Next up for the UVA Basketball team: Villanova, which isn’t playing like the name-brand Villanova from the Jay Wright days.
Wright’s hand-picked successor, Kyle Neptune, is 37-34 at ‘Nova four games into his third season, with a 2-2 start this year that includes a 10-point home loss to Columbia and an 83-76 loss on Tuesday at St. Joseph’s, which ended with the St. Joe’s student section serenading the embattled coach with a chant of “Thank you, Neptune! Thank you, Neptune!”
Neptune is the cautionary tale for a legend being able to engineer who he wants to be his successor, if you see what I just did there.
It’s not helping the situation there that top recruit Matthew Hodge lost an appeal to the NCAA, which had ruled him academically ineligible because of transcript issues related to his transfer from a school in Belgium to a New Jersey high school in 2022.
Hodge, a four-star recruit who was expected to be a rotation guy for Neptune this season, will instead have to sit out the 2024-2025 season as a redshirt.
A quick look at the Villanova roster
Fifth-year senior Eric Dixon is scoring 26.3 points per game this season, after putting up back-to-back double-digit scoring seasons the past two years.
Dixon, a 6’8”, 260-pound forward, is a career 38.0 percent three-point shooter, and he’s averaged six-plus rebounds per game each of the past three seasons.
Tough matchup there likely for Virginia’s stretch five, Elijah Saunders, who is going to need to stay out of foul trouble against the rugged Dixon.
Saunders, you may remember, fouled out in 18 minutes in the 65-56 season-opening win over Campbell last week.
You’ll definitely remember Wooga Poplar, Villanova’s second-leading scorer (15.3 ppg), from his three seasons at Miami, where the 6’5” guard was a double-digit scorer last year.
La Salle grad transfer Jhamir Brickus is scoring 12.0 points per game and leads the team with 4.5 assists per game.
Jordan Longino, a 6’5” senior, is scoring a career-high 10.0 points per game through the season’s first four games.
Fresno State transfer Enoch Boakye, at 6’10”, 240, is averaging 6.0 points and 5.8 rebounds in 19.3 minutes per game.
Neptune’s rotation has been going nine deep to this point in the season.
Matchups
I went over how UVA Basketball interim coach Ron Sanchez will approach checking Dixon, with Saunders, whose vitals are 6’8”, 240.
I’d imagine Blake Buchanan, the 6’11” sophomore, gets Boakye.
Sanchez has been starting Duke transfer TJ Power at the other forward spot, but freshman Jacob Cofie (13.5 ppg, 8.5 rebounds/g) has been getting the bulk of the minutes at the three spot (28.0 minutes/g).
The Cofie-Poplar matchup will be a fun one.
UVA Basketball notes
You’re going to be mad at me here, but I’m expecting Andrew Rohde to be back in the starting lineup at point guard, even though Kansas State transfer Dai Dai Ames, a late addition to the starting lineup in Monday’s 62-45 win over Coppin State with Rohde a scratch with lower-back pain, was borderline great (13 points, 5-of-8 FG, 2-of-3 3FG, three assists).
I can’t say what I came to know about this today, but what I now know about things behind the scenes tells me that Rohde is probably the best option long term at the point by default.
The key date on the calendar here: Wednesday, Dec. 18, the first day after fall semester finals, and the day of the home game with Memphis.
Details
Virginia vs. Villanova
Friday, 5 p.m. ET, CFG Arena, Baltimore, TNT (Brian Anderson/Grant Hill)
KenPom: Villanova 69-65, 62 percent win probability
BartTorvik: Villanova 66-65, 54 percent win probability
EvanMiya: Villanova 71-68, 58.2 percent win probability
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Chris Graham
