Some scheduling news on Thursday.

Word is that Jalen Duren, the No. 2 ranked prospect in the class of 2022, will cut his list to five sometime this week. Duren was the first offer for Nova in the 2022 class. Duren is from Delaware and started his high school career at Roman Catholic in Philadelphia before heading to Montverde Academy in Florida. It is highly likely that Nova will be included in the cut.

However, it is my opinion that Duren will skip college and pursue professional opportunities, be that through the G League route or overseas until he is eligible for the NBA draft. If he does elect to do a year of college, there is significant rumblings that Michigan would be the choice. Kentucky and Villanova are seemingly the other contenders, but again I think it's moot because I don't think he'll go the college route. That said, we'll continue to keep an eye on it as we always note that crazy things happen on the recruiting trail and so we'll always keep our eye on things when Nova is still involved. When the prospect has the talent that Duren does, our attention becomes even more intense.

Anyway, barring a change of plans, we expect to get a list from Duren sometime this week and we do expect Villanova to be on it.

Some encouraging news Thursday evening as the NCAA has announced that all sports can return to a normal recruiting calendar on June 1. The biggest implications for our interests are that there will likely be live, in-person evaluation of prospects in June and July for the first time in over a year. This also opens the door to the return of official and unofficial visits, although schools will still be required to follow state and local guidelines.

The news comes as a welcome step closer to normal and will allows coaching staffs to have improved options in the evaluation and recruitment of prospects. It allows gives us a chance to see which schools are watching which prospects and taking clues from those observations as to how schools are prioritizing and managing their recruitment plans as well as how some individual recruitments may be going. It's always nice to have more information available, and this type of information has both been useful in the past and also given us some fun things to talk about over the summer months.

The portal has been crazy, and Wright shared his thoughts on the state of things and how he sees it going in the future while also sharing some insight on the challenges it presents.

Just a quick story on how much the pair talked during the decision making process.

Collin Gillespie gave an update on his recovery from knee surgery. He said he's feeling good and expects to be 100% by the end of June. Here's the full quote from Gillespie:

“I’m doing really well," Gillespie said. "I’ve had some time to relax and I’ve been doing a lot of rehab and physical therapy with our trainer here at Villanova. Just tyring to take it one day at a time and continue to get better. I’m really not in a rush to do physical activities or anything like that. I wanna get healthy first and be on the safer side but what the doctors are saying is by the end of June is when I’ll be 100%. Right now just trying to progress every day as best I can.”

It sounds as though everything is going well with Gillespie and his recovery and he should be ready for basketball activities well ahead of fall practices.

On Tuesday, Jay Wright revealed it will be several months before Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree is in a place physically where he can make a decision on his status for next year.

"I think it’s probably gonna take until August 'til Dhamir can see physically where he is and make some type of decision," Wright said. "I am pretty sure that we’ll have him around in some way.”

While the return of Samuels will help, Nova will be a bit inexperienced in the frontcourt with the departures of Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Cole Swider. Cosby-Roundtree would provide some needed depth and experience on the front line. For now, we wish Dhamir the best in his recovery and hope he can get to a point where he can make a decision rather than having his health make the decision for him.

We're sorting through the audio from Tuesday's press availability with Jay Wright, Collin Gillespie, and Jermaine Samuels and looking at the best way to get all the good stuff out to you all, but I wanted to pause and get this bit of info out on its own awhile.

Samuels was asked if there was any injury issues that factored into his decision to return and he emphatically answered "no." When Wright spoke later, he took time to clarify something on that front. Wright noted that Samuels was being honest in that there was no injury that would have prevented him from going through the pre-draft process and so nothing on the injury front impacted Samuels' decision. However, Wright also revealed that Samuels played the whole season with a severely sprained finger and that now that Samuels knows he is returning to Nova and has some time before he'll be called upon for organized basketball activities, they are exploring the possibility of having surgery on the finger.

