Jason Brunson has been named the College Basketball Athlete of the Decade
by the Sporting News.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nca...lete-of-the-decade/1r13carjbs3dk1vtlfgikrwete

When the Cats play Kansas on Saturday, at the Wells Fargo Center, they will be playing the No. 1 team in the Country. (12 Noon, Fox)
Nova is ranked #18 in the AP BB Poll.

Kansas is 9-1. There are no undefeated teams in the Top 10.

One of the few names that has really stood out on the Villanova 2021 recruiting board, Trevor Keels had a breakout moment at the National High School Hoops Festival last weekend, averaging 30 points across two games.

Keels took some time to speak with Rivals' Corey Evans, discussing his recruitment and shedding some light on his timeline. Keels has already taken visits to Ohio State and Virginia. Villanova appears in line to get a visit, but the recent involvement from Duke could complicate things for the others hoping to land the wing.

Here's what he had to say about Villanova:

"I know Slate (Brandon Slater) and Justin Moore, battling them in practice and playing them in games. Whenever I went up there, I actually played five-on-five. It went pretty well. I had a lot of confidence shooting the ball next to those guys."

It's interesting that he notes his familiarity with Slater and Moore, as that relationship and the fact that Keels plays for Paul Vi and Team Takeover, programs Nova has had success with, might be the 'Cats biggest advantage in his recruitment.

As far as the competition, Keels seems to like what he saw on his official visits to Ohio State and Virginia, and the hometown factor sounds like it's viewed as a positive for Maryland. The recent Duke offer has had the usual effect on Keels, and Miami seems to be the other strong contender. It looks like Duke, Maryland, Miami, and Villanova will be competing for his final three official visits.

Getting one of those visits will be key, as Keels said he wants to take all five and you would assume the odd man out will fall out of contention. This is something to keep an eye on in the spring, when Keels plans on rounding out his visits.

In addition to the purely basketball aspect, Keels said he will be looking at academics, a place where he can fit in, and that his parents will have an influence as well as he looks for a place that they like.

As Evans notes, the current timeline would seem to indicate a late fall decision.

Keels is currently ranked No. 32 in the 2021 Rivals 150.

You can read Evans' full write-up, including comments on the other contenders, at the link below.

https://basketballrecruiting.rivals...it-of-trevor-keels-after-breakout-performance

A look at the Blue Hens ahead of Saturday's matchup.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/game-preview-delaware-3

The Athletic dropped its first Big Board for the 2020 draft and it contained three Nova players. We take a look at where they land and what it could mean for Nova going forward. We'll also track the movements of the big boards throughout the season and into the spring, or until we have final decisions from the players involved.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/tracking-nova-s-nba-big-board-interests-vol-1

Per Ari Rosenfeld of Elite High School Scouting, Wright was in to see 2021 guard Jordan Longino on Wednesday night.

Longino attends Germantown Academy and is currently ranked 73rd in his class by Rivals. The junior is listed at 6-5, 195 pounds and has drawn interest from Temple, Rutgers, Rhode Island, and Florida, among others.

Our second look at Villanova's numbers on KenPom and Synergy. The hope is that in addition to providing context to our game previews, these posts will become more useful/enlightening as we get more data. Also, as this is a new series, I should be able to get better at them and find ways to maximize their usefulness, so I'm pretty excited about what these posts will be able to accomplish over the course of the season.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/looking-at-villanova-s-kenpom-synergy-numbers-vol-2

Hey everybody, so kind of a weird day. I couldn't catch the game live because of a family commitment, and recording the game got screwed up because the football game on ESPN2 ran long, so I really didn't get to see any of the first half. That, combined with the fact that I couldn't sit down to write until about 1 AM, made a regular recap post seem kind of irrelevant.

I've been wanting to get back to doing "takeaway" articles anyway, so instead of the recap I skipped right to the takeaways, doing the best I could with what I saw of the game and what I could conclude from the stats. Going forward, I plan to use the "takeaways" article in addition to our usual recaps, but as I said today was just a little bit of a weird day.

Anyway, apologies for not having a recap and for it taking nearly eight hours after the game to get any coverage up today, it was just one of those days when circumstances prevented me from doing the job the way I want/expect to and I hate when that happens because you all deserve the best. I'll stop rambling now, and here's what we got from today's game.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/5-takeaways-from-win-over-st-joe-s

A look at the Hawks ahead of the latest waging of the Holy War.

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

A look at Wednesday's victory.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/cats-gut-out-tough-win-over-penn

So, it's been a tough day on my end, my computer crashed as I was 2/3 of the way through our preview of the Quakers and despite noticing something was off with the computer and trying to get my work saved before the crash, I lost it all. Considering that if I started from scratch I wouldn't be done until right near game time and that wouldn't be very useful for you all, we're just going to do a cliff notes version here.

