Tag: Villanova Basketball

The screenshot of the Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo group call discussing their Knicks reunion was priceless

Okay, this is just delightful.

The Mikal Bridges trade set the NBA world ablaze a day before this year’s draft.

Indeed, Bridges will join his old Nova teammates Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo with the New York Knicks, which instantly makes them one of the most enjoyable and dangerous NBA teams going into next season.

Soon after the news broke on Tuesday night, all four of the former Villanova teammates got on a group call right to discuss their reunion.

Hart shared an absolutely delightful image on Twitter (X) of the four friends all celebrating their reunion, with Bridges the final piece of the puzzle to put all of these old pals back together again.

You can tell by the looks on their faces how genuinely thrilled they all are, as Hart, Bridges and Brunson were already quick to react on social media.

The trade has massive implications for the NBA at large, but it’s clearly huge on a personal level as well for these four old friends who now get to play basketball together again. How cool is that?

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Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart couldn’t believe their Villanova reunion with Mikal Bridges via Knicks trade

The Villanova Knicks seem very excited to play together once again.

Tuesday night’s blockbuster NBA trade that sent Brooklyn Nets forward Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks seemed to even catch these three key players by surprise.

Bridges and his reunited Villanova teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart shared their excitement on Twitter (X) as soon as the trade news broke, as the three all played college basketball together at Nova.

The three, along with fellow Villanova/Knicks teammate Donte DiVincenzo, will now get a chance to push for an NBA title in the Big Apple, and we bet all four of the NBA standouts will relish the chance to play with each other once again.

You can tell by these reactions how excited all of these guys are to reunite.

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Mikal Bridges was traded to the Knicks and NBA fans celebrated the Villanova reunion

The Villanova Knicks have finally arrived.

The New York Knicks really are getting the Villanova team back together.

Tuesday night’s pre-2024 NBA Draft bombshell trade sent Brooklyn Nets forward Mikal Bridges to the Knicks in exchange for a flurry of picks, including four unprotected first-round picks, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Of course, Bridges played college basketball at Villanova with Knicks stars like guard Jalen Brunson, guard Josh Hart and guard Donte DiVincenzo.

Now, they’ll all reunite in the Big Apple and try and help win the Knicks an NBA title. What a cool sequence of events to get the band back together for these college teammates.

NBA fans loved seeing the Villanova guys get back together with the Knicks, feeling that the potential for these four reuniting is astronomical.

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Wooga Poplar commits to Villanova, can he help turn Wildcats around?

Miami transfer guard Wooga Poplar committed to the Villanova Wildcats, is he the spark coach Kyle Neptune needs for this program?

The Villanova Wildcats shored up a huge area of need on Wednesday with the announcement that Philadelphia native and former Miami guard Wooga Poplar committed to coach Kyle Neptune’s program.

Poplar’s commitment becomes the second big piece of good news in the past week for Villanova, following Eric Dixon’s decision to withdraw from the NBA draft process and return to school.

Villanova’s offseason took a huge turn when prized portal addition Max Shulga opted to return to VCU rather than play for the Wildcats, leaving coach Neptune’s team in serious trouble.

The return of Dixon and the addition of Poplar – who averaged 13.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 2.1 assists last year at Miami – should help keep Nova in contention for an at-large bid, something that has eluded Neptune his first two seasons after replacing the legendary Jay Wright.

Poplar posted a 38.5% mark from beyond the three point line last season, on 5.6 attempts, while also hitting 47% of his two pointers and converting 86.4% of the time from the free throw line.

Poplar chose Villanova over Oregon, whom he visited over the weekend, and the 6’5 guard should step into a lead role right away for the Wildcats. While Poplar has never been a true facilitator – as evidenced by his career 1.3 assists and 1.1 turnovers per game – his ability to score in multiple ways will be crucial for Villanova’s offensive attack.

Explaining why Villanova star Cam Whitmore fell so far in the 2023 NBA Draft

What is going on with Cam Whitmore right now?

Editor’s note: This story was originally published prior to the NBA Draft and has been updated.

Every year, there is a player expected to hear his name called early in the draft but falls a bit lower than initially anticipated. One of the players in the 2023 NBA Draft who dealt with such a slide was Cam Whitmore.

He was a projected top-5 pick in the latest aggregate mock draft provided by HoopsHype. But he did not hear his name called until the No. 20 overall pick by the Houston Rockets.

Here is what you need to know: Before his freshman season, the Villanova star was named MVP during the 2022 FIBA Under-18 Americas Championship tournament. Whitmore, however, was unfortunately on the sidelines for each of the first seven games of his collegiate career due to a thumb injury.