“Jermaine actually played the entire season with a severely sprained finger which he’s having evaluated," Wright said. "If he would have went through the pre-draft process he probably would not have gotten anything done to his finger, now he’s got the opportunity to have surgery on his finger. Now that he’s got the time he might get it done. We’re looking at that right now.”

There doesn't appear to be any reason to be alarmed by this revelation. First, Samuels was able to play through it all season and managed to be productive. Second, as Wright indicated, Samuels could have gone through the draft evaluation process without having anything done to his finger. And finally, even though he now has time, they haven't immediately settled on the idea of surgery. If they do elect to have a procedure done, there will be plenty of time for Samuels to heal.

The news makes Samuels' contributions this season (12 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 48.1% FG and 37.1% 3PTFG) all the more impressive. At this point, just be aware that surgery is a possibility, so don't be surprised or particularly alarmed if news of surgery for Samuels emerges.

Huge news Monday night as the school announced both Collin Gillespie and Jermaine Samuels will return to Villanova for the 2021-22 season.


Gillespie, Samuels, and coach Wright are scheduled to meet with the media tomorrow afternoon, so we'll have more on these developments then.

JRE and Wright met with reporters Friday morning after Robinson-Earl declared for the NBA Draft.

The Cats have their first commitment in the class of 2022.

JRE will forego his remaining college eligibility.

2022 G Mark Armstrong, one of the first 2022 recruits Villanova reached out to, will announce his college decision Thursday night at 7 p.m. he announced on Twitter.

Armstrong is currently rated a 3-star recruit by Rivals, but I'd take rankings with a grain of salt for the time being, at least outside of the top 20 or so guys in a class, due to the inability to see the current crop of high school players actually play over the past year. The 6-2 Armstrong plays at St. Peter's Prep in Jersey City, New Jersey.

He is choosing from a final eight that includes Rutgers, Seton Hall, UConn, Louisville, Kansas, Stanford, and Auburn in addition to Villanova. The east coast/Northeast schools have gotten the most buzz with Rutgers and Villanova leading the way followed by UConn and Seton Hall. I wouldn't rule any of the schools out, but there hasn't been as much chatter about the other four. We'll find out tomorrow if Nova has its first 2022 commitment or if it has to shift things around with a target coming off the board.

Disappointing, but not unexpected.

Keels has moved up his decision announcement from Sunday to Friday. See the linked article for details on time and how you can watch.

There has been a lot of chatter about Duke recently after a brief flurry for Nova a few weeks ago, and this announcement has seemed to intensify that noise. After a long wait on Keels, the last week or so has served to dampen some of the excitement, which is unfortunate. But you really never know in recruiting until an announcement has been made, and it feels like that applies especially to Keels, who has kept the details of his recruitment incredibly quiet. Anyway, we'll know one way or another tomorrow.

One of the most pressing questions for Villanova this offseason is the future of the seniors. With the NCAA granting an extra year of eligibility, Collin Gillespie, Jermaine Samuels and Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree all have the option of returning for another season at Villanova. On Monday, Jay Wright provided some insight on the process.

"Collin and Jermaine, we are starting those conversations now," Wright said. "There’s a lot of variables here. What’s the NBA gonna do. When is the combine gonna be, are they gonna have a combine? So this thing’s gonna get dragged out, we have started the discussions and we’re trying to put a plan together." Wright hadn't yet heard that the NBA had announced that the combine would be in late June with the draft taking place July 29, but that gives us an idea of what the timeline could be like here.

Much like last year with Saddiq Bey and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Wright will likely help the seniors gather information as they head into the draft combine. But in terms of a decision, there is a very real possibility we don't get decisions from Gillespie or Samuels until after the combine.

As for Cosby-Roundtree, there was a reason his name wasn't included in the quote. That's because his decision is based on a different set of factors. "Dhamir, his issue returning is going to be based on his health so we’re not going to be able to make that determination for a long time," Wright said. "His injuries could be such that he can’t play next year, I don’t know when we’re gonna be able to determine that. Definitely not before the summer." The keys there, other than the obvious one that health will likely be the determining factor for what DCR is doing next year, are "a long time" and "not before summer." Wright doesn't expect to know DCR's status for quite a while, which obviously means the rest of us will be waiting too.

