College basketball rankings: Villanova pushes winning streak to six games after disappointing start

Villanova have lost four of their first 11 games, including a humiliation at the hands of Baylor and a 20-point loss to Creighton in the Big East opener.
It was not the best of starts.
But, at this point, it’s pretty clear the Wildcats figured out most of the things they needed to figure out. They’re now on a six-game winning streak thanks to Sunday’s 82-42 destruction of Butler.
“We’re starting to be able to do that for 40 minutes,” Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright told reporters afterward.
This was certainly the case on Sunday.
Incredibly, Villanova shot 59.6% from the field, 63.2% from 3 and 93.3% from the free throw line in Sunday’s 40-point beatdown, which qualified as the biggest winning margin ever. for the Wildcats in every Big East game in history. (FYI: Villanova has played 700 Big East games!) In other words, it was kind of a performance — one that improved the Wildcats to 13-4 overall and 6-1 in the Big East. KenPom now plans them to win the league by multiple games. If that happens, Villanova will win at least a share of the Big East regular season title for the eighth time in nine years.
It is obviously impressive.
The Wildcats are No. 10 in the CBS Sports Top 25 rankings and 1 college basketball daily updated Monday morning. Auburn remains No. 1 for the sixth straight day thanks to the Tigers being 16-1 overall, 5-1 in the SEC and in possession of the best record strength in the nation. They are 4-1 in Quadrant 1 and 4-0 in Quadrant 2 – or 8-1 in the first two quadrants, which is the sport’s best winning percentage in the first two quadrants. The Tigers are also the only Division I team that hasn’t lost in regulation, and their 13-game winning streak is tied with Davidson’s for the longest in the nation.
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