Grand Canyon’s Duke Brennan is Villanova’s third commitment of the day as the roster takes shape

The 2025-26 Villanova men’s basketball roster is starting to come together.

Grand Canyon’s Duke Brennan committed to the Wildcats Thursday night, becoming the third transfer portal addition to Kevin Willard’s team of Thursday alone and fourth this week.

Brennan, a 6-foot-10 forward who averaged 10.4 points and 9.2 rebounds for a team that reached the NCAA Tournament, was on campus Wednesday and picked Villanova after hearing from a long list of suitors since he entered the portal.

Brennan has one year of eligibility remaining. A Chandler, Ariz., native, Brennan played his freshman year at Arizona State before transferring to Grand Canyon for two years. Brennan shot 64.6% from the field this past season. His game is almost exclusively inside the arc, as he’s taken just three three-pointers in three college basketball seasons.

It was a busy day for Villanova. It started with a commitment from Maryland transfer Braden Pierce, a 7-foot center who appeared in just five games off the bench as a redshirt freshman before suffering a season-ending eye injury. Pierce figures to be a backup big man while Brennan should slot in as a starter in the frontcourt.

Later Thursday afternoon, James Madison transfer Bryce Lindsay, the Sun Belt’s freshman and sixth man of the year, committed to Villanova, giving the Wildcats some needed scoring from a guard position. Lindsay, a 6-3 Baltimore native, began his college career at Texas A&M. At JMU, he scored 13.4 points per game and connected on 40.8% of his three-point attempts (nearly seven attempts per game) as a redshirt freshman.

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Earlier this week, Villanova picked up a portal commitment from Temple guard Zion Stanford. Thursday’s three additions make it five total portal adds during this cycle, with Maryland’s Malachi Palmer the first to follow Willard from College Park to Villanova.

Brennan is an outlier among those five as the only player Villanova has added who has just one season of eligibility remaining. Villanova’s desired philosophy of roster building features an emphasis on recruiting transfers with multiple seasons of eligibility, but Brennan’s addition was a needed boost of experience and talent to a barren frontcourt.

Villanova may not be done adding to that frontcourt. The Wildcats are still in the mix for Robert Morris transfer Alvaro Folgueiras, a 6-9 forward with two years left who averaged 14.1 points and 9.1 rebounds last season. Maryland transfer Tafara Gapare also recently visited campus, and the Wildcats are set to soon host Bosnian forward Harun Zrno, who was originally committed to Indiana before a coaching change.

Redshirt freshman Matthew Hodge, who was deemed academically ineligible this past season because of transcript issues from his time as a high schooler in Belgium, will return to Villanova and figures to see minutes. Jordann Dumont, a rising redshirt sophomore, would have probably seen an uphill climb to substantial playing time. He entered the portal Friday.

The bigger hole still seems to be at guard. The Wildcats don’t yet have an experienced point guard. They are among the favorites to land Maryland transfer Rodney Rice, who scored nearly 14 points per game this past season. But Rice is not a traditional point guard, and it’s unlikely the Wildcats enter the 2025-26 season with the ball in his hands right away.

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Incoming freshman Acaden Lewis, a D.C. native who initially was committed to Kentucky, plans to visit Villanova. Lewis is a four-star point guard from Sidwell Friends, where Villanova has plucked from in the past (Josh Hart, Saddiq Bey).

Rice would be a key addition and give Villanova a third experienced scoring threat out of the backcourt along with Lindsay and Stanford.

There’s also returning guard Tyler Perkins, who figures to see minutes off the bench, as well as incoming freshman Chris Jeffrey, and Palmer.

Thursday made the roster puzzle a little easier to piece together. Is it the making of a team that will stop the NCAA Tournament drought at three seasons? It’s far too early to say. But with multiple players in the fold who have more than one season left to play, there is at least the makings of a team that could grow together.

Then again, every season is free agency, and all of that could mean nothing come next April.