Bey becomes the third Wildcat to win the award.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/saddiq-bey-wins-julius-erving-award

Villanova recently made a late play for Williams, and the interest was enough to get the Wildcats into Williams' top 6 along with Kansas State, Kansas, Texas, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma State.

On Monday, we learned that Williams will not be coming to Villanova, as he has cut his list in half and excluded the Wildcats. The finalists are Kansas State, Oklahoma State, and Texas. A decision is expected next Monday, per Jake Weingarten.

This isn't a huge surprise as both the late involvement and the geography were working against Nova. If anything, it could be viewed as a positive and a sign of Nova's increasing appeal on the recruiting trail nationally that the Cats were able to get into consideration considering the circumstances.

It's been clear for a while now that Villanova is comfortable going into the 2020-21 season with its 2020 class consisting of redshirt Eric Dixon and transfer Caleb Daniels. However, with Saddiq Bey likely heading to the NBA, the Cats have also made an effort to add an extra player in 2020 as evidenced by getting involved with Williams.

They've also gotten involved in the transfer market, which is where our attention will now turn (along with the 2021 class). Rice transfer Trey Murphy III is set to hold a virtual visit with Jay Wright and staff today, and the Cats were recently named in the top 6 for Kentucky transfer Johnny Juzang.

This one needs no introduction.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/today-in-nova-history-cats-win-it-all

The Cats added another special moment on April 2 after trouncing Oklahoma on that date in 2016, this time in 2018 as they won the program's third national championship and second in three years.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/t...ts-claim-second-national-title-in-three-years

April 2 has been a pretty good day for Villanova the last few years. It started in 2016 with a record-breaking rout of Oklahoma to advance to the title game.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/t...cats-head-to-title-game-with-rout-of-oklahoma

Per Jake Weingarten of Stockrisers, Villanova is among a handful of schools that have reached out to Rice transfer Trey Murphy III.

Murphy just completed his sophomore season at Rice and would have two years of eligibility remaining. He averaged 13.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.2 assists this season while connecting on 39% of his three-point attempts. He is listed at 6-8, 200 pounds.

Some other schools involved include Alabama, UConn, Creighton, Arizona State, Minnesota, Texas, Cincy, Iowa State, Arizona, Stanford, and DePaul.

Word is that the list of schools contacting Murphy is growing by the day, so there will be a lot of competition here. Murphy also told Stockrisers that he knows he will conduct virtual visits with Creighton and UConn. One interesting takeaway from that is an apparent interest in the Big East.

It's unclear how strong the interest from Villanova is, but it's worth keeping an eye on Murphy.

Furthermore, it appears that Villanova will take some shots in the transfer market, as there is another piece of news that will immediately follow this one.

Former Kentucky guard Johnny Juzang has released a top 6 for his transfer destination on his Twitter page, and Villanova is included.

Joining Nova is Oregon, Texas Tech, Arizona, Notre Dame, and UCLA.

Juzang struggled to carve out a role in his freshman season at Kentucky, averaging just 12.3 minutes per game. He averaged 2.9 points and 1.9 rebounds in those limited minutes.

Juzang was ranked 34th in the class of 2019 by Rivals.

The rumor is that the West Coast schools have an edge here as Juzang hails from North Hollywood, California, but that none of the finalists should be counted out at this point.

It appears that Villanova is active in the transfer market with this news and our last post on Trey Murphy III. At the very least, we have a couple of things to watch here into the spring in addition to the upcoming decision from Donovan Williams and any movement in the 2021 class.

A three-point barrage carried the Cats into the national title game. In the video in the article, watch the reactions of the Kansas bench during the first half.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/t...trounce-kansas-advance-to-national-title-game

Obviously, Wright didn't announce any decisions or really even let on what he expects to happen, but he did update the status of Bey and JRE as he expects both to go through the pre-draft process. Wright acknowledged the complications created by the coronavirus disruptions and how the program is trying to help the pair navigate things as best as possible.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/jay-wright-discusses-futures-of-saddiq-bey-jeremiah-robinson-earl

Per a release from the school on Monday, Villanova forward Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree underwent surgery earlier this month on his right leg. The procedure was to remove screws and a metal plate that had been inserted in previous procedures, and the surgery was successful.

Cosby-Roundtree is recovering at home. "I feel good," said Cosby-Roundtree. "I'm walking around and am just waiting for the stitches to be removed." He originally underwent surgery prior to the start of his Villanova career.

The program is confident Cosby-Roundtree will be a full-go in time for his senior season in the fall. “Dhamir is resting and recuperating well after this elective surgery,” stated Villanova head coach Jay Wright. “This minor surgery should allow him to return to basketball quickly and give him added bounce for his senior season in 2020-21.”

