To see the previous teams ranked in the 82 in 72 series, please see below:

63. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

64. Saint Louis Billikens

65. Syracuse Orange

66. Nebraska Cornhuskers

67. Pittsburgh Panthers

68. Iowa Hawkeyes

69. NC State Wolfpack

70. Butler Bulldogs

71. Princeton Tigers

72. Virginia Cavaliers

73. Saint Joseph’s Hawks

74. Oklahoma Sooners

75. West Virginia Mountaineers

76. Georgia Bulldogs

77. UAB Blazers

78: Wisconsin Badgers

79. San Diego State Aztecs

80. Missouri Tigers

81. Northwestern Wildcats

82. Loyola Chicago Ramblers

We are back to our 82 in 72 countdown at The Center Hub! As our countdown is heading toward the top sixty, our rankings and content are also starting to heat up here at The Center Hub as we get closer to basketball season! As things are starting to heat up for us on the content side, some things, like Kyle Neptune’s head coaching seat, are already hot! The Villanova Wildcats come in at #62 in our 82 in 72 countdown, and our entire team has the Wildcats in our top 80 heading into the season! Behind second-team All Big-East performer Eric Dixon, Kyle Neptune will look to lead Villanova to their second consecutive winning season, and will seek to go above .500 in conference play for the first time in his head coaching career.

Steven	Maxwell	Kam	Cody
61	54	Unranked	67

If you have ever seen The Lion King, Villanova basketball currently feels like Pride Rock during Scar’s reign…Nova nation is in unfamiliar territory, especially with two rings in the last ten years. While this team may not necessarily have the ceiling of teams in Nova’s past, I believe that Eric Dixon could be the Simba to save Kyle Neptune.

Now a two-time All-Big East performer, Eric Dixon has a strong chance to win player of the year if he can improve on the defensive end and bump up his offensive shooting splits. For Dixon, he finds himself in an excellent spot as he fits into Neptune’s offensive scheme quite well. Dixon should average close to 20 points per game this season if he is a continued screener and secondary creator from the post or off pick and roll within Neptune’s offense. Dixon often found success last season in the pick and roll and in the mid-range, per Barttorvik, Dixon shot 125-145(86.2%) last season on far 2pt fgs. Dixon now has two seasons of consecutive 9+ C-RAM seasons per Cerebro sports, and should reach the gold-tier of performer this season for the Wildcats.

Villanova also brought in a pair of backcourt transfers who will be starters and heavy contributors, my favorite being Wooga Poplar, a probable NBA player come next summer. Wooga was a gem in the transfer portal coming from Miami, and Villanova was very lucky to inherit his services. Poplar is one of my favorite players in all of college basketball and is one of the better rebounding guards in the country (Poplar tallied three double doubles last season with rebounds). Per Cerebro Sports, Poplar posted his highest C-RAM score of his career last season for Miami (8.0), and playing alongside Jhamir Brickus in the backcourt, I expect Poplar to have his first silver performer season (C-RAM of 8.5+). 

Enter Jahmir Brickus! A transfer guard from La Salle, who Kyle Neptune will be reliant upon to be one of his lead guards, but more specifically his floor general. In four seasons with La Salle, Brickus has over 100 starts and has played in more than 120 contests in his college career. Brickus has the ability to not only create for others, but create for himself, averaging just under 14 points per game last season while shooting 39.7% from behind the arc on 146 attempts. 

Outside of the three players we just focused on, Kyle Neptune will be banking on a lot of checks to cash. Tyler Perkins, a sophomore transfer guard, makes the short trip over from Penn to Nova. Perkins was one of the top freshman in the Ivy League last year and will need to prove he can play at the Big East level. Enoch Boakye, a transfer from Fresno State and Arizona State before that, is the other likely big-man alongside Eric Dixon in the starting lineup. Boakye is a classic inside-the-arc rim protector who can finish well around the rim but will need to prove he can match up with some of the top tier big-man talent in the Big East. Can fourth year senior Jordan Longino stay healthy and be the Wildcats fifth starter or sixth man off the bench?

A plethora of question marks is not ideal when evaluating a team in the preseason, but Villanova’s question marks have juice and come from the tree of optimism. My two favorite question marks I am anxiously waiting to have answered…Kris Parker, a redshirt freshman transfer from Alabama, and Aleksandar Gavalyugov, a true freshman from the NBA Global Academy. Parker, who originally chose Alabama over Nova, is a 6’9″ guard who has plus athleticism and is able to create his own shot whether he is attacking the rim or pulling up off the dribble. Gavalyugov, originally from Bulgaria, is a do-it-all guard and can create for himself just as well as he creates for others and should be able to contribute as a true freshman.

Villanova basketball is in a delicate space and Kyle Neptune is on the hot seat…Villanova basketball is also bringing a team into 2024 with proven pieces in Eric Dixon, Wooga Poplar and Jhamir Brickus. The Wildcats are flying under the radar this season, and that is probably a welcomed change for Neptune and Nova, just make sure they are on your radar heading into the 2024-2025 season…