So, we learned that Gillespie and Samuels' decisions will likely mirror the NBA's timeline, unless one or both of them hear something convincing one way or the other prior to the combine. As for Cosby-Roundtree, we learned that his health will be the determining factor and that it will be months before we know.

This complicates things for Wright and his staff in terms of planning, but he likely has enough insight to make an educated guess as to how things will play out. The good news is that the 2021 recruiting class is largely set, so there isn't much to worry about from that perspective.

As for us, we wait.

Reports Monday morning are that Villanova assistant coach Kyle Neptune will be named the next head coach at Fordham University. Sports Illustrated's Kevin Sweeney was the first to report the news, which is now being confirmed by a number of sources.

Neptune just finished his eighth season on the Villanova bench. He was also an administrative intern/video coordinator with the Wildcats from 2008-10. He was with the program for all three of Villanova's trips to the Final Four under Jay Wright.

We congratulate coach Neptune on this opportunity, wish him luck in this next chapter, and thank him for his contributions to the Villanova basketball program.

A lot of Jay Wright's postgame presser after the loss to Baylor was on big picture stuff that didn't fit directly into a recap of the game, so we'll share some more of what Wright had to say here.

Coach Wright's opening statement:

"I'd like to first say congratulations to Dan Gavitt and JoAnn Scott and everyone at the NCAA. Just put together an incredible tournament and gave all of our players, all the teams in the NCAA an opportunity to play in this great tournament. The logistics were incredible what they did. And we really appreciate all their efforts in allowing these guys to play.

Second, I want to congratulate Baylor. They're an outstanding team. And Scott Drew is a great coach. And they're just a really good team, definitely a team capable of winning a national championship. And they have a lot of great teams to play, but they're definitely capable of winning it.

Thirdly, I want to say I'm really proud of our guys. Love this team, loved coaching this team. We were good enough, we were good enough to beat them. They just played better down the stretch. I think down the stretch their defense just got into us and wore us down. And it made the difference in the game."

On the challenges of this season...

"With everything that's going on, people have lost their jobs, lost lives. It's hard to complain or say how difficult this was. I just -- I think the best thing I can say is we had challenges, maybe not as much as people who are dealing with real-life situations. But our young players did a great job of dealing with every adversity that hit them. All of our quarantines, we had three of them, and our injuries, that's what you learn. As an 18-to 22-year-old in college you learn how to deal with these things with some coaching and how to respond to those challenges.

And I thought our guys did a great job. I'm really proud of it. And I looked at all those challenges as blessings for us, that we could be fazed from them, learn from them, and I think it's going to make us stronger going forward."

On viewing/treating Jeremiah Robinson-Earl as a senior...

"Yes, I did. And we used him as one. He was -- we don't take him out of the game. He does everything for us. And any adjustments we make defensively he's the guy that does it. Offensively we were trying to run the offense through him. And I think you made the point earlier, in the second half we couldn't do it.

And they just did a great job of taking him away. And he's got the maturity and the intelligence and definitely the talent. Even when we couldn't get him the ball he went to the offensive glass. He does everything defensively for us. I don't think he'll be a senior in college. So I definitely think he played like one."

On Brandon Slater getting injured...

"It really was (a big loss). He was playing great. We had a tough time, like, certain guys were struggling with matchups on their quick guards. And he was doing a great job. And I think that's -- besides us turning the ball over, that's when it turned, too, when he went out.

And you know what, honestly, I don't know where he went. They must have taken him in the back because I turned around and he wasn't there. They must have taken him in the back. And with a minute left he said, I can play, but he wasn't 100 percent."

On message to team after the game and to Villanova fans...

"Simple message to the team. I just told them I loved them and I was very proud of them and that we have to take advantage of this opportunity that we just had and learn from this.

And to our fan base, I say it's the best place in the world to play college basketball. We appreciate them sticking with this team. They're always loyal and passionate. And we appreciate -- we had great fans out here tonight. You could hear it, first time all year, really seemed like a real game. The crowd was awesome."

