We’ve been hearing all summer that Your Villanova Wildcats were likely to be a top 10 team when the 2009-10 season started, and now it’s official: The Associated Press (media) poll has the ‘Cats opening the season at No. 5, while the ESPN/USA Today (coaches) poll has got them at No. 6.

The lofty ranking, given ‘Nova’s combination of youth and experience, is certainly prime for speculation. VUhoops.com considers where the Main Liners’ mix of youth and experience stacks up against other programs here, while David Jones of Comcast SportsNet considers ‘Nova’s situation both “a blessing and a curse.”

Jones’ story, in particular, contains an interesting item about highly touted big man recruit Mouphtaou Yarou and his adjustment to coach Jay Wright’s tenacious defensive style:

Yarou said he learned just how hard and exacting Wright expects his team to play defense in one of the first workouts two weeks ago.

“Coach asked us to defend the post,” he said. “After two minutes, I was so tired. That never happened to me in high school. I never get tired.”

Welcome to the college game, Mouphtaou.

In other ‘Nova news this week, the Sporting News has the ‘Cats ranked No. 9 in the preseason, and you can check out its previews here and here.

Links: ‘Nova ranked pretty high … but you knew that already [Daily News]
Youth vs. Experience, Villanova vs. Others [VUhoops.com]
Blessings and curses on the Main Line [Comcast SportsNet]
‘Nova is No. 9 [Sporting News]
Villanova quick facts [Sporting News]