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He eventually returned to the court and had a strong campaign for the Wildcats. The Big East Rookie of the Year averaged 12.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game during his one-and-done campaign in the NCAA.

Whitmore was one of just four Power Five freshmen to record at least 25 dunks and 25 shots from beyond the arc last season, per Bart Torvik. So why is his draft stock sliding?

Whitmore was seen “struggling at times with his shooting and intensity” during his individual team workouts, per ESPN draft expert Jonathan Givony.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Wasserman also shared an update about Whitmore (via Bleacher Report):

“There have been some concerns over Cam Whitmore’s medicals, which could cause a few teams to pass in the mid-lottery, per sources.”

Additionally, here is what one Eastern Conference executive told David Aldridge (via The Athletic):

“At the Hoops Summit, Whitmore was not a practice-type player and didn’t look very good during the week. But once he played, he was one of the better players in the game. That’s going to have to change at the NBA level. He’s going to have to exert some effort, some ability and skill level in practice for a head coach to put him in a game. He’s not going to be guaranteed minutes like he probably was at Villanova.”

You never want to see potentially poor medical information about a player.

But the upside is still strong for Whitmore, who measured with a 40.5-inch max vertical during the 2023 NBA Draft Combine and tested well in drills for speed and agility as well.

Whitmore uses that to attack the basket and he scored 0.76 points per touch on drives, per Stats Perform, which ranked as the best among projected first-rounders.

However, one scout told Seth Davis from The Athletic that there are questions about Whitmore’s “feel” for the game.

His coaches will need to see more playmaking from Whitmore. Among all prospects in a draftable range who finished at least 40 possessions as the ball handler in pick-and-roll sets, per Synergy, none opted to pass less often (22.7 percent) than Whitmore.

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What the heck happened to the men’s college basketball blue bloods?

UNC, Duke and Kentucky are down bad.

Men’s college hoops is a burning house right now, and I’m just Childish Gambino returning with leftover pizza from a Super Bowl party.

What in the world happened?

Last time I checked (not literally), North Carolina was the preseason No. 1 team in the AP rankings. Kentucky was No. 4 and Duke was No. 7. The so-called blue bloods of the sport were still expected to be good. Even Villanova was ranked 16th.

So, I did what any self-respecting writer of sports betting content would do and attached myself to some of those giants. Among my conference championship picks were UNC, Kentucky and Kansas, each boasting top-10 national title odds at the time. Duke did as well.

Today, only No. 5 Kansas even has top-20 title odds, let alone a top-25 AP ranking. UNC, my pick to win it all, lost Monday for the fourth time in its last five games to fall to 8-7 in the ACC (16-10 overall).

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College basketball has been flipped on its head. So much so that No. 23 NC State is the best team in North Carolina. Football powerhouse Alabama is the No. 1 team in the country for the first time in 20 years. Even Gonzaga, the preseason No. 2 team, matched its highest loss total since 2016-17 — with five games left in the regular season.

None of UNC, Duke (17-8, 8-6 ACC), Kentucky (16-9, 7-5 SEC) or Villanova (12-13, 6-8 Big East) even received a vote in the latest rankings, and nothing about it is a fluke. Villanova is objectively bad, and the other three don’t appear to be very good either. None have a KenPom rating better than 35.

We knew the retirements of coaching legends Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski and Jay Wright would usher in a new era of college basketball. I’m just not sure we knew it meant a potential changing of the guard. But is that actually what’s happening?

Maybe not. The “old” guard can certainly bounce back — even as early as this year. ESPN bracketology expert Joe Lunardi currently has Duke as a 9-seed in the NCAA tournament, North Carolina among the last four in and Kentucky in his first four out. Any of those teams would be considered dangerous in March just off sheer talent alone. They still recruit well.

But what’s happening to them this season is worth monitoring because it opens the door for other teams to make some noise. The schools with the top three betting odds to win this year’s title, according to DraftKings, are all programs that have never won it before: Houston (+700), Purdue (+900) and Alabama (+900).

The Jayhawks could also swoop in and go back-to-back, but there’s a decent enough chance we’ll have an unfamiliar champion by season’s end.

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Bad beat: A late missed Villanova dunk vs. Marquette cost bettors dearly

Watching the ball rattle around the rim was SO painful.

After holding serve in the first half Wednesday night, it looked like Kyle Neptune’s Villanova Wildcats were going to let their matchup with the Golden Eagles get away from them. Marquette would outscore Villanova 39-29 in the second half — with a 16-3 in the final moments — to wrestle away control from their Big East rivals.