We'll have a little bit more from Wright postgame in the next day or two as he talked about some big picture/going forward stuff.

Jermaine Samuels was made available to reporters following Saturday's loss to Baylor that ended Villanova's season. As loyal, committed, caring, considerate a Wildcat as there is, we wanted to share as much as what he had to say as possible.

We'll start with the thing that is probably first and foremost on everybody's mind, here is Samuels' response to his future...

"Honestly, I'm probably not even going to think about it (in the next few days). I'm probably going to keep my mind off of basketball for a little bit, try to decompress everything and just take my time. And once the time comes I'll see what my options are."

The decisions of Samuels, Collin Gillespie, and Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree on their futures will be among the most pressing offseason questions for Villanova, and we'll keep you updated.

Reflecting on the most unique season any of us have experienced...

"This season is unlike any other I've been a part of, the ups and downs. But the greatest thing of all is that no one felt sorry for themselves. No one dwelled on anything. Everybody just kept having a forward mindset and keeping their attitude and focusing on getting better every day. And that was the most inspiring thing about the season."

On the mood in the locker room following the game...

"At first, it was kind of like in shock. We still feel like we have a lot of basketball left to play. But it is what it is. When it finally hit everybody was just thankful that we were part of this journey and that we were on it together -- everybody, from coaching staff to managers, the GAs, just grateful for each other. It's been a hell of a year."

On his four years at Villanova...

"I thought I came in knowing that I -- knowing that I knew basketball and everything about it. And I realized I didn't right away. And Coach Wright was patient with me. Every step of the way I had guys that were older than me that showed me the way, kept in contact, kept encouraging me. My teammates gave me confidence."

"It wasn't easy at all. It wasn't a smooth ride. I could have gave up plenty of times, but the resiliency and this culture alone kept me going. The guys in this locker room kept me going. And there's so much I could say, honestly. But I'm just grateful to have this jersey on my back."

A tough loss ends Villanova's season.

A look at the Bears ahead of Saturday's Sweet 16 matchup.

Jeremiah Robinson-Earl spoke with reporters Wednesday ahead of Saturday's game with Baylor and touched on a wide range of topics. Here will share some of what he said, similar to how we do with coach Wright's media sessions.

On Gillespie's leadership post-injury...

“Collin’s been doing a great job leading from afar. He does a great job coaching us up and leading us from after games or what we need to do going into games and he’s been doing all he can.”

On his relationship with Jermaine Samuels...

“We have a great bond on and off the court. Our off the court bond definitely leads to chemistry on the court. I think we do a great job playing off each other as the forwards. He’s been a great leader and captain for us. I think he’s been doing a great job keeping this team together.”

On the younger guys stepping up, especially defensively...

“I think those guys have been doing a great job. I think the most important thing is they bring it every single day in practice. And now it’s just getting those game reps and I think now that they’ve played a lot more games they’ve gained a lot more confidence and we feed into their confidence. They’ve been doing a great job going out there playing hard, Villanova basketball.”

On the Big East having two teams in the Sweet 16...

“I think is shows how tough we are as a conference. I think that conference play really helps us in the postseason and I think it’s been showing. Creighton has been doing a great job and hopefully they prevail. We’re just rooting on the Big East for sure.”

On the job of the coaches navigating Gillespie's injury...

“I think the coaching staff does a great job preparing us for the most difficult situations. Nobody was expecting our starting point guard, our leader, to be out for the remainder of the season going into the postseason. Our coaching staff does a great job putting us in those situations and different types of lineups just so we’re prepared for in-game situations.”

On who he would compare Baylor to in the Big East...

“Creighton in how they get out and their tempo is really fast and Butler on their defensive side. So I’d say defensively probably Butler how physical and tough they are and then Creighton offensively just how they get out, everybody can shoot, everybody can dribble, everybody’s dynamic on the court so I would say those are probably my two comparisons.”

On being an underdog...

“We take every single team the same way. We have the utmost respect for every single team we play.”