Ranking the Best Moments of the 2015-16 Season for the Villanova Wildcats

The memories of Villanova's national championship win over North Carolina on Monday night aren't soon to be forgotten, not when the Wildcats' first title since 1985 came about in the way it did.

But lost in the chaos of that amazing finish might be the moments prior to the final that helped Villanova get in position to win its second title.

Don't worry, we've got you covered.

We've ranked Villanova's six best moments from the 2015-16 season, put in order of their level of drama as well as their importance to the overall year. We could have just gone with a bunch of happenings from the title game, but we instead limited our choices to one per game.

You can probably guess which one is first on the list, but what about the rest? Follow along and find out.

6. Another Year, Another Big 5 Title

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Villanova has its fair share of rivals in the Big East Conference, and with three consecutive regular-season titles it has shown its dominance against those teams. But just as important for the Wildcats is the Big 5, an unofficial championship awarded to the best team among the five Division I schools in the Philadelphia area.

Played since 1955—though on hiatus for much of the 1990s—every year Villanova's nonconference schedule includes games against LaSalle, Penn, Saint Joseph's and Temple, with two at home and two away. Whoever finishes with the best record claims the crown, and Temple is the all-time leader with at least a share of 27 titles. Villanova is second with 24, including the last three.

This year the Wildcats went 4-0, clinching it on Feb. 17 when they won 83-67 at Temple.

5. This Is Still Our League

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Villanova has been the cream of the crop since the Big East splintered into two conferences before the 2013-14 season. The Wildcats got to stay in the league that retained the historic name, and though they hadn't won a Big East regular-season title during the final seven years of the old version, the new one has been all theirs.

But just to make sure anyone was uncertain of who ruled the Big East, Villanova made an emphatic statement to open league play on New Year's Eve.

Sixth-ranked Xavier came to The Pavilion with a 12-0 record, having averaged 81.4 points per game with impressive wins over Michigan, USC, Dayton and Cincinnati. Villanova had already lost twice, to Oklahoma in Hawaii and at Virginia.

The final score: 95-64, Villanova, and it wasn't even that close. The Wildcats shot 63.2 percent from the field and made 13 three-pointers, seven from Ryan Arcidiacono en route to 27 points.

4. We're No. 1...For Now

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Now one of 15 schools in Division I history with multiple national titles, Villanova entered the 2015-16 season as part of a select group of teams to have won the championship yet never been ranked No. 1 in the country. That changed in early February, when losses by No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 2 North Carolina (as well as their own win at then-No. 11 Providence) enabled the Wildcats to climb from third to first.

And in a season when top-ranked teams were an endangered species, Villanova hung around for a little while.

The Wildcats stayed atop the AP poll for three weeks, eventually falling out of the top spot after losing 90-83 at fifth-ranked Xavier on Feb. 24. They slipped to as low as sixth in the final regular-season poll, that coming out after the Big East title game loss to Seton Hall, but the most important ranking—the one at the end of the year—will have the Wildcats above all others.

3. Going Deep vs. Oklahoma

By winning the national title this season, Villanova became the first Division I champion that also doesn't have an FBS football team since...Villanova in 1985. If the Wildcats ever want to move up from FCS on the gridiron, they've got a few potential candidates on the basketball team that have already showed they can connect on a big play.

The Wildcats used a 25-0 run in the second half of that 95-51 semifinal win against Oklahoma, and early on it was sparked by a full-court pass that looked like something out of a football playbook. Leading 56-41 with 11:55 left, Kris Jenkins was the inbound man and he quickly noticed Mikal Bridges was sprinting up the court.

Jenkins fired what no doubt would have been a perfect spiral had he been throwing a football instead of a basketball, hitting Bridges in stride—and between two defenders—and Bridges only needed one step before going up for the dunk as he was fouled.

2. Late Steals to Beat Kansas

Villanova made a habit of forcing turnovers all season, with opponents averaging 13.8 per game including 7.05 steals per contest. No two were bigger than the ones that Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart had in the final seconds of the Elite Eight win over Kansas, sending the Wildcats to their first Final Four since 2009.

Leading 62-59 after two Kris Jenkins free throws with 14 seconds left, top overall seed Kansas drove up the court to set up a potential game-tying shot. But the Jayhawks never got one off, because Ryan Arcidiacono hounded guard Devonte' Graham and eventually knocked the ball loose, with Bridges diving on it before calling timeout with 4.6 seconds left.

Jalen Brunson was fouled immediately after play resumed, making both free throws, and then Josh Hart picked off Wayne Selden Jr. with two seconds left to seal the win.

1. The Final Shot

Villanova dominated the second half of the national championship game, leading by as many as 10 points with 5:29 left. But then North Carolina rallied to get within one with 1:06 remaining, and Marcus Paige's circus-like three-pointer tied it with 4.7 seconds to go.

That turned out to be more than enough time for the Wildcats, who had a play in their back pocket for just such a situation.

Kris Jenkins inbounded to Ryan Arcidiacono, who dribbled up the court and drew the UNC defense toward him. Just as he got to the three-point line, though, he kicked it back to a trailing (and wide-open) Jenkins for an NBA-distance three-pointer that hardly touched the rim.

"I think every shot is going in," Jenkins told CBS' Jim Nantz afterward (h/t Blair Kerkhoff of the Kansas City Star). "Every shot I shot today I thought was going in, so that [last] one was no different."

It went through the hoop as time expired, and the junior forward simply raised his hands and let his team swarm him in the spot where he shot from. It's an image that will likely be, in poster form, on the wall of thousands of Villanova fans for a long time.

All statistics courtesy of Sports-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.