City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Josh Hart had a career night on Sunday to cap off a highly productive week. Monday, the Villanova junior was named the Big East’s and the Big 5’s Player of the Week.

Hart, a 6-foot-5 wing, scored an average of 18.7 points per game in the Wildcats trio of wins against Nebraska, East Tennessee State and Akron during the last week.

Hart’s best performance came Sunday against the Zips when he had a career-high 27 points on 11-of-21 shooting, hit three 3-pointers and also pulled down nine rebounds. He also led the team with 19 points in Tuesday’s win against Nebraska.

The Silver Spring, Md. native has been the Wildcats’ most productive offensive player in the early goings this season. Hart leads the team with a 16.5 ppg average and is shooting 52 percent from the floor through four games.

Nova moves up in AP Poll

Villanova slid up one spot to No. 8 in the latest AP Poll, which was released Monday afternoon.

The 4-0 Wildcats were slotted one spot ahead of North Carolina, the preseason No. 1 which lost to Northern Iowa on Saturday. The full poll can be found here.

No. 23 Xavier joins Villanova as Big East teams in the top 25, and Butler, Providence and Georgetown also received votes.