Dixon had a senior day to remember as he helped lead the Cats past Butler.

Another game that left you scratching your head and that produced more questions than answers, but a win is a win.

My apologies, but there will likely be no coverage of Friday's game against Marquette. I will be out of town. In the off-chance I do actually get to see most of or all of the game, I'll post a few notes, and I will try to find time to get some postgame comments up, but not sure how likely either of those things are. So, if you don't see anything tomorrow night, that's why. Regardless, we'll be back to regular programming for Seton Hall on Wednesday. Thanks for your understanding.

Yeah, I don't even know anymore. Song on repeat at this point. Same problems game to game, year to year. Here's the latest installment.

So I'm battling a 102+ degree fever this evening but was going to try to get through this game to hopefully give a little insight and pass along quotes, but I'm not going to continue to make that effort with what we're seeing on the court.

At the time of writing, Providence is winning 46-24, is on a 10-0 run and Villanova hasn't scored in the first 4:03 of the second half so far. Providence has more threes (11) than Nova has total field goals (8). Frankly, it's been a pathetic effort at both ends of the floor and is completely inexcusable following Wednesday's result over St. John's.

As I said, I'm having enough trouble trying to stay conscious through this game with the fever, so at this point I'm going to go ahead and get the rest I need and that will hopefully have me back to normal sooner than later. Apologies we won't have the usual postgame coverage...I tried but this is ridiculous. Maybe my decision will spur a magical comeback lol.

Take away from this game what you will, but it was certainly fun.

A nice all-around effort from the Cats on Sunday.

It certainly wasn't the most inspiring win, but it was a win.


It was kind of a weird game that just felt like it lacked juice. I don't want to sound like I'm criticizing the guys' effort, because I think they were putting forth effort and you don't hold a team to 31% shooting without effort, but I don't know, it felt like watching a game between two teams that knew they had nothing to play for. Am I off base there? Regardless, certainly not in a position to be picky about wins and it was a good defensive showing even when accounting for opponent.

I don't even know what to say anymore.

Villanova will be without freshman forward Josiah Moseley on Saturday due to an illness.

With a little lull in the schedule it's a good time to get caught up on the happenings in recruiting.

2025s

Kohl Rosario 2025 (offer) Moravian Prep (NC)

Ramon Soyoye 2025 (offer) Blair Academy (NJ)

Dante Allen (signed) Montverde Academy (FL) Four stars, No. 98 overall

2026s

Luca Foster 2026 (offer) (very involved) Archbishop Carroll (PA) Four stars, No. 122 overall

Keiner Asprilla 2026 (offer) (very involved) Bosco Prep (NJ) Four stars, No. 36 overall

Ethan Johnston 2026 (offer) The Hill School (PA) Three stars, No. 146 overall

Qayden Samuels (very involved) Bishop McNamara (MD) Four stars, No. 21 overall

Julius Avent (offer) Bergen Catholic (NJ) Four stars, No. 56 overall

Caleb Gaskins (offer) Columbus (FL) Five stars, No. 13 overall

Adam Oumiddoch (offer) Overtime Elite, Four stars, No. 26 overall

Quincy Wadley (offer) Compass Prep (AZ) Four stars, No. 53 overall

Jayden Hodge (offer) St. Rose (NJ) Four stars, No. 27 overall

Deron Rippey Jr. (offer) Blair Academy (NJ) Four stars, No. 22 overall

Jordan Smith Jr. (offer) Paul VI (VA) Five stars, No. 5 overall

Taylen Kinney (offer) Overtime Elite, Four stars, No. 20 overall

Aiden Derkack (offer) Colonia (NJ) Three stars, No. 127 overall

Ikenna Alozie (offer) Dream City Christian (AZ) Five stars, No. 10 overall


2027s

Myles Fuentes 2027 (offer) Riviera Prep (FL)

Jeremy Jenkins (offer) Riviera Prep (FL) Four stars, No. 11 overall

Tyler Sutton (offer) Roman Catholic (PA) Four stars, No. 25 overall

Patrick Otey (offer) Overtime Elite, Four stars, No. 21 overall

Munir Greig (offer) Archbishop Carroll (PA) Four stars, No. 39 overall

Moussa Kamissoko (offer) Long Island Lutheran (NY) Four stars, No. 17 overall

We'll try to dig a little deeper on a few of these prospects, particularly the ones linked with heavier Nova interest, sometime in the near future.

Nova unable to pull the upset Friday night.


Kind of a weird game in that it was a three-possession or less game throughout most of it, but it also never really felt like Villanova was threatening outside of one second-half sequence that ended in a backbreaking twist for the Cats. Barring a miraculous 9-1 finish to the season, any hope to an at-large bid is pretty much gone. Just an unbelievable 180 after six weeks of really good basketball culminated with the win over UConn.

I don't even know what to say about that one.


A few things: the similarities to the Xavier game, the St. John's game and to a lesser extent the Providence game are stunning and wildly frustrating. The lack of late-game execution and the frequency of these kinds of losses is maddening. Then there's the similarity between the two end-of-game near steals on the baseline by Perkins (Providence and tonight), which is wild. Both times he made a great play that would essentially seal the game, and both times he just allowed himself to fall out of bounds. I understand the nature of those plays has his momentum carrying him out, and I understand it's not necessarily the easiest play to make. But between it happening in nearly identical ways, and the fact that neither time did he either A) simply throw the ball high into the air toward the other end of the court or B) at least attempt to throw the ball off an opponent...it's enough to drive you crazy. Anyway, they've managed to completely destroy the goodwill and momentum gained from the UConn win and the previous six weeks of solid play and once again find themselves already with zero margin for error in mid-January.

That was something.


Have you ever seen an ending like that? How you feeling going forward? Did this game help at all?

Another injury for Nnanna Njoku.

It was an ugly, but winnable, game for Nova against Xavier Tuesday night. The Cats let it slip away late.


It feels silly to speak in certainties regarding college basketball in mid January, but it's hard not to feel like this wasn't close to the final blow on Nova's tournament hopes, which feels shocking to say a week removed from beating UConn. But opportunities for top of the line wins are running out, as is Nova's margin for error. And if you're more of a numbers person, the math backs up the feeling of doom. I don't have the exact numbers right in front of me at the moment, but there was something like a 40-point swing in tournament probability stemming from tonight's outcome. Even if this wasn't the death blow, at the very least Nova went from "fairly likely to be in" to "more than likely out" with this result. It's incredibly disappointing, not only because of how the last two games have gone after a huge win, but also because of the way this one in particular played out.