Last week, Villanova continued its inexorable climb up the national polls. The Wildcats rose to #3 in the AP poll and #4 in the USA Today Coaches poll (where Maryland was granted #3 status). As many people who follow college basketball closely will attest, the AP poll is the "one that matters" - and in those rankings, Villanova's status is eclipsed only by Oklahoma and North Carolina.

Over the course of the week following the release of those rankings, North Carolina proceeded to lose twice: @Louisville (#19 AP, #7 Kenpom, #21 RPI) and @Notre Dame (#32 Kenpom, #28 RPI). Oklahoma, meanwhile, dominated TCU (#143 Kenpom, #154 RPI) and lost @Kansas State (#39 Kenpom, #35 RPI) (all numbers as of Sunday morning).

Villanova would have been excused, to some degree, for dropping one of its games over the same time period. With Ochefu, arguably their most important player, out with a concussion, the Wildcats had struggled in New York City against a very bad St. John's team. Looking ahead, they had second dates looming with an underrated Creighton (#46 Kenpom, #99 RPI) and @Providence (#11 AP, #51 Kenpom, #32 RPI) - the only Big East team to beat them this season, at home in overtime. The pessimism in Villanova basketball circles was palpable.

Instead, Jay Wright's squad adapted to their starting big man's absence and won both games in convincing fashion, destroying the spread each time thanks in no small part to the emergence of reserve big man Darryl Reynolds. There is little doubt that, even without Ochefu taking the floor, Villanova looked like one of the nation's best teams.

As a result, the Wildcats enter Sunday morning as the top team on Kenpom, Sagarin, and ESPN's RPI estimate. They have won 12 of their last 13 games, and have already convincingly avenged their only loss during that span. They are the only AP Top 10 team that has not lost to a team ranked lower than #16. In fact, those other 9 teams have all lost to at least one team not ranked in the AP Top 25.

Since Oklahoma's loss yesterday evening, there has been considerable debate over who most deserves the nation's top ranking. Isn't it true, the argument goes, that Villanova has already had a chance against Oklahoma head-to-head, and was thoroughly embarrassed? Oklahoma also boasts the undisputed best player in the nation, Buddy Hield - how can one justify ranking Villanova ahead of them? (North Carolina does not even feature in the debate after last night's come-from-ahead loss to Notre Dame.) Since the AP voters are renowned for their recency bias, the head-to-heard argument may not hold much weight with them anyway. Yet it does present an interesting conundrum: can the team on a losing end of an utter beatdown be ranked ahead of the winner?

The short answer is yes. In fact, there is precedent for it, as it's already happened at least once this season - in a situation involving Villanova. The week following their 95-64 shellacking of Xavier, Jay Wright's squad found themselves a spot behind them in the national polls. And that was only days after the event, while Oklahoma's win over Villanova occurred nearly two months ago.

Context is also important. At the time, Oklahoma was a senior-laden squad with hundreds of games of combined experience together. Villanova was still an inexperienced team searching for its identity. It was adjusting to the loss of three starters (Darrun Hilliard, JayVaughn Pinkston, and Dylan Ennis) from last year's team that earned a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. As a result, they struggled on the offensive end of the floor, failing to establish a consistent inside game and settling for contested jump shots, making only 4 of 32 three-point attempts.

Since then, there has been a noticeable emphasis on attacking the basket, establishing an inside-out game, and a team rebounding philosophy. Over the last two months, Villanova has become one of the best two-point shooting teams in the country, more than compensating for their continuing outside shooting woes. Ochefu has continued his evolution into one of the elite big men in the college game, and the Wildcats have enjoyed significant development from players like Kris Jenkins, Darryl Reynolds, Mikal Bridges, and Jalen Brunson, as well as the consistently high-level performances of Ryan Arcidiacono and the criminally underrated Josh Hart.

In short, this is not the same Villanova team that was embarrassed in that small gym in Pearl Harbor two months ago. They have learned from their mistakes and coalesced into a cohesive, consistent unit - arguably the most consistent team in the country. Oklahoma may still objectively be the better team (though the advanced stats would slightly favor Villanova on a neutral court), but make no mistake - the rematch would be a significantly more competitive game.

Given the recency bias of the AP voters, it would make eminent sense for Villanova to be ranked ahead of Oklahoma come Monday. And the advanced stats back it up, too: as discussed above, Villanova is tops in the nation according to virtually every respected metric, with only Iowa left to play a terrible Illinois team this weekend for the opportunity to knock Villanova off the top line on Kenpom.

What about Maryland? They boast an impressive home win over #18 Purdue this week, outrank Villanova in the Coaches poll, and are nipping at their heals in the AP. With that said, Villanova's road win over Providence without Ochefu is more impressive, and it's hard to see Maryland leap-frogging Villanova in the AP poll, particularly given Maryland's weaknesses in the advanced metrics.

Ultimately, Villanova has a fairly significant point deficit to overcome in order to outrank Oklahoma next week: last week's poll saw them garner 221 fewer points than #1 did. But with Oklahoma's double-digit loss to an unranked Kansas State, along with UNC's two losses (UNC itself had 20 first places votes), it wouldn't be surprising to see them earn enough votes to climb to the top. The debate is a fair one - in a season like this, with no clearly dominant teams and an upset around every corner, a lot of ink can be spilled over who deserves to be the top team in the country on any given week. But right now, Villanova has made a great case for itself as the nation's #1 team.