Villanova's Jay Wright has to convince his team their recent troubles are in the past

Here is the sell Jay Wright has made to his Villanova team over the last couple of days:

The losing streak is over. That is in the past. The NCAA tournament is upon us. Every game is a big game. Go be yourselves. Play loose. Remember that you have been there before. And, oh by the way - no one outside of the program is expecting much out of you. Use that to your advantage.

 It is a smart, reasonable approach, but this is still all about confidence for the Wildcats. Against a solid opponent such as No. 8 seed George Mason, a team that won 16 consecutive games before losing in the semifinals of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament, can Villanova manufacture confidence even though their confidence has been eroding for more than a month?

That is going to be a tougher sell.

The good news for Villanova is that after collapsing down the stretch, they are in the tournament as a nine seed, and they did not have to go to Dayton for one of the new play-in games between the last four at-large teams selected. The bad news is they have to play a hot George Mason team, and they barely beat the Patriots the last time they played, in Puerto Rico early last season.

So George Mason has an abundance of confidence, and will be armed with the additional ammunition of revenge. The Wildcats will have their hands full.

"What's going to be most important for us is us - that we're right," Wright said.

To ensure that the Wildcats are "right," Wright treated the three days leading up to Sunday night's announcement of the field of 68 as a training camp. He reviewed all of the basics with the team. Offensive and defensive sets. Rotations. Inbounds plays. End-of-game situations. For the first time in a while, everyone practiced, even Mouphtaou Yarou, who is still sore from the fall he took in the Big East tournament loss to South Florida but was on the floor when Wright was simulating plays.

Corey Stokes is healthy. Corey Fisher is healthy. Although Yarou was basically practicing with only one arm over the weekend, Wright said the 6-foot-10 center should be close to 100 percent on Friday, when the Wildcats play George Mason in Cleveland.

Wright wanted the players to remember who they were when they opened the season 16-1, and not worry about the circumstances that contributed to them losing 10 of their last 15 games.