Villanova vs. Utah State: NCAA Tournament Predictions & Preview

by BettingPros Staff |
Mar 15, 2026

The 2026 NCAA Tournament is officially here! The March Madness Bracket is set, and first-round NCAA Tournament matchups are in place. It’s time to make your picks and predictions for the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament! We’re here to help as we’ll have picks and predictions for each of the first round 2026 NCAA Tournament games. Here are our NCAA Tournament predictions and preview for Villanova vs. Utah State.

2026 NCAA Tournament Predictions & Preview: Villanova vs. Utah State

Here are the odds for this opening-round matchup of the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Let’s dive into our preview and predictions for this NCAA Tournament matchup.

Villanova 2026 NCAA Tournament Preview

First-year Villanova head coach Kevin Willard’s team finished 24-8 with a 15-5 Big East record, ranking inside the top 35 in KenPom and the NET. The program is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2022, which is kind of insane for such a high-profile program.

Villanova’s defining player is freshman Acaden Lewis, who ended the regular season at 12.3 points, 5.3 assists, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.9 steals per game in 30.5 minutes while carrying the highest usage rate on the team. He is one of the better freshman guards in the country and was the primary reason Villanova climbed nearly 20 spots from its preseason KenPom projection. Tyler Perkins leads the team in scoring at 13.7 points per game while shooting 37% from three, providing the perimeter shooting along with Devin Askew, a 41% marksman. Duke Brennan is 11th nationally in rebounding at just over 10 boards per game, giving the Wildcats a physical interior presence.

Depth is an issue after Matt Hodge’s season-ending ACL tear and Zion Stanford’s early departure left Villanova with essentially two rotation players over 6-6. In the Big East Tournament loss to Georgetown, the Hoyas outrebounded them 46-25 in a 14-point defeat. Lewis went 2-for-9. Devin Askew went 1-for-9 from three. When the supporting cast checks out against physical interior opponents or teams with size advantages, the offense stalls and the rebounding becomes a structural problem. Lewis is the reason to believe Villanova can get a first-round win. The depth is the reason to question anything beyond it.

Utah State 2026 NCAA Tournament Preview

Jerrod Calhoun’s Aggies went 28-6, won the Mountain West regular-season title outright, and then swept through the conference tournament to win the championship with a 73-62 victory over San Diego State in the final. Mason Falslev won Mountain West Player of the Year. MJ Collins Jr. won Tournament MVP. It is Utah State’s fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, a school record. The Aggies became the seventh program in Mountain West history to win both the regular-season and tournament titles in the same year.

The offensive identity is efficiency. Falslev leads the team and the conference in just about every meaningful two-way category. He scores, rebounds, passes, and leads the Mountain West in steals while shooting 41% from deep. Collins is the leading scorer, a senior guard who can get to 27 on his best nights and put up 20 in the tournament final without forcing anything. Drake Allen went off in the Nevada semifinal win with 12 points, nine rebounds, six assists, and four steals while playing with a bad elbow, which is the kind of stat line that tells you what kind of player he is. Freshman forward Adlan Elamin has given the rotation interior depth, along with 6-10 Zach Keller. Utah State ranks in the top 15 nationally in field goal percentage and top 50 in adjusted defensive efficiency. This is a dangerous squad.

The concerns are the Quad 1 record and the schedule gap. The Mountain West is a good conference, but the jump to a Round-of-32 matchup against a power-conference opponent with March experience will be a real test. Even the Aggies’ opening game might present them with the toughest opponent they've seen all year, as they have yet to face a top-40 opponent — not to mention the Mountain West's general inefficiencies come tourney time. What Calhoun has built is efficient enough on both ends to win that first game. Whether the shooting holds up past that is the question this resume cannot definitively answer.

More NCAA Tournament Predictions & Previews

#1 Duke vs. #16 Siena
#8 Ohio State vs. #9 TCU
#5 St. John’s vs. #12 Northern Iowa
#4 Kansas vs. #13 Cal Baptist
#6 Louisville vs. #11 South Florida
#3 Michigan State vs. #14 North Dakota State
#7 UCLA vs. #10 UCF
#2 UConn vs. #15 Furman

#1 Arizona vs. #16 LIU
#8 Villanova vs. #9 Utah State
#5 Wisconsin vs. #12 High Point
#4 Arkansas vs. #13 Hawai’i
#11 Texas vs. North Carolina State
#3 Gonzaga vs. #14 Kennesaw State
#7 Miami (FL) vs. #10 Missouri
#2 Purdue vs. #15 Queens

#16 UMBC vs. Howard
#8 Georgia vs. #9 Saint Louis
#5 Texas Tech vs. #12 Akron
#4 Alabama vs. #13 Hofstra
#11 Miami OH vs. SMU
#3 Virginia vs. #14 Wright State
#7 Kentucky vs. #10 Santa Clara
#2 Iowa State vs. #15 Tennessee State

#16 Prairie View A&M vs. Lehigh
#8 Clemson vs. #9 Iowa
#5 Vanderbilt vs. #12 McNeese
#4 Nebraska vs. #13 Troy
#6 North Carolina vs. #11 VCU
#3 Illinois vs. #14 Penn
#7 Saint Mary’s vs. #10 Texas A&M
#2 Houston vs. #15 Idaho

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