League insiders believe Niners-Broncos have a Kap deal in place that will be consummated on draft day, contringent on Niners drafting Goff. Which is likely.

Jason LaCanfora believes Eagles will grab Elliott if they can't trade up for Wentz.

Giants are gonna get a good player at 10.

A look at tonight's matchup with a hot Providence team.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/game-preview-providence-2

……in both Polls, almost unanimously

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/rankings

Inside Source: Samuels won't return from his injury until early March. This has not been acknowledged publicly or officially.

Does it make sense to bring him back for just the BE Tournament and the NCAA Tournament?
What if it were just for the NCAA Tournament?

A Red Shirt year seems inevitable in my view.

Apparently Colin O'Mara is now running for Arkansas. Interesting story: Son of an Arkansas great chooses to attend Villanova. Figured that had something to due with a relationship between Frank O'Mara and Marcus and the kid wanted a real education. But why now Arkansas? What gives - now especially when Villanova is "hurting" at the mile ...? Men's program gets to be more confusing and disappointing ... but that is another very lengthy discussion.

A look at Saturday's win over UConn.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/nova-handles-huskies

A look at Saturday's old Big East throwback meeting with UConn.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/game-preview-uconn-1

A look at the Cats' dominant performance against the Hoyas.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/cats-overwhelm-hoyas

….by 13 points. A few Vegas houses have it at 12 1/2.

Always a risk to give the Home Team double digits, but after the St. Johns game, Nova has something to prove.

A look at tonight's matchup with the Hoyas.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/game-preview-georgetown-5

Per Jon Rothstein and FanRag Sports, injured Nova guard Collin Gillespie could be approaching a return to action, possibly as early as next week.

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A return next week would leave Gillespie's absence at six weeks, which depending on who you listen to would put him at either the tail end (4-6 weeks) or early end (6-8 weeks) of his expected recovery time. Either way, a Gillespie return would be great news for a Nova team struggling with depth after seeing two players go down with injuries. Something to keep an eye on as we head into next week.

...but not to Villanova.

The Duke transfer, who was ranked #72 in the class of 2017, was once considered close to choosing between Indiana, Villanova, and Syracuse before a late play by Coach K and Duke. Tucker struggled to secure playing time at Duke, and decided a move to a school with more available playing time was in his best interest.

According to ESPN's Jeff Borzello, Tucker is expected to make a decision on Monday, and will be deciding between Butler and Georgetown. He was reportedly on a visit to Butler this weekend.

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Over on Run Nova, it references a FloTrack article that ranks VU's women's DMR 7th. Team would be Siofra, Keegan, Ciluffo, Hutchinson. I think it will be McArthur on the 800 leg instead of Ciluffo. And I am not so sure about Keegan over Onque-Shabazz ...? If healthy (probably at Penn), one might start with Bockoven and anchor with Siofra. Big question: what is the status of Kelsey Margey?

Men? Don't ask. I am afraid VU men are no longer in the conversation ... Very sad. Too many years of poor recruiting. Will take a lot to turn that program around.

Former Wildcat standout Kyle Lowry has made a generous donation to the school.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/kyle-lowry-pledges-1-million-to-university

There were some very encouraging and uplifting moments, yesterday. I thought Rachel McArthur was a great recruit and she is proving it with her win in the 600m. But it was great to Kelsey Margey (4th in 600m and anchor 4x400) and Sammy Bockoven (12th in 1000m and leg on 4x800) back in action. Biggest surprise, though, was Brian Faust's anchor in 4x400 of 46.5. Might have been fastest split of the event and a time rarely seen by Villanova recently ...

This happened a couple days ago, my apologies for the delay. But there isn't much of a surprise here. Nova was considered a long-shot to land Hamilton, as the Cats got involved really late in the process for Hamilton, and it remains to be seen how serious their efforts really were.

It's really news only in the sense that Nova has been at least tangentially linked to interest in Hamilton, and because it leaves Courtney Ramey as the only 2018 prospect remaining that Nova has made a serious push for.

It was far from a perfect performance, but Villanova did enough to leave New York with the win.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/sloppy-cats-escape-st-john-s

A look at tonight's matchup with a struggling St. John's team.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/game-preview-st-john-s-2

A look at Wednesday night's vintage performance from Villanova which earned a resounding win over No. 10 Xavier.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/cats-get-huge-win-over-xavier

Long read, but worth it if you are a Star Wars fan.

https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/3qvj6w/theory_jar_jar_binks_was_a_trained_force_user

Adam Zagoria caught up with Scottie Lewis, the No. 9 recruit in the 2019 class.

Lewis said he plans to cut his list (currently at 12 schools) in half this spring. He said the cut will likely come around the same time that Bryan Antoine (No. 7 in 2019 class) drops his first list, indicating a package deal is still a very real possibility. I would expect Nova to make the cut. In addition to Nova, Harvard, Kentucky, Duke, and Florida appear to be making a strong early impression.

On Nova Lewis had this to say: “Yeah, coach George [Halcovage] and coach Jay [Wright] are always in constant contact,” he said. “They were at the game against Immaculate Conception. They gave me some feedback from that game, just to be more poised and trying to change speeds and just teaching me for a minute.”

Full article here:
http://www.zagsblog.com/2018/01/06/scottie-lewis-wins-mvp-win-patrick-school-plans-cut-list-spring/

Kevin McNamara of the Providence Journal with a very good read on Villanova commit Cole Swider.

http://www.providencejournal.com/sp...already-preparing-for-next-level?rssfeed=true

A few recruits reportedly on hand for Wednesday night's Nova-Xavier game.

Via Pat Lawless, 4-star 2020 G/F Jyare Davis out of Sanford School in Delaware and 4-star 2020 F Lance Ware (#43 2020 Rivals 50) out of Life Center Academy in New Jersey were in attendance of Nova's blowout win over Xavier.

There are also reports, that I have been unable to confirm, that 2019 C Jon Bol Ajak out of The Church Farm School in Exton was there as well.

The mid-season watch list for the Wooden Award has been released, trimming down the pool of players to 25.

Two Wildcats remain on the list, Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges.

Villanova is one of only four schools (Duke, UNC, Arizona) to have two players remaining on the list.

Other Big East members on the list are Trevon Bluiett, Angel Delgado, and Marcus Foster.

The Big East is tied with the ACC for most players on the list with five.

……by 9 points according to the Vegas opening line.

The odds makers seem to be setting the Nova betting lines as if the games were being played at the Pavilion. It may be a mistake which the betters will begin to notice….if it is a mistake.

With Nova's short bench, against a good team (such as X) it may only take one or two bad calls at the wrong time to skew the line.