It brings me no joy to report that Villanova lost to Columbia in their second game of the season:

I’m serious. Because you want your most hated rival to be good. It’s not fun when they’re whipped up on constantly, year after year, and giving up 90 points to the team picked to finish fifth in the Ivy League. It’s not fun when they’re paying these guys to come down to the Main Line and they lose by double digits. Because it doesn’t make it satisfying when you beat them. You want to beat the best and Villanova is so clearly not the best team in the city right now, no matter what KenPom ranked them in the beginning of the season. So when they lose again this early you start to kind of feel bad for how the mighty have fallen. You wonder if this is just a road bump or now the standard. How much longer can the boosters shell out millions of dollars in NIL money when they’re losing to teams like Portland, DePaul, and finishing last in the Big 5? People will blame it on the transfer portal. How about blaming it on the coach who has no sense of fundamentals or making in-game adjustments? Eric Dixon was on an island out there Wednesday night. If he doesn’t go off for 30+ they probably lose that game by 20. It’s getting so bad out on the Main Line it’s starting to affect Jay Wright’s legacy because he hand picked his successor. These last three seasons have taken Villanova from a potential Blue Blood program to a school that had a good stretch in the 2010s and a lucky run in 1985. That Virginia/Nova game is going to be like when Manny Pacquiao fought Floyd Mayweather, but it was obvious they were both way past their prime. Nova is turning into Georgetown right in front of our eyes.