Villanova Returns Like Its Players

NEW ORLEANS – Tim Thomas still has a unique distinction in the history of the Villanova men’s basketball program.

Thomas, a Paterson, NJ native, is the only player on campus to have declared for the NBA draft after just one season. Thomas left Villanova after the 1996-97 season and the New Jersey Nets selected him for seventh place before trading him to Philadelphia.

Back then, Thomas could have gone straight from high school to the NBA. Starting with the 2006 draft, all players had to be at least 19 years old and suspended for a year from high school to be eligible.

“I was a professional guy who got the chance to go to college and I chose Nova,” Thomas said in a phone interview this week.

In the 25 years since leaving the program, Villanova has been successful at the highest levels of college game – the Wildcats have won two of the last five national championships – and have produced a steady stream of NBA potential, but none–finished players. As the Wildcats make their way into the Final Four this weekend, Coach Jay Wright’s approach stands in stark contrast to that of the other three shows here. Duke, North Carolina, and Kansas have had their fair share of one-on-one talent over the years. Under the direction of Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who will retire after this tournament, Duke’s current roster includes three freshmen who are anticipated to be first-round picks this summer.

“One of the things we really try to focus on at Villanova is authenticity,” Wright, who has been Villanova’s head coach since 2001 and is a member of the Naismith Hall of Fame, said this week. “We’re not trying to beat Kentucky Kentucky or Duke Duke. We have great respect for these programs. We have always tried to be the best Villanova we can be.”

Wright instilled several ideals: to emphasize program players rather than individual stars, to run an offensive system with guards who can position and shoot, to place team defense, rebounds, and culture in personal branding. It’s common for Villanova’s top players to be juniors, veterans, or graduate students like this year’s quarterback Collin Gillespie and forward Jermaine Samuels. In an interview with ESPN on Tuesday night, Gillespie described Villanova’s culture as follows: “We have a saying, ‘Everyone has the same status but different role,’ and we live by it. We treat everyone the same. And I think that’s one reason why the coach built something really special here.”

“Everyone should applaud what they built there,” said Kansas Coach Bill Self, whose teams lost to the eventual champion Wildcats in both the 2016 and 2018 NCAA tournaments. Kansas will face them again in a national semifinal on Saturday. “And of course, Jay is the ringmaster of it. You have to beat them, they can’t beat themselves.”

The numbers speak for themselves on several levels.

There are nine former Villanova players in the NBA, tied with Virginia one-and-nine for any school.

Wright said he would “love” successfully recruiting some single and finished actors, but he couldn’t find the right one. (Former Villanova forward Omari Spellman, who is now playing in South Korea after battling the NBA, was a red-shirted freshman and thus wasn’t a completely finished player when he entered the draft in 2018.)

Bryan Antoine, a junior guard, was selected as a potential one-and-done player when he came to Villanova, but injuries hindered his career and prevented him from leaving early.

“We still want stand-alone guys if they want to be part of the Villanova culture,” Wright said this week. “We still want them, so I don’t want to say we didn’t do that. We were just able to stick with what we did in the beginning.”

In the single and finished era, only Kentucky in 2012 and Duke in 2015 have won a national championship, relying heavily on one-on-ones in their starting squads. North Carolina single-handedly won the title in 2017, with big man Tony Bradley coming off the bench; It was Carolina’s first job in ten years. The university had seven under the management of Roy Williams, who was its coach from 2003-21. Virginia in 2019 and Baylor in 2021 had multiple future professionals, but no single and finished freshmen.

At the 2018 tournament, Wright said, “I think the reason why the Dukes and Kentuckies won, and I really mean it, I don’t think anyone understands how difficult it is to coach top-notch players in high-level games.” “I don’t care how good they are. I don’t care if it’s LeBron. You just weren’t expected to have the detail to play. I think John and Coach K do the best at it.”

And he added: “And then there are just so many people out of the one-and-done guys who have the ability to win national championships.”

This is especially true for this year. The sport is filled with seasoned teams made up of seniors in the fifth year and players who no longer have to sit a year after the transfer. Duke, North Carolina, and Kansas all have veterans, too. In a video press conference on Tuesday, Self pointed out that his team had selected veteran guard Ochai Agbaji, one of the four finalists of the Naismith Trophy, as the national player of the year; senior forward David McCormack and junior guard Christian Braun.

Villanova’s roster lacks anyone standing out as a future NBA star, but Gillespie, Samuels, and junior guard Justin Moore (who ripped his Achilles tendon in 8 rounds and is absent for the season) have professional potential.

“Under Jay Wright, Villanova was able to accomplish three very difficult things,” said Chris Extrand, consultant for NBA basketball operations. “One is to successfully recruit talented, intelligent actors. Two, to improve the skills and basketball IQ of these players. And three, keeping these players for several years.”

Wright said a turning point for the program came in 2013, when the Big East Conference collapsed and universities with football programs like Syracuse and Pittsburgh moved to bigger leagues that generate more revenue from football.

Wright at one point wasn’t sure where Villanova was going, and knowing that he and his team might have to radically change their hiring and coaching philosophies, perhaps they moved to put more emphasis on single and finished players.

But the new Big East once settled as a collection of basketball-centered schools, and Butler, Xavier, and Creighton—Midwestern universities not in the conference’s original geographic footprint—and 12-year, $500 million deal signed With Fox Sports contributing to the league’s visibility and stability, Wright charted a new course for Villanova.

“We’re in this league,” he said. “Let’s start with trying to be the best in this league.”

Since the formation of the new Big East, Villanova has dominated the league, winning at least one share of seven regular season conference titles and winning five conference tournament titles, including this year’s title. And of course, there have been four Final Four games and two NCAA titles in the last 13 tournaments.

Still, Thomas wants to see his old show add some one-of-a-kind flair.

“If we’re going to have to play with Duke and Kentucky and Kansas and North Carolina almost every year and those teams are filled with five or four professional guys, then why not have one or two of these guys to maintain that level of consistency?” “But at Jay’s discretion, it was incredible, truly incredible, what he was able to do with kids who stayed and thrived in school for several years.”