Villanova officially turns the page to the Kevin Willard Era following semifinal exit in the College Basketball Crown
The Wildcats rebounded from a four-point halftime deficit to go on a run behind heroics from Wooga Poplar to knot the score at 88-88, forcing overtime.
It would take overtime, but the 2024-25 basketball season for Villanova officially ended in Las Vegas on Saturday, following a 104-98 loss to Central Florida.
It was a riveting semifinal game of Fox Sports’ College Basketball Crown tournament; the Wildcats were upended in extras despite a dominant performance from Philly native Wooga Poplar, whose double-double led all Wildcats scorers.
Poplar finished with 32 points and 11 boards and was 11-for-11 from the line. Another dominant performance from Eric Dixon supported him. The graduate guard and nation’s leading scorer finished with 29 points. Enoch Boakye also had himself a day, adding 11 points and 11 boards.
“That was a tough game to go down and finish off our season,” said interim head coach Mike Nardi postgame. “But I got to give a lot of credit to [our guys], they just kept battling. We’d go up, and [UCF] would come back; they just made some tough shots.”
The Wildcats rebounded from a four-point halftime deficit to go on a run behind the heroics of Poplar to knot the score at 88-88, forcing overtime. However, clutch shooting from the line from UCF’s Darius Johnson would help the Knights pull away and secure a date against Nebraska in tomorrow’s championship game (5:30 p.m., Fox29). Johnson led all scorers with a 42-point effort and was a one-man show for UCF, scoring 10 of his total in overtime.
“Darius Johnson is a big, big time guard,” continued Nardi. “He really hurt us a lot tonight as you can see what he finished with [scoring-wise], so you got to give a lot of credit to him and [UCF head] coach [Johnny] Dawkins. They really brought it.”
In the second semifinal game on Saturday, it was the Cornhuskers who downed Boise State, 79-69.
Despite the loss, Villanova’s consolation is a split of a $50,000 payday for its players for making it to the semifinal. The bonus of playing in the Crown was a three-way split of a $500,000 purse distributed to players for their name, image and likeness in the tournament. The winner of Sunday’s final will receive $300,000 and the runner-up will split $100,000.
While Villanova’s season ends on the floor of the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, it appears bright as the program has already hired former Maryland head coach Kevin Willard to replace Kyle Neptune, who was fired in March after three lackluster seasons by Villanova’s standards at the helm.
Willard will be formally introduced during a press conference on Villanova’s campus on Wednesday and will have the immediate task of finding players to replace a number of outgoing players due to graduation, mainly Dixon, who led the nation in scoring this season with 23.1 points per game.
The first stop for Villanova? A rummage through the NCAA’s transfer portal, which at last count had over 1,500 hopefuls looking to land at new schools next season. The transfer portal, which opened on March 24, closes at midnight on Tuesday, April 22.
» READ MORE: New Villanova coach Kevin Willard on moving on from Maryland, working the transfer portal, Jay Wright, and more
As for Nardi? No regrets, given what he accomplished as the man in charge in just a few short weeks, whether he’s a part of Willard’s plans or not.
“This isn’t about me, it’s about this program,” Nardi said. “I was fortunately put in this position to coach this team, and these guys have been great. I just told them in the locker room that I’m proud of them. I’m proud of the men they’ve become and they just kept battling … no matter what the outside expectations were. I think that says a lot about who we are at Villanova.”