Kevin Willard is thinking down the line. Willard and the Wildcats made their first foray into the 2028 class by getting out an offer to Williams Field (AZ) guard Adan Diggs. Diggs is already listed at 6-4. While Rivals doesn't rank prospects that far ahead, college programs are already taking notice. Diggs holds offers from Arizona State, Cal, West Virginia, Washington and Oregon, among others. I'm always an advocate for getting involved with prospects early, so it's encouraging to see Willard get a jump on things in the 2028 class.

After adding two seven-footers to the 2025-26 roster, Kevin Willard continued his pursuit of size by getting out an offer to 2026 big man Favour Ibe. The 7-1 Ibe playes at Mt. Zion and is a four-star prospect. He's currently ranked No. 65 in the 2026 class.

The Wildcats will be a new-look team in 2025-26. Here's a look at the current roster with a prediction on how the starting lineup will look.


What's your confidence level in this roster? Expectations for the season? How would you like the starting lineup to look?

A significant addition for the Cats on Thursday.

Lewis is reportedly down to Villanova and Miami. There are strong rumblings that Nova will be the move and that an announcement will come as soon as tomorrow.

Although it's impossible to look more than a year ahead in the current landscape, and as a result you have to adjust your excitement/reaction/analysis of each commitment accordingly, this would represent a huge get for Nova regardless. Lewis should be able to make an immediate impact, and adding a top 20 prospect is great for optics/sends a strong message on the recruiting trail.

We'll see if tomorrow brings good news, but Nova certainly seems to have the momentum at this point.

Villanova made an addition to the 2025 recruiting class with the commitment of 7-1 Nico Onyekwere , who played at Long Island Lutheran in high school. Onyekwere was originally committed to Florida State but reopened his recruitment following Leonard Hamilton's retirement. Originally from Nigeria, Onyekwere spent time playing in Europe before joining Long Island Lutheran. Villanova now has two seven-footers on the 2025-26 roster.

More portal work from Nova as Kevin Willard rebuilds the roster.

It was a busy Thursday for Kevin Willard and staff as the Cats added three portal players.

Roster news has been a bit slower than expected, but the Cats did pick up a commitment on Monday from Temple transfer Zion Stanford.

Stanford, a Philadelphia product, averaged 13.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists last season while shooting 45.5% from the field and 34.9% from three.

Still a lot of work to do for Willard and staff, but this should be a solid pickup.

Reports on a finalized Kevin Willard staff have surfaced, with Ash Howard being the lone member of the previous staff to be retained. The remainder of the staff will be filled out by former Maryland assistants David Cox, Kevin Norris and Greg Manning Jr. As recently as earlier this afternoon rumors persisted at least one sitting DI coach could be a part of the staff, but it doesn't appear that will be the case.

As we mentioned earlier, Mike Nardi confirmed his departure. Dwayne Anderson did the same late Monday evening, as did Jamie Young.

This has yet to be confirmed by the school. If it's not announced officially tomorrow, hopefully we'll get some insight from coach Willard's in-person introductory presser on Wednesday.

Attention will now shift fully to the construction of the 2025-26 roster.

Adam Zagoria is reporting that Mike Nardi will not be a part of Kevin Willard's staff at Villanova.

If this is true, I find it surprising and it also contradicts some previous chatter regarding the staff. Also feels like a mistake, as it Nardi's knowledge of and experience in the program could be beneficial to the transition. I also thought Nardi did a decent job as interim coach during the Crown. If it does prove to be the case, I'll hold off on judgement until one, we see the full makeup of Willard's staff and two, what Nardi's next position is.

With the 2024-25 season in the books, new head coach Kevin Willard has gotten to work building his roster for his first season at Nova, making a pair of additions Sunday evening.

One was HS senior Christian Jeffrey out of Mt. Zion Prep in Maryland. Jeffrey was previously committed to Willard at Maryland but reopened his recruitment upon Willard's departure for Villanova. Rivals has Jeffrey as a three-star recruit who hasn't cracked the Rivals150 yet, but the 6-3, 200-pound guard comes with a college ready body who plays with an edge and can impact both ends of the floor. It's also good, at least from an optics standpoint, that Willard was able to bring a recruit with him from Maryland to Nova. Before his previous commitment to Maryland, schools involved in his recruitment included St. John's, Tennessee, Butler, Mississippi State and Pitt, among others.

The other was Maryland freshman Malachi Palmer. Palmer averaged just 8.4 minutes per game across 22 contests at Maryland as a freshman, but Willard obviously thought enough of the young guard to bring him to Villanova. He was ranked as high as No. 35 in the 2024 class at one point before landing at No. 142 on signing day. During his recruitment he had interest from Kansas, Creighton, Georgetown, Houston, Georgia, Texas Tech, Illinois, Arizona State, Pitt, Oklahoma State, LSU and Oregon, among others. Again, like Jeffrey, it's a plus to see Willard bringing some recruits/players along from Maryland.

Willard and Nova still have plenty of work to do on the roster, so it should be an interesting spring. Speaking of Willard bringing Maryland players to Villanova, a big one still remains on the board in Rodney Rice, which will be one name to watch in the coming days. I'd also suspect we'll start to get some clarity on what current Nova players are doing shortly.

Regardless, it's nice to finally see some progress on the roster build and hopefully this gets things rolling.

The 2024-25 season has come to an end as Villanova fell to UCF in overtime in the semifinals of the College Basketball Crown.

The Cats came out on top in an entertaining game against USC to extend the season for another game.

Nova showed up to the Crown ready to play and easily handled Colorado.

Kevin Willard is hitting the ground running and is coming out swinging. Villanova has offered 2027 five-star forward Baba Oladotun.

Oladuton is currently the No. 3 prospect in the 2027 class. He is from Silver Spring, Maryland.

Villanova has its new head coach. Next comes the assembling of his staff. Here's what we're hearing so far, some of which is pretty interesting.

First, indications are that Mike Nardi will be retained. This feels like a smart move considering Nardi's knowledge of and connection to the program. In addition, it appears Baker Dunleavy will retain his position as general manager.

As for the rest of the staff, there are some interesting rumblings. The biggest is that Willard will be adding a sitting Division I coach to the bench. Some names that have been floated are Delaware head coach Martin Ingelsby and NJIT head coach Grant Billmeier.

There was also some chatter surrounding UConn assistant Kimani Young, but that seems to be mostly speculation. It's hard to see Young making a lateral move at this point as he appears to be in line for a head coaching opportunity sooner than later.

Willard could also look to bring one of his assistants from Maryland with him (David Cox, Kevin Norris, Greg Manning Jr.) or another member of his Maryland staff, although it appears he's looking to build an experience staff so someone like a director of player personnel, director of basketball operations or video coordinator feels much less likely.

It will certainly be interesting to watch Willard put his staff together over the coming days/weeks.