Wright also said Dhamir is staying in contact with and leading his teammates through group messaging as he recovers at home.

Some Nova football news today as 2021 LB Shane Hartzell has announced he has received an offer from Villanova.

Hartzell attends Pennridge High School in Bucks County. He's listed at 6-0, 220 pounds and was on campus at Nova in late February.

Hartzell has offers from Princeton, Penn, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, Lehigh and Fordham and has received interest from West Virginia, Buffalo, and Pitt.

One of my favorite Villanova games ever.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/today-in-nova-history-cats-bounce-kansas-head-to-final-four

The third of four articles addressing Wright's comments on Wednesday.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/jay-wright-emphasizing-academics-rest-as-players-are-off-campus

Could there be a potential recruiting surprise this spring?

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/nova-makes-top-6-for-2020-sg-donovan-williams

Donte DiVincenzo provided some highlight plays as the Cats grinded out a win over an elite defensive team in Texas Tech to return to the Final Four for the second time in three years.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/t...s-back-in-final-four-with-win-over-texas-tech

The first of several articles we have coming addressing Wright's end of season press conference.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/j...th-perspective-during-coronavirus-disruptions

2020-21 should be another fun season on the Main Line.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/villanova-no-1-in-espn-s-way-too-early-top-25

As we all continue to navigate the lull in the sports world, we're going to take the downtime as an opportunity to revisit some Villanova moments from the past. First up is Villanova vs. Miami from March 24, 2016.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/today-in-nova-history-cats-trounce-miami-advance-to-elite-8

Villanova may be in a better position than most to navigate the current disruptions to the recruiting schedule.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/assessing-the-recruiting-landscape-amid-coronavirus-disruptions

The safe assumption is that Bey will be heading to the NBA, but there was enough uncertainty remaining that it wasn't completely silly to hold out hope even while acknowledging the likelihood of him leaving. Our current situation has tossed further questions and uncertainty into the mix, and we address all of that here. (I still think he's going, but until it's official we'll do our best to analyze the situation.)

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/a-look-at-saddiq-bey-s-situation

Villanova's 2019-20 season has come to an abrupt end Thursday as the Big East announced the cancellation of its tournament, followed shortly by word from the NCAA that their tournament will be canceled as well.

It's a lot to process, and frankly I don't feel prepared to properly articulate all my thoughts, but to maintain some sense of normalcy we will do our best to continue our work here regardless of how small our games feel at this point.

There are two immediate things that jump out:

1. Have we seen the last of Saddiq Bey in a Villanova uniform?
2. How will the current situation affect the recruiting cycle?

Since we may be short on content here for the foreseeable future, and will certainly have much less to talk about than we expected for the next two weeks at least, I will address each of those questions separately over the next 24-48 hours.

Feel free to share your thoughts, to vent, whatever. We're in uncharted waters, and I want this to be a place where we can commiserate over the lost season and try to get through this together. Stay safe everyone.

There will be no Big East Tournament.

The conference handled the situation in a bizarre way, as St. John's and Creighton played the first half of their quarterfinal game Thursday afternoon before making the announcement.

It's virtually impossible to see the NCAA Tournament taking place at this point, and while holding on to hope for some kind of miracle, it's probably best to assume that Villanova's season is over.

Just a bizarre, confusing, emotional situation.

At 11 P.M. Wednesday night the conference announced the remainder of the Big East Tournament will be run under a restricted attendance policy amid concerns surrounding the coronavirus.

Under the policy, attendance will be limited to teams, coaches, event staff, essential team and conference staff, television personnel, credentialed media, and immediate family members of participating teams. Each school will be limited to 200 tickets.

The decision was made by each of the ten members of the conference on a conference call Wednesday evening.

"We have made this decision due to the rapid progression of COVID-19 and escalating developments nationally, as well as through guidance we have received from medical experts, local authorities and other sources," said BIG EAST Commissioner Val Ackerman. "The support of our fans has made the BIG EAST Tournament one of the most exciting events in college basketball, but the health and well-being of our game participants is of paramount importance. We are very grateful to Madison Square Garden for their understanding and cooperation as we jointly manage a very difficult situation."

For anyone who purchased tickets, full refunds will be available at the point of purchase.

The move follows the Ivy League canceling its tournament altogether, several other conferences making similar attendance policies, and the NBA suspending its season.

The bracket is set and it's officially tournament time.

Villanova has earned the 2 seed in the Big East Tournament, meaning it will open play Thursday. More importantly, the Wildcats get to play a team that has to play Wednesday instead of another team with a bye into Thursday. The Cats will get the winner of Xavier-DePaul at 7 PM Thursday night.

If the Cats win that game, they would get the winner of Seton Hall-Marquette in the semi-finals on Friday at 9 PM.

The championship game is scheduled for 6:30 PM Saturday.