Though there could still be some more names trickling in over the next 24 hours or so, the transfer portal officially closed at 12:00 AM Eastern today. Despite it only being officially open for about 15 days now, there’s been a ton of official movement across the college basketball landscape, with Villanova being no exception.
The Wildcats’ roster stands at nine currently, so there’s still work to do. But as we stand (or sit) here now, this is where things are at for both the current and former Villanova players:
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Returning:
Tyler Perkins – officially
Matt Hodge – officially
Nico Onyekwere – reportedly
Leaving:
Acaden Lewis – Miami (FL)
Bryce Lindsay – Indiana
Braden Pierce – College of Charleston
Zion Stanford – Towson
Entered the portal:
Duke Brennan – seeking fifth year of eligibility
Devin Askew – seeking seventh year of eligibility
Tafara Gapare – seeking redshirt for this past season
Chris Jeffrey – rumors are that Loyola-Chicago is a team to watch
Malachi Palmer – has been connected to West Virginia
Malcolm Flaggs – unknown
Added to Villanova:
Adam Oumiddoch – high school, officially signed
Kwame Evans Jr. – Oregon, officially signed
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Devin Royal – Ohio State, reported
Jake Fiegen – Cornell, reported
Elijah Crawford – Illinois-Chicago, reported
Darryl Simmons II – St. Bonaventure, reported
Summary:
At this stage, it seems likely that Villanova will lose most of its former players to mid or low majors, which is exactly what happened a year ago. As much as we would like to see more than just two rotation players back, the upgrade in overall talent is unquestionable. Most reputable sources have the Wildcats’ transfer haul in the top ten in the country, with a host of other Big East teams in the mix. There’s still work to do on the center front, but otherwise the roster has experience, versatility and depth that it didn’t have a year ago. It will be up to the players and coaches to come together during the summer. Kevin Willard did a great job last year of getting (almost) everyone to pull in the same direction, so there’s no reason to believe that won’t happen again this year.
