City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2024-25 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 4. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here.)

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Call them “Philly-nova.”

That might upset some folks around the city, but there’s no doubt the Main Line portion of the Big 5 is as locally-focused as its been in decades. 

Four Philly-area natives — Eric Dixon (Abington), Jordan Longino (Germantown Academy), Nisine ‘Wooga’ Poplar (Math, Civics & Sciences) and Jhamir ‘Jig’ Brickus (Coatesville) — will not just suit up for head coach Kyle Neptune, but will form the core of a group that’s got its eyes on getting ‘Nova back to prominence after a couple years below the program’s standard.

“It’s amazing,” Longino said at the team’s media day on Halloween. “I think just being four local guys, being at the helm, leading the team, it’s great. It would be amazing if we had four local guys, who grew up around the same area, to lead this team to success in the postseason.”

It's not the first time Villanova's had four local players in recent memory. The 2021-22 team actually had five, led by Collin Gillespie, though only two in the six-man rotation that played the majority of the minutes. The 2015-16 national champions started locals Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu, with Mikal Bridges and Darryl Reynolds coming off the bench.

In terms of starts and minutes played from the local contingent, this year's group should surpass both.

Longino, a 6-foot-5 senior guard and the team’s likely starter at the ‘3,’ is one of two local holdovers, along with Dixon, the 6-8 sixth-year forward who’s gone from redshirt to backup to two-time All-Big East selection, as well as the team’s only returning starter.

This offseason, the 5-11 Brickus (La Salle) and 6-5 Poplar (UMIami) both hit the transfer portal after successful runs at their previous schools, both electing to come wear the Blue & White to close out their college careers. Between the two, they have played in 219 Division I games and started 169 of those, scoring a combined 2,024 points. 

The two started in Villanova’s exhibition win over Robert Morris last weekend, and seem in line to start at the ‘1’ and ‘2’ when the regular season opens against Lafayette on Monday. Both are excited about the opportunity to play for a program that’s been one of college basketball’s modern blue bloods for as long as they’ve been paying attention. 

“Growing up you’re watching Villanova, it’s always on TV, you’re like ‘dang, I want to play there,’” Brickus said. “Being here is so surreal.”

Brickus’ senior year at La Salle saw him average 13.9 points, 4.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game on .433/.400/.857 splits. Poplar, as a junior at Miami, put up 13.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game while shooting .426/.385/.864.

“Jig, despite his stature, you look at him like just a basketball player, a guy that can literally do everything out on the floor,” Neptune said, “from using a pick and roll to iso to catch-and-shoot to even posting up, he’s just a guy that literally does everything out there.”

As for Poplar: “I knew he was a high-level athlete, but you see him in person and he does some things each day that really jump off the page.”

Not surprisingly, there are connections between the quartet that go back well before this offseason. Dixon and Brickus both played for WeR1 on the Under Armour circuit — not teammates, Dixon a year older than Brickus, but the program’s oldest teams traveled together to tournaments around the country. Longino, who played for Philly Pride, said he matched up with both Brickus and Poplar (K-Low Elite) in various grassroots and summer events. 

Brickus’ Coatesville squad matched up with Poplar’s MCS one during the 2018-19 season, a 76-70 Coatesville win; Poplar got Brickus back in college, Miami beating La Salle 84-77 last year. 

Brickus had the easiest transition to the program, having played his first two years at La Salle under Ashley Howard, who was a Villanova assistant from 2013-18 and rejoined the Wildcats bench as an assistant last year. 

“Definitely, the fact that he played for a Villanova guy, I think he was ahead of the curve in terms of understanding terminology, different plays, different sets, presses, defenses,” Neptune said.

Poplar’s got the craziest journey of the group, only picking up organized basketball as a sophomore at MCS, then becoming a high-major recruit in a short period of time. He’s happy to be back in Philly, eager to show off how much his game has matured since leaving three years ago.

“This is my hometown,” he said. “I just feel like, I’m already comfortable here because this is where I grew up, but just getting to see all the players that I grew up around, it’s good.”

Though Villanova’s just three years removed from a Final Four appearance, its fourth such trip under now-retired Jay Wright, it’s only gone 35-33 (20-20 Big East) during the last two years combined. The Wildcats went to the NIT both years, losing in the first round each time. 

Justin Moore (9.8 ppg) is done after five seasons at ‘Nova, wrapping up his career with 1,665 points. Just about the rest of the rotation is gone as well: One-year transfers TJ Bamba (10.1 ppg) and Tyler Burton (7.5 ppg, 6.1 rpg); Mark Armstrong (8.4 ppg), who declared for the NBA Draft after his sophomore year and went undrafted; Hakim Hart (6.3 ppg), Brendan Hausen (6.2 ppg) and Lance Ware (1.2 ppg); plus Chris Arcidiacono, who started 20 games in 2022-23 but only played 66 minutes last season. 

Other than the four locals, this year’s Wildcats will start 6-11 Fresno State transfer Enoch Boakye at the ‘5,’ with sophomore guard Tyler Perkins, a Penn transfer, likely the first option off the bench. Several freshmen, including redshirt freshman/Alabama transfer Kris Parker (6-9) as well as true freshmen Josiah Moseley (6-6), will fill out the bottom part of the rotation.

Neptune set up his schedule with three home games the Wildcats should handle easily against Lafayette, Columbia and NJIT, setting up the Holy War at St. Joe’s on Tuesday, Nov. 12. Three days after that is a game against Virginia in Baltimore; Maryland (Nov. 24) and Cincinnati (Dec. 3) also highlight the non-con, as does the Big 5 Classic on Dec. 7 at the Wells Fargo Center.

The 20-game Big East slate begins Tues., Dec. 17 with a home game against Seton Hall. 

“I think we’re a work in progress in all areas, but I think we can get better in all areas,” Neptune said. “I don’t know if there’s anything where it’s like ‘oooh, we’re holding our hat on that right now.’ We want to get better each practice, each day, each film session. I don’t know if there’s anything I’m like, oh yeah, this is what we’re [really well] doing right now.”

With an almost entirely new rotation to work with, nobody at Villanova is expecting perfection from Game One. But another season around .500, and those national titles in 2016 and 2018 get further and further over the horizon.