Penn has some solid wins over teams that would traditionally be considered out of their weight class (Alabama, Providence) as well as a Big 5 win over La Salle (75-59). The Quakers also played Arizona very tough last week. However, they also have some poor losses (Rice, Lafayette).

Penn averages 77.3 points per game and also allows 77.3 points per game.

Defense is Penn's biggest issue. The Quakers haven't generated turnovers and have had difficulty guarding shooters and defending the three-point line. Per Synergy, they are among the worst in the country defending spot-ups and they rank 282nd in opponent's three-point percentage. They've also been vulnerable in the pick and roll.

Offensively, they've had success in the post and have had reasonable success shooting the ball.

Freshman guard Jordan Dingle has played well and leads the team with 17.3 PPG. AJ Brodeur has been good as well with 16.9 points and 8.1 rebounds. Ryan Betley and Devon Goodman round out the double-figure scorers with 13.3 and 13, respectively. That group all average at least 33 minutes per game.

Max Martz (5.3 PPG), Eddie Scott (4.3) Bryce Washington (3.7), and Lucas Monroe (3.3) round out the members of the rotation averaging at least 10 minutes per game.

Martz, Betley, and Dingle are their best three-point shooters.

Villanova should be able to exploit the defensive issues, and I'd expect a lot of good looks tonight. The Cats should also be able to win the turnover battle.

Penn is a tough team with some talent, and it has proven it can play with some really good teams with its performance against Arizona. Defense and inconsistency have dampened an otherwise promising start for the Quakers.

I apologize for the technical difficulties, and I would have much preferred to give you all our usual much more detailed breakdown, but as I said it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to publish it with just an hour or so before game time, so this will have to suffice for tonight's game.

The Vegas Line opened with Nova as an 11.5 point favorite.
The Line has now increased to 13 points.
Probably too high for a Big 5 game, even though it is at the Finn.

6:30 PM, FS1

A look at the Explorers as Nova looks to get back on track and start a new run in the Big 5.

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

I realized that I often reference KenPom and Synergy numbers in our game previews and that it would likely be helpful if we knew Nova's numbers as well. Instead of rehashing the Cats' numbers every time we do a game preview, I think the better approach would be to do an occasional update of those numbers in a standalone article. That will save time/space in the previews while giving us somewhere to check the Nova numbers for comparison.

In addition to helping us compare the Cats to each opponent, I think this will serve us well in tracking Villanova's progress throughout the season and just get a better overall understanding of what we're seeing on the court.

Here's our first look, and I hope everyone finds it useful. In addition, if anyone has anything specific they'd like me to look up, particularly regarding a specific player, don't hesitate to ask.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/looking-at-nova-s-kenpom-synergy-numbers-vol-1

Nova came up just short on Sunday against a good Baylor team.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/cats-fall-to-baylor-87-78

A look at the Bears as Nova tries for a top 25 win and another early-season tournament title.

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

It was another strong performance from the Wildcats on Friday.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/nova-takes-down-mississippi-state-83-76

Mississippi State defeated Tulane 80-66 to advance and earn a date with Villanova tomorrow.

Iverson Molinar had 21 points and five assists for the Bulldogs, hitting 4-6 from deep. Reggie Perry had 18 points and five rebounds.

The Bulldogs shot 60.5 percent from the floor and 55 percent from three. They dominated the glass 41-16 but committed 25 turnovers.

Friday's game is scheduled for 2:30 on ESPN2.

There was a lot to like about Thursday's performance.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/cats-open-myrtle-beach-invitational-with-98-69-win-over-mtsu

A look at the Blue Raiders ahead of tomorrow's early start.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/game-preview-middle-tennessee-state

Per Jay Wright, five-star freshman Bryan Antoine has been cleared for competition following spring shoulder surgery. Antoine is available to play in upcoming games at Myrtle Beach Invitational.

The news comes less than two weeks after Antoine was cleared to start practicing with the team.

The team plans on being cautious with Antoine and I'd expect them to ease him into the lineup, starting with small chunks of playing time and seeing how he responds. Still, this is fantastic news for the Cats and is way ahead of the original schedule for Antoine, which didn't expect him to see the court until at least mid-December and more likely late December. The ability to get Antoine up to speed well ahead of the start of the conference schedule is huge, and the next couple weeks just got a lot more interesting.

We'll try to forget this one as quickly as possible, but here's our recap of a disastrous trip to Columbus.

https://villanova.rivals.com/news/cats-crushed-by-ohio-state-76-51