Category: College Sports

Mike Nardi turned 41 a few weeks ago, and considering he arrived on Villanova‘s campus as an 18-year-old freshman in 2003, played under Jay Wright for four seasons, then joined Wright’s staff in 2015 after seven years playing professionally overseas and remained on the bench through the end of last season, Villanova basketball was basically all Nardi knew for most of his adult life.

He was there in the nascent days of Wright’s dynasty as a player and was back on the bench in time to enjoy the two national championships he laid the groundwork for.

Xfinity Mobile Arena has been the site of many memories. Villanova fans still recite Sean McDonough’s “Nardi for three and the lead” call during an ESPN Big Monday broadcast on Feb. 13, 2006, with reverence. Nardi, who had missed the previous two games with tonsillitis, drilled a transition three-pointer from the right wing in front of the Villanova bench during a 22-4 run that erased a 12-point deficit and gave fourth-ranked Villanova its first win over No. 1 UConn in three years.

A year earlier, the building was where Villanova, during a freshman season that saw Nardi make the All-Big East rookie team, announced its arrival on the national stage with a blowout victory over second-ranked Kansas.

Nardi is returning to that building Saturday night. It’s the latest installment of the Villanova-UConn rivalry (5:30 p.m., FOX). But Nardi will be on the visitor’s bench, and he’d like nothing more than to prevent Villanova from getting its best win of the season over his fifth-ranked Huskies.

“I had a great experience, but the emotions for me now are, ‘Hey, it’s competition,’” said Nardi, who was hired by Dan Hurley to be an assistant coach after Villanova brought in Kevin Willard last year. “I’m competing and I’m at a place where we want to win. The emotions and all of that, I’ve never been a guy to get caught up in that kind of stuff. There’s a task at hand and we want to go there and get a win and that’s the most important thing.”

Nardi already got some of those feelings, if there were any to begin with, out of the way during Villanova’s trip to Connecticut in January. He caught up with Ashley Howard, JayVaughn Pinkston, and Nick DePersia, the only holdovers from Kyle Neptune’s staff; longtime radio voice Whitey Rigsby; athletic director Eric Roedl; and longtime sports information director Mike Sheridan. Then it was all business. Villanova was Nardi’s scouting assignment for each of the matchups this season. He exchanged his pleasantries, said his hellos, and then he helped coach a UConn overtime victory.

“I was sad to see it end, but I landed in a place where, again, it’s like the standard of college basketball,” Nardi said. “I’m working for another Hall of Fame coach, a guy who has won at every level. For me, it’s a great learning experience because I played at Villanova, I coached at Villanova, and besides going overseas and seeing different systems and playing for other coaches, I really haven’t had a chance to branch out and see a different system and learn the game a different way.”

If it were up to Nardi, this story probably wouldn’t be written. He returned a reporter’s call Friday in part, he said, out of respect for Villanova. He doesn’t want Saturday night to be about anything more than UConn trying to go on the road against a good team in a tough environment and get a win in its pursuit of a Big East regular season title.

“I don’t want to make this about me,” he said. “It’s really not Mike Nardi and coming back to Villanova. This is about UConn and Villanova. That’s what’s most important to me.”

It didn’t take very long to get over being on the other side of the rivalry despite all his history with it. The good and the bad. He made that crucial three to earn his first win over UConn in 2006, then watched the meaningful portion of the 2024-25 season end at the hands of Hurley in the Big East tournament, only to have his friend, Neptune, fired a few days later.

Nardi respects winning, he said, and respects excellence. He always viewed Connecticut in that light, from Jim Calhoun’s teams to Hurley’s. It was a good landing spot for him for basketball reasons and because Hurley, he said, respected everything Nardi was about, from playing for St. Patrick High School in New Jersey against Hurley’s father’s St. Anthony, to playing and coaching in the rivalry.

Nardi wasn’t asked to stay by Willard, he said, and never expected to be.

“I never felt slighted. I never felt a certain way,” Nardi said. “I kind of knew there was a slim chance of me being asked to stay. And that was OK. I didn’t take that the wrong way. I think I’m good at what I do. I think I could’ve been an asset, but I never ever looked at it like this is messed up, why aren’t you keeping me? That’s not how this works.”

Hurley, meanwhile, thought Nardi could be an asset in Connecticut. The Huskies are 24-3 after a Wednesday night home loss to Creighton, and they’re pursuing a third national title in four seasons. Villanova, meanwhile, is 21-5, 12-3 in the Big East, and in line to snap a three-season NCAA Tournament drought.

Nardi was happy, he said, that Willard got the job. He wanted the school to hire someone who cared about the program, and Willard fits that description. Part of him is happy to see Villanova back in the mix, but he’s not watching Villanova games in his free time with his old No. 12 jersey draped over his shoulders.

“It’s good to see them doing well,” Nardi said. “It’s obviously good for the league. I think that’s a big piece of it. But I’d be lying to you if I said I was rooting for them. I don’t root for anybody else in the league. I’m rooting for UConn and that’s it.”