This opened thee door to the wilting Villanova covering a +8.5 pregame spread. As Marquette took a 73-64 lead into the final moments, prospects for this outcome looked dicey. Then the Wildcats’ Mark Armstrong streaked up the court and found himself with an open lane. A clear shot for a dunk if anyone ever saw it. Bettors who had +8.5 were about to rejoice.

Except Armstrong missed it. Badly. He didn’t quite get enough arm extension, and the ball would rattle around the rim before falling into the waiting grasp of Marquette’s Kam Jones.

“Oof” doesn’t do this bad beat proper justice:

Here’s hoping for better luck next time. But if there’s one lesson to be learned: college basketball can be a precarious place to put sizable bets on.

Temple’s win over No. 16 Villanova on Friday was so chaotic fans stormed the court twice

Storming the court once is fun. Storming the court twice is more fun.

The college basketball season isn’t even a week old and fans everywhere are already experiencing the wide range of emotions that arrive this time of year.

On Friday night, when Temple defeated Villanova for the first time in 10 years, the men’s basketball team and its fans were certainly on cloud nine.

After Temple’s sophomore guard Damian Dunn knocked down two go-ahead free throws to give the Owls a 66-64 lead with just over one second to play, the Owls intercepted a full-court pass to seemingly clinch the win.

As expected, almost every Temple fan inside Liacouras Center stormed the court to celebrate the fulfilling victory. But moments later the court was cleared and those same folks returned to their seats.

Why? The game wasn’t officially over yet.

Upon intercepting the Hail Mary pass from Nova, Zach Hicks was fouled by Villanova’s Eric Dixon with .2 seconds left on the clock. So, Hicks stepped to the line and sunk two free throws.

A simple inbound by the Wildcats followed, time expired, and finally, Temple officially logged itself a win — one worthy of a second court storming.

It was an absolutely crushing way for bettors to lose as they had to watch their tickets become worthless twice.

According to Action Network, 56 percent of all bets on the spread and 57 percent of the money backed the Wildcats (-5). Another 90 percent of bets and 84 percent of the money had Nova (-230) on the moneyline.

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Villanova’s Final Four celebration was very bittersweet because of Justin Moore’s leg injury

Hopefully, Moore’s okay.

From wire to wire, Saturday night felt like a coronation for Villanova. The Wildcats (-3) took on a tough Houston squad in the Elite Eight. Most expected a dogfight where Jay Wright’s crew would have to claw their way to earning every single basket, rebound and free throw. This game would be one of the best matchups of the Men’s NCAA tournament. That didn’t happen.

Instead, we got a clinical 50-44 Villanova win in a game that honestly never seemed close. As impressive as Houston might have been beforehand, a beyond efficient Villanova undressed them from top to bottom. It was their moment through and through.

And in the closing moments, with seconds left toward a berth in the Final Four appearance, the Wildcats tried their best to celebrate properly.

 

Despite the joy and revelry, an unfortunate injury sullied the Wildcats’ festivities.

Late in the second half, one of Villanova’s best players, Justin Moore, suffered what’s been called a leg injury. Moore did not return to the game, and he didn’t leave Villanova’s bench either — even through the post-game celebration.

Moore’s teammates tried to console him as much as they could.

Awful all around. You have to feel for the young man and his teammates who are hurting for him.

At the time of publishing, there is no word on the severity and exact nature of Moore’s leg injury, though it doesn’t look great for now.

Villanova is onto the Final Four and has established itself as one of the blue-bloods of modern men’s college basketball. If only their latest triumph could’ve come with a happy and healthy Moore.

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Villanova beat Michigan and their fans were overjoyed about another deep March run

There’s nothing quite like a win in a big game in March.

By now, Villanova’s fans expect success during the Men’s NCAA tournament. Under Jay Wright, the Wildcats have advanced out of the first round in each of the last nine tournaments, winning the national title in 2016 and 2018. Still, even with such consistent excellence, it doesn’t mean their fans can’t revel in the good times when they come.

On Thursday night, Villanova (-4.5) beat Michigan, 63-55, to advance to the Elite Eight. (Note that the last two times the Wildcats advanced to the Regional Final under Wright, they ended up winning the whole thing.)

Collin Gillespie was predictably great. Jermaine Samuels was dynamite, as usual. All in all, it was a night for the team and the Nova faithful to remember.

As the game started to wind down, fans who were at the arena in San Antonio made sure to celebrate appropriately.

Your alma mater making a run into March Madness doesn’t happen every year. Villanova’s fans have done well to remember that, even if it now sometimes seems like they’re playing deep into this month each season.

Gannett may earn revenue from Tipico for audience referrals to betting services. Tipico has no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. See Tipico.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ only. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO).

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