Villanova is not at home among the titans, and that’s what makes the Wildcats great | David Murphy

NEW ORLEANS — What follows is a suggestion for all of those people in the world who think they need an excuse to drink before noon. When Villanova takes the podium on Friday for Round Two of the NCAA’s annual pre-Final Four press conferences/hype sessions, pour yourself a cocktail every time you hear the phrase “Villanova Basketball.” Then, call a doctor. And maybe a priest.

In addition to building one of the most successful programs in present-day college basketball, Jay Wright has apparently built a sort of anti-Fight Club up on Lancaster Ave. The first rule of Villanova Basketball? You talk about it. A lot. On Thursday, the official count was seven, the phrase invoked to describe everything from Chris Arcidiacono’s role off the bench to Collin Gillespie’s 1-on-1 battles with Caleb Daniels during their early years in Ardmore. Even after two titles in six years, and four Final Fours in 15, the ethos permeating the program is still that of the little Augustinian school that could. The best team of the Instagram era still sees itself in Polaroids. Every day that it awakes is still 1985.

Thing is, it fits. Villanova might not be Cinderella anymore, but the slipper still looks right on its foot. On Saturday night, when the Wildcats take the court looking for their third championship berth in the last six NCAA men’s basketball tournaments, they will be sharing the stage with three schools that practically invented the sport. Heck, Kansas literally did.

“We talk about (how) there’s only one place you could ever play where the inventor of the game was your first coach,” said Bill Self, whose Jayhawks face Villanova in the Duke-North Carolina undercard on Saturday night. “That’s pretty strong.”

>> WATCH: Mike Sielski chats with Ryan Arcidiacono about Villanova basketball coach Jay Wright

It’s also what makes this Final Four so intriguing. In North Carolina, Duke, and Kansas, you have three of college basketball’s most pedigreed behemoths. They are the bluest of the bluebloods, three of the four winningest programs in NCAA history, with the second, third, and fifth most tournament victories all-time. And then you have Villanova, arguably the most accomplished team of the last 15 years, still very much the little guy.

“Do I feel anything about being here with them?” Wildcats coach Jay Wright asked during his turn behind the microphone on Thursday morning. “Hell yeah.”

Them. It’s still us and it’s them. When Villanova beat Houston last Saturday to advance to the national semifinal, it was easy to question the validity of any line of distinction. Wasn’t this four Final Fours in 15 years, same as it was for Kansas and Duke? Hadn’t they beaten Kansas and North Carolina in two of those Final Fours? Wasn’t there a point in each of those schools’ storied histories when they crossed some line and became what they are today? Maybe we’ll look back and realize that this was the year that Villanova crossed it. Maybe there’s a kid out there today who will never remember a world when the Wildcats weren’t great.

>> WATCH: Ryan Arcidiacono talks about Villanova’s 2016 NCAA championship victory

This was an interesting thing to think about on Thursday morning as Jermaine Samuels talked about the three titans at his table.

“Ever since I started watching basketball, all you see is Carolina, Duke, or Kansas making it to the Final Four,” said Samuels, the Wildcats’ fifth-year senior guard. “Being part of it makes it that much special. And I think it’s just a tribute for us as Villanova to the guys that came before us. Even the guys that may have not made a Final Four or may not have gotten that far. All the work they put in and we do it for them. And it’s interesting to see what’s going to come of the future. But we’re extremely grateful to be here.”

Yet Villanova is different. In fact, that difference is almost a necessary characteristic. You can allow hometown pride to talk yourself into thinking that these Wildcats are every bit the company they keep. But in doing so, you might just rob Samuels and Wright and the rest of this team of the thing that makes them uniquely great. To label Villanova the new Duke is to ignore the fact that Duke operates in a different stratosphere of institutional resources. Its endowment is 10 times the size of Villanova’s. Its operating budget is $2.5 billion bigger. Kansas and North Carolina both have more than twice Villanova’s enrollment, and the accompanying visibility and purchasing power that such a scale affords.

Villanova’s ability to thrive in the midst of that sort of marketplace is an inseparable part of its story. While Wright has steadily built ‘Nova into a destination — Samuels chose the school despite offers from Kansas and Duke — the Wildcats’ overall success belies their individual talent. Since 2002, Villanova has seen 12 players drafted by NBA teams. Each of the other three schools in this year’s Final Four has produced at least 23 draft picks during that span. During that stretch, Villanova has rostered seven AP All-Americans, 12 fewer than Duke and Kansas, and six fewer than North Carolina.

In Wright’s estimation, that’s a feature and not a flaw.

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“We never aspire to be one of those programs,” Wright said. “As a matter of fact, we fight the urge to try to be like them because we’re just so different. We just try to be the best Villanova we can be. But when people on the outside connect us to them or count us as part of their legacy and tradition, we love it because we have so much respect for them.”

That respect is very much mutual. On Thursday, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski touted this year’s Final Four by labeling them all “championship teams.” Indeed, the group accounts for four of the last six titles, and seven of the last 13. But while Villanova has won as many as any of them, the next one will still feel as remarkable as the first. Really, that makes it all the more impressive. Villanova basketball will never be Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk. It’s in a class all by itself.