Category: Villanova

Villanova receiver Luke Colella and left guard Temi Ajirotutu have declared for the 2026 NFL draft.

“This journey has been filled with hard work, sacrifice, adversity, and growth,” Colella wrote in his announcement on Wednesday. “Every setback and every challenge made me stronger and taught a valuable lesson. With faith in God, gratitude for everyone who has supported me, and confidence in the work I’ve put in, I am proud to officially declare for the 2026 NFL Draft.”

Colella transferred to Villanova from Princeton for his final year of eligibility. He finished with a team-leading 77 receptions for 1,071 yards and eight touchdowns with the Wildcats.

At Princeton, he collected 93 receptions for 1,188 yards and 11 touchdowns across three seasons.

Ajirotutu, a graduate student, played his entire five-year college career at Villanova. He emerged as a starter in 2022 and was named third team All-CAA in 2023.

Last season, Ajirotutu played in four games before missing the remainder of the year with a medical redshirt. He earned an honorable mention on the AP FCS All-America team this past season, when he played in all 15 games.

With the help of Colella and Ajirotutu, Villanova made an appearance in the FCS semifinals for the first time since 2010. The Wildcats fell to Illinois State, 30-14.

The last Villanova player to get drafted was Buffalo Bills cornerback Christian Benford, who was selected in the sixth round in 2022.

The 2026 NFL Scouting Combine will take place on Feb. 23 to March 2, and this year’s draft will be held April 23-25 in Pittsburgh.

Mike Tollin received an ovation for his documentary film about the life of George Raveling after a Wednesday night showing on Villanova’s campus. But the best part of the Havertown native’s night may have been meeting and snapping a photo with former guard Fran O’Hanlon, one of his “Villanova heroes.”

Tollin’s love for Villanova hoops is one of the main reasons he chose to direct Unraveling George, a 90-minute documentary that profiles Raveling. He was a player and assistant coach at Villanova before he rose to prominence as a head coach at Washington State, Iowa, and Southern California. After his coaching career, Raveling joined Nike as a marketing executive.

Nike and Villanova staged a screening of Tollin’s film before Wednesday night’s game between the Wildcats and Georgetown at the Finneran Pavilion.

The screening was preceded by a panel conversation with Tollin, a longtime television and film executive who served as the executive producer on the 10-part Michael Jordan docuseries The Last Dance. Former Villanova coach Jay Wright and Larry Miller, president of Jordan Brand at Nike, joined Tollin onstage.

Villanova also honored Raveling during its game against the Hoyas, which the Wildcats won, 66-51. Raveling graduated from Villanova in 1960 and served as an assistant coach under Jack Kraft from 1963 to 1969. He died at age 88 on Sept. 1, 2025. Fans held up newspaper fliers distributed by Nike that read “Thank You, Coach” during the game’s first timeout.

“This team, I’m sure [Villanova coach Kevin Willard] has talked to them about coach Rav, but they would not have gotten to know him,” Wright said during the discussion. “All the other teams, coach Rav would come here, spend time with us, talk to the team. It’s great for them, because these guys are smart guys on this team. They’ll Google him, they’ll read about him and they’ll get to know how important coach Raveling was to Villanova and to the world.”

The idea for Tollin to work on a documentary about Raveling came after the release of Ben Affleck’s AIR in 2023. That film is a fictionalized account of Nike’s pursuit of an endorsement deal with Jordan before his rookie season with the Chicago Bulls in 1984.

Marlon Wayans plays George Raveling in AIR, but the film’s plot suggests that Sonny Vaccaro, played by Matt Damon, was the primary reason Jordan signed with the company. Jordan disputes this in Unraveling George, saying that Raveling, who coached Jordan at the 1984 Olympics, was the first person to pitch Nike to him.

Tollin said a conversation about AIR with William Wesley, executive vice president of the New York Knicks, gave him the inspiration to work on the project.

“He said, ‘Did you see AIR?’” Tollin said. “And I said, ‘Yeah, I enjoyed it.’ He said, ‘Yeah, but we’ve got to tell the real story, and we’ve got to honor George.’”

Wesley introduced Tollin to Raveling at a Los Angeles Clippers game, where Tollin’s childhood admiration for Villanova basketball showed. Tollin, who graduated from Haverford High School in 1973, grew up watching the players Raveling recruited for the Wildcats.

“I sat there and I just gushed,” Tollin said. “I said, ‘You recruited all my first basketball heroes.’ I started naming names like Johnny Jones, like Howard Porter.”

Raveling agreed to be the subject of the documentary, and Tollin got to work on raising funds for the project. The film was completed before Raveling died, and the coach got a chance to see it. Tollin said Wednesday night’s screening at Villanova was “bittersweet.”

“I wish he was here,” Tollin said. “But obviously, I feel his presence. I know how he felt about the film. He loved it. He was grateful. He was just so generous with me.”

