Coming off its Final Four appearance last season, Villanova was picked No. 1 in the Big East preseason coaches’ poll.
Marquette, which lost three key seniors to graduation, chimed in at No. 12.
Yet when the two teams played Saturday in Milwaukee, the Wildcats eked out a 74-72 victory thanks to a Scottie Reynolds jumper in the lane with 18.1 seconds left.
For Villanova coach Jay Wright, that outcome is Exhibit A that the Big East is as balanced this year as it has been in a while.
“We just played Marquette and they’re as good as us,” Wright, whose team hosts the Golden Eagles again on Saturday, said Thursday on the Big East conference call. “There is very little separation.”
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