NEW YORK — Villanova’s Eric Dixon is the nation’s top scorer and the Big East’s top 3-point shooter.Despite Dixon’s individual success, the sixth-seeded Wildcats are barely on the NCAA Tournament bubble heading into Wednesday night’s Big East tournament opener against 11th-seeded Seton Hall.If they can beat Seton Hall, a matchup with UConn awaits the Wildcats (18-13), who enter their third conference tournament under coach Kyle Neptune. Villanova enters Wednesday with an NET rating of 53, one behind 19-12 Indiana and three behind 17-14 Cincinnati.Villanova has wins over St. John’s, Marquette and UConn along with two losses by a combined nine points against Creighton. The Wildcats were trending in the right direction with three straight wins before blowing a nine-point lead in the final 3:43 of a 75-73 loss at Georgetown in the March 4 regular-season finale.Dixon scored 24 points against the Hoyas and Jordan Longino added 17 but the Wildcats allowed the winning layup with five seconds left.”We’re looking ahead, looking at whoever our next matchup is,” Longino said. “Hopefully, we’re going to crumble this one up and throw it away after we watch film and regroup.”Seton Hall (7-24) took a five-point home loss to Villanova two weeks ago and ended the regular season of the second 20-loss season in school history on a six-game losing streak. Of the Pirates’ 18 conference losses, 11 were by double digits and they were held to 60 points or fewer 16 times.
