Looking to bounce back from the program’s worst season since 2011-2012, the Villanova Wildcats landed a big-time transfer commitment on Friday in the form of Washington State guard T.J. Bamba. Joe Tipton of On3 was the first to report the decision.
The 6-foot-5-inch Bamba, who originally hails from the Bronx, New York, will return to the East Coast after three years with Washington State. After being a quality role player for the Cougars in his first two seasons, Bamba broke out this past season to the tune of 15.8 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.7 assists. He shot 42.6% from the floor this season including 37.2% from deep range.
Thanks to those numbers, he earned an All-Pac-12 honorable mention this season.
On top of his scoring abilities, Bamba is also a quality defender with a career defensive rating of 101 and posting a career defensive win share of 2.9 over his three seasons.
During the transfer portal era, Villanova has not been a school that tends to take players out of the transfer portal. However, with the Wildcats winning just 17 games this past season, second-year head coach Kyle Neptune is looking into the portal hoping to find immediate help for the Wildcats.
The addition is also a much-needed one for the Wildcats as they are expected to lose key players in F Eric Dixon, G Caleb Daniels, G Justin Moore, and F Cam Whitmore.
The addition will help offset some of the loss of guard Justin Moore who averaged 13.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 3.2 assist this past season. The Wildcats are also losing senior forward Eric Dixon, senior guard Caleb Daniels, and freshman forward Cam Whitmore, those four making up the program’s top four scorers from this past season.
That being said, if the Wildcats hope to put their poor season behind them and return to the national spotlight in 2023-2024, they’ll need much more than just the addition of Bamba. The program currently holds just one signee in their 2023 recruiting class in the form of three-star strong forward Jordann Dumont.
[mm-video type=video id=01gww6e34xe77vhy7fwp playlist_id=01gq2fszf7mxxc88k4 player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gww6e34xe77vhy7fwp/01gww6e34xe77vhy7fwp-2de40ab97d4c27364b1739c826c9eb6b.jpg]