If the Melchionni name was not already decorated enough in Villanova history, now it is getting a second chance.

Villanova junior long-stick midfielder Jake Melchionni was a unanimous selection on this year’s All-Big East preseason lacrosse team. Last season, he was named the Big East’s Co-Specialist of the Year — the first Wildcat to ever earn that honor — and to the All-Big East First Team after collecting a team-high 24 forced turnovers, eight goals, three assists, and 49 ground balls.

Sixty years earlier, Melchionni’s grandfather, Bill Melchionni, was a household name in college basketball. He averaged 27.6 points during his senior season on the Main Line and was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1666 National Invitation Tournament (NIT). Villanova retired his No. 25 jersey in 1995.

Melchionni was drafted in the second round of the 1966 NBA draft by the 76ers, with whom he won the 1967 NBA title. He also won two American Basketball Association (ABA) championships with the New York Nets and was a three-time All-Star in the ABA, leading the league in assists three times. With the Nets, he played alongside Ricky Barry and Julius Erving.

Jake Melchionni, who also wore No. 25 the past two seasons, has the opportunity to carry on his family’s name at Villanova, but this time on the lacrosse field. He remembers going to Villanova basketball games as a kid with his grandfather. The school has since held a special place for him.

“Just kind of growing up around the Villanova basketball culture with his friends, Coach [Jay] Wright is obviously a good friend of his, always seeing him,” Melchionni said. “And he’s obviously the biggest Villanova person that I know. So I think when I was getting recruited, it’s just knowing that there are people who really love and care about this place. It’s just such a special thing to me.”

Bill Melchionni is partially to credit for his family’s involvement in lacrosse. When Bill was playing in the American Basketball Association (ABA) for the New York Nets, he and his family lived on Long Island, one of the most popular lacrosse hotbeds in the country.

“When my grandpa was playing for them, it was the New York Nets,” Jake Melchionni said. “They were living in Garden City, N.Y., which is Long Island, which is obviously the lacrosse powerhouse. So my dad played lacrosse [at] not too young an age, but has played pretty much his whole life. I played hockey and soccer and a couple other sports from a young age, but it’s always really been lacrosse at the forefront.”

Melchionni grew up playing lacrosse in Bernardsville, N.J., after picking up the sport from his parents, Christina and Keith Melchionni. His father played Division I lacrosse at Duke, while his mother played at Trinity.

Melchionni’s father was also a long-stick midfielder.

“He was an All-American at Duke,” Melchionni said.” He obviously knows the game better than anyone. So I think obviously some parents like to give advice to kids and sports, and even lacrosse and stuff like that, but just having a dad who played the same position and knows that position really well, he knows the little things that I did wrong, the little things that I did right. It’s just so easy from a young age to lean on him and just always have him in my corner after games and before games.”

The first time Bill Melchionni saw Keith play lacrosse, he was stunned.

“I never saw a lacrosse game until [Jake’s dad played],” Bill Melchionni said. “So his dad didn’t start playing lacrosse until ninth grade. And I had never seen the game. I had no idea about the game, but I remember the first time I went to see him play, I said to him, ‘This is nuts.’ I mean, these guys are out [there] whacking each other over sticks and stuff, and the goalie’s got no protection.”

It was a large contrast from basketball, which Bill Melchionni is all too comfortable with. However, it did not stop him from supporting his family in playing lacrosse.

“My grandpa, he’s a massive supporter of mine,” Jake Melchionni said. “I pretty much talk to him every day and definitely after every game and stuff like that. And it’s just really fun.”

Recently, the two were seen in the crowd for Villanova basketball’s game against Seton Hall on Feb. 4, where they were shown on the video board during the second half.

“When he comes back, he’s really respected at basketball games,” Melchionni said. “So that’s really cool to see. And it’s definitely something that I think is really cool.”.

With most of the season still in front of the team, Villanova men’s lacrosse coach Mike Corrado saw a large improvement from Melchonni in his sophomore year and expects the same this season.

“He plays long-stick middie, which is kind of a unique position,” Corrado said. “And I’ve coached a long time, and we’ve had some great ones, and they’re usually great with sticks.

“They’re usually really good off the ground. They’re usually very good at transition. And a lot of times, they aren’t the most studious with six-on-six basic base core defensive principles. I would say the area that Jake has improved in the most is his ability to operate in the six-on-six defense. They have the ball, and we’re on defense, and we got to try to stop them. And so he’s definitely improved in that area.”

Villanova is coming off back-to-back seasons where they lost in the Big East championship game. Melchionni and the Wildcats (1-1) will look to get past that obstacle and earn their way into the NCAA Tournament this time around.

“The Big East tournament, Big East championship is number one on our list,” Melchionni said. “But it’s deeper than that, I know it’s a little cliché to say, but it’s really just focusing on one game. Just the step ahead. I just think it’s getting 1% better every day.”