With the 2024-25 season in the books, new head coach Kevin Willard has gotten to work building his roster for his first season at Nova, making a pair of additions Sunday evening.
One was HS senior Christian Jeffrey out of Mt. Zion Prep in Maryland. Jeffrey was previously committed to Willard at Maryland but reopened his recruitment upon Willard's departure for Villanova. Rivals has Jeffrey as a three-star recruit who hasn't cracked the Rivals150 yet, but the 6-3, 200-pound guard comes with a college ready body who plays with an edge and can impact both ends of the floor. It's also good, at least from an optics standpoint, that Willard was able to bring a recruit with him from Maryland to Nova. Before his previous commitment to Maryland, schools involved in his recruitment included St. John's, Tennessee, Butler, Mississippi State and Pitt, among others.
The other was Maryland freshman Malachi Palmer. Palmer averaged just 8.4 minutes per game across 22 contests at Maryland as a freshman, but Willard obviously thought enough of the young guard to bring him to Villanova. He was ranked as high as No. 35 in the 2024 class at one point before landing at No. 142 on signing day. During his recruitment he had interest from Kansas, Creighton, Georgetown, Houston, Georgia, Texas Tech, Illinois, Arizona State, Pitt, Oklahoma State, LSU and Oregon, among others. Again, like Jeffrey, it's a plus to see Willard bringing some recruits/players along from Maryland.
Willard and Nova still have plenty of work to do on the roster, so it should be an interesting spring. Speaking of Willard bringing Maryland players to Villanova, a big one still remains on the board in Rodney Rice, which will be one name to watch in the coming days. I'd also suspect we'll start to get some clarity on what current Nova players are doing shortly.
Regardless, it's nice to finally see some progress on the roster build and hopefully this gets things rolling.
One was HS senior Christian Jeffrey out of Mt. Zion Prep in Maryland. Jeffrey was previously committed to Willard at Maryland but reopened his recruitment upon Willard's departure for Villanova. Rivals has Jeffrey as a three-star recruit who hasn't cracked the Rivals150 yet, but the 6-3, 200-pound guard comes with a college ready body who plays with an edge and can impact both ends of the floor. It's also good, at least from an optics standpoint, that Willard was able to bring a recruit with him from Maryland to Nova. Before his previous commitment to Maryland, schools involved in his recruitment included St. John's, Tennessee, Butler, Mississippi State and Pitt, among others.
The other was Maryland freshman Malachi Palmer. Palmer averaged just 8.4 minutes per game across 22 contests at Maryland as a freshman, but Willard obviously thought enough of the young guard to bring him to Villanova. He was ranked as high as No. 35 in the 2024 class at one point before landing at No. 142 on signing day. During his recruitment he had interest from Kansas, Creighton, Georgetown, Houston, Georgia, Texas Tech, Illinois, Arizona State, Pitt, Oklahoma State, LSU and Oregon, among others. Again, like Jeffrey, it's a plus to see Willard bringing some recruits/players along from Maryland.
Willard and Nova still have plenty of work to do on the roster, so it should be an interesting spring. Speaking of Willard bringing Maryland players to Villanova, a big one still remains on the board in Rodney Rice, which will be one name to watch in the coming days. I'd also suspect we'll start to get some clarity on what current Nova players are doing shortly.
Regardless, it's nice to finally see some progress on the roster build and hopefully this gets things rolling.