On Easter Sunday, Villanova Rises to Sweet 16

It's Easter Sunday, it's still March, the weather is bad in many parts of the country and there were NCAA Tournament games being played today (hey, what else is there to do but watch basketball on the most holy day for the world's largest religion?).

One of today's participants was Villanova.

Just one week removed from nearly having been left out of the NCAA Tournament, Villanova has had a remarkable rebirth: on Friday, the Wildcats upset heavily favored Clemson, and today they beat Siena 84-72, en route to a berth in next week's Sweet Sixteen.

Fittingly, the culmination of Villanova's remarkable rise from near Tournament bubble casualty to Sweet 16 participant came on Easter Sunday, the day on which most Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus (yeah, I realize that it's a ridiculously over dramatic analogy, but c'mon!, every story's got to have an "angle," and besides, I've seen ESPN be even more preposterously over dramatic many times).

If that analogy is too over the top, then maybe it would be better to compare Villanova's recent rebirth to the life of the patron of the Augustinian order, St. Augustine (Villanova is an Augustinian university). St. Augustine led a hedonistic life as a pagan intellectual before converting to Christianity later in life. He famously once prayed, " (Lord), grant me chastity and continence, but not yet" (da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo).

After St. Augustine's conversion, he went on to become the Bishop of Hippo and, essentially, the intellectual and philosophical father of the Roman Catholic Church. He rescued the church following the fall of the Roman Empire and his writings/philosophy were instrumental in laying the foundation for the medieval period of Western Society.

O.K., maybe that analogy is a little over the top too. I'll grant you: Jay Wright's Villanova Wildcats probably aren't going to influence any religious currents, and they probably won't do anything to change the world. Nevertheless, their run in the NCAA Tournament is a heck of a story.

Villanova barely made it into the Tournament, but now they're headed to the Sweet 16 for the third time in the last four years. They'll take on Kansas in the regional semifinal Friday night in Detroit.

Villanova is led by high scoring combo guard, Scottie Reynolds.

Reynolds was the catalyst in today's win.

As the Philadelphia Inquirer notes:

"Scottie Reynolds sparked the Wildcats with 15 points in the first 10 minutes and played one of his finest all-around games of the season. He finished with 25 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two turnovers in 37 minutes."

While it's unlikely that Villanova can get by Kansas, the Wildcats have been one of the pleasant surprises of this year's NCAA Tournament. And, they've been one of the only teams from the much hyped Big East to advance past the second round of the Tournament (Louisville and West Virginia are the others).

What's more, with most of it's key players being underclassmen who are set to return next year, Villanova should develop into one of the the best teams in college basketball next year.