. He looked as unfazed as anyone, as usual. But he understood what was in play, particularly for the guys who wanted to avoid making this their last college game.

"I talked to 'Arch' about it," Brunson said about his roomate. "A win like this can get emotional. What's most important is, we don't have to worry about it. It really wasn't a big thing. It feels great to know I was part of a little bit of history. I came here to be part of something special like this."

This was about reputations, and redemption. And just doing what a big-time seed is supposed to do but for whatever reasons sometimes doesn't.

"The (second half) seemed extremely long," said senior center Daniel Ochefu, whose smile was as wide as anyone's. "I remember there was 11 minutes left. And five minutes later it was like 10.

"This is the only game everybody was talking about. This was for the seniors who were here before us and molded us into the guys we are today."

In other words, it was a program talking.

The noise was pretty loud.

"No one was saying (in the locker room) that we had to get past this game," Arcidiacono said. "But I kind of felt it was our day."

Just took a while to finally arrive.

@mikekerndn