City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2021-22 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 9. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here.)

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Jay Wright and Villanova basketball have a ‘big’ problem. The right solution could mean yet another national championship trophy on the Main Line. 

Wright’s Wildcats have one of the deepest backcourts in the country, stacked with talent and experience, from the starters down into the bench, with some impressive freshmen to boot. It’s on the backs of preseason All-American Collin Gillespie and his fellow guards and wings that Villanova, which went 18-7 last year and made it to the Sweet 16, is ranked No. 4 in the AP’s preseason poll and was named Big East preseason favorite.

There is one major question mark, and it’s not tough to notice. Jeremiah Robinson-Earl is off in the NBA, taking his 15.7 ppg and 8.5 rpg with him, and the talented two-way forward has left a sizable gap in the Villanova frontcourt.

“My forward situation is a mess,” Wright said Monday as the Wildcats hosted their annual media day, eight days before the season opener at home against Mt. St. Mary’s. “We’re short up front — we’re short-handed, and we’re short.”

It’s true that Villanova hasn’t really been a program of 7-footers: Wright’s built his powerhouse program on the strength of versatile perimeter pieces, from Ryan Arcidiacono to Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo, Mikal Bridges, etc. The stud big men he’s had — Robinson-Earl and Omari Spellman, both in the professional ranks — were both a shade under 6-foot-10, though as skilled as they come.

This year’s roster was once again primed to be somewhat undersized, with nobody on the roster taller than 6-9, and only two players over 6-7 with any real Division I experience. Then fifth-year senior Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree, who’s battled leg injuries for his entire college experience, decided to sit out this season, unable to regularly participate in practices much less play in meaningful games. 

That left Wright with 6-9, 260-pound freshman Nnanna Njoku (Sanford School, Del.); 6-9, 220-pound freshman wing Trey Patterson (Rutgers Prep, N.J.), who arrived on campus midway through last season; and 6-8, 255-pound redshirt sophomore Eric Dixon, the former Abington standout, as his only true forward options. Fifth-year senior Jermaine Samuels, a 6-7, 230-pound wing forward, has played the ‘4’ and even the ‘5’ at times when needed over the last couple years as well.

But Njoku has missed a significant amount of time this preseason, first with a concussion and lately with what Wright deemed a “dehydration issue,” thinning that frontline even more. 

Does it keep Wright up at night, he was asked?

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “I mean, it doesn’t keep me up [...] but to play on words, the thing that concerns me going into the season is our size up front and our ability to rebound.”

However, that doesn’t mean there’s no hope. 

First up in the mix is Dixon, the best ballplayer in Abington’s history, who led the Ghosts to multiple District 1 6A championships in his four years as a starter for Charles Grasty. A solid-bodied lefty, Dixon’s always been a skilled post scorer with great hands who’d also extended his face-up range out to the 3-point range with comfort by the time he arrived at ‘Nova.

After redshirting the 2019-20 season, Dixon appeared in 21 games a year ago (8.2 mpg), averaging 3.0 ppg and 1.6 rpg. His best outing came in 21 minutes against Hartford, where he scored 14 points and grabbed 10 boards for his first and thus far only collegiate double-double.

Suddenly, he’s the most experienced player in the frontcourt.

“It’s weird to think about it as being a veteran on the team,” Dixon said. “Obviously being in the program for a while helps [you] know what’s going on, but you’re still always learning. You play the same but little things are always changing.”

“He’s done a really good job of just getting better each year,” Gillespie said. “You could tell by the way he got here, the way his physique is now; he’s been really doing a really good job of that [...] he holds himself accountable and other guys hold him accountable, because we know how much of a factor he can be.”

Villanova held a ‘secret scrimmage’ in October against Duke, and Wright did say that Dixon held his own against the Blue Devils’ impressive frontline, coming away with 12 rebounds. It’s something Dixon’s done before, impressing against 7-footers and then some during his AAU days. 

Wright also knows that it’s not going to be the regular production he got out of Robinson-Earl, and there’s going to have to be other options on certain days.

“It would have been easier if (Cosby-Roundtree) was here, if you had the experience and then (Dixon) came in and when he was good [he’d play a lot] and if not, you’ve got the experienced guy,” Wright said. “Right now he’s thrown into it. Which is going to speed up his development. But I think he’s going to get there, I really do.”

After Dixon, Njoku is sure to eat up some post minutes once healthy, as the First State native is a big, athletic body with a solid face-up game of his own, even if he doesn’t have quite the post repertoire of Dixon on the offensive end. 

The X-factor at the ‘5’ spot is Patterson, a natural wing forward who’s got the longest frame on the roster, and a half-year of extra practice under his belt. Wright said he’s been using Patterson with some effectiveness on the defensive end at the center position, even if it’s not the way he’d envisioned it when Patterson arrived on campus.

“Given our situation [...] it’s put more pressure on Trey now to play some of the ‘5’ spot, which we didn’t recruit him for,” Wright said, “and then we’ve got to get Nnanna back, we’ve got to get him going.”

Patterson said he’d put on about 10 pounds since arriving on campus in January, but he’s also eliminated body fat, which also factors into the equation. That’s resulted in a noticeably stronger frame, which he’ll need to body up against posts with a few inches and pounds on him. He’s confident he’ll be up to the task.

“I feel like I’m a good defender and I can guard ‘1’ through ‘5’ [...] so guarding bigger guys, 7-footers in the paint, wouldn’t really be a problem for me,” he said. 

The challenge for Villanova will be whether it can turn its weakness into a strength. With the ability to play small and versatile, utilizing big wings like Samuel and Brandon Slater along with Patterson and Dixon, the Wildcats have the pieces to present matchup problems all over the court.

As the Wildcats aim for their sixth Big East championship since 2015 and third national title in seven seasons, solving that big question could lead to big results.

“We are kind of undersized but we love that,” Dixon said. “Playing harder, being tougher, quicker, that’s what we emphasize, playing together. I’m not going to be able to stop every 7-footer by myself — just take a team approach to it, that’s the main thing we’ve been talking about.”