The film follows Raveling’s life, from his youth in segregated Washington to his playing career at Villanova, where he was the school’s second Black basketball player, and his coaching career. It details the events that led to Raveling obtaining the original typewritten copy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington in August 1963.

The film also shares Raveling’s time as an assistant coach on Bob Knight’s staff for the 1984 Olympic basketball team, when Raveling formed a relationship with Jordan. It also follows Raveling’s recovery from a 1994 car accident that kept him in intensive care for two weeks and led to his retirement from coaching.

The documentary goes into Raveling’s second career as an executive for Nike. In addition to being responsible for Jordan’s decision to sign with Nike in 1984, Raveling was also instrumental in helping to bring international players like Dirk Nowitzki and Yao Ming to the NBA.

The film features interviews with many significant figures in basketball, including Jordan, Nowitzki, longtime coach Lefty Driesell, Wright, and Nike founder Phil Knight, among others. Wayans provides voice-over narration and sits down for a conversation with Raveling during the film’s credits.

“It was incredible to keep turning over rocks and find more and more layers, and more and more people who love George and wanted to be a part of the storytelling,” Tollin said.

Nike made promotional materials for Wednesday night’s screening at Villanova. Those included embroidered canvas tote bags that read “RAV,” and the fliers, inspired by Raveling’s love for reading the newspaper.

Tollin said when Nike’s team approached him about supporting the film, he wanted the company to help bring it back to Villanova.

“I just knew this would feel like family,” Tollin said. “And it did. This is sort of like the womb, you know? This is like a really warm bath of support and love. … It was critical that we bring the film here, partly because I’m from here and partly because this is [Raveling]’s origin story.”

Unraveling George is not available to stream, although Tollin expects to have more details on where to watch it soon.

The difference isn’t in the adjustments as much as it is the inherent advantage of the location of each team’s bench during the first half, according to Villanova coach Kevin Willard.

Villanova runs its offense in the first half in front of Ed Cooley and Georgetown’s bench, and the Hoyas run their offense in front of Willard and his bench.

“I get to yell their plays out,“ Willard said after Villanova’s 66-51 victory over Georgetown on Wednesday. ”The coaches all know the plays. I’ve watched Georgetown play nine times now. You know when the center is out in the corner, they’re going to run a boomerang. You know when [Malik] Mack’s on the block, it’s going to be an iso.”

Villanova used a 16-1 surge in the first four minutes to blow open just a three-point halftime lead, and there has to be more to it than the orientation of the court. Save for a few games, Saturday’s loss to St. John’s being one of the outliers, Villanova has been a solid second-half team. It entered Wednesday night with a plus-4.1 margin over its opponents in the second half. That ranked 62nd nationally and fourth in the Big East. It is not amazing, but considering there are 365 Division I teams, it’s not nothing.

There is, of course, more to it than Willard’s initial explanation.

Villanova watches a lot of film at halftime. Willard watches the offense to figure out what he wants to call in the second half, but the rest of the staff and team focus on the defensive end. There was a lot to like on that end from the first 20 minutes. It was an ugly opening frame that ended with the teams combining to shoot 15-for-54 (27.8%). Villanova’s offense looked clunky, but the Wildcats forced nine first-half turnovers from a Georgetown team that entered Wednesday on a five-game losing skid but was 15th nationally in turnover percentage.

There was less tactical messaging during the break, too.

“It’s just getting a very young team to understand, it’s all I talked about at halftime, this is Big East play,” Willard said. “They’re a really good, physical defensive team. It’s not going to be easy. We have to rebound and get out. That’s usually all the message is and just cleaning up what we’re struggling with defensively.”

Villanova allowed a 20-4 St. John’s start to the second half Saturday at Xfinity Mobile Arena, but Wednesday, against a lesser opponent that dropped to 1-7 in conference play, was a much different story. Georgetown turned it over four times in the first four minutes of the second half and Villanova finally got out in transition and found cleaner shots.

“That first stretch won us the game,” said Tyler Perkins, who led Villanova with 16 points.

The 16-1 spurt stretched to 29-8 midway through the second half to give Villanova its largest lead, 55-31. The defense that kept Villanova in the game during the first half carried over. The Wildcats held Mack, who averages 13.8 points, to five points on 1-for-14 shooting. The 51 points the Hoyas scored were the fewest by a Villanova opponent this season.

“I think we all knew we’d be better on offense in the second half,” said freshman point guard Acaden Lewis, who had 15 points and a season-high seven rebounds. “That’s kind of what happened. We stayed solid defensively, and the offense came around late.”

Bryce Lindsay, who hit a three-pointer from the edge of the midcourt logo in the second half, and Duke Brennan joined Perkins and Lewis in double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively. It was far from the cleanest offensive night from the Wildcats, who got just nine assists on their 24 makes, far below their season-long assist percentage of 53.7. But it was more than enough against a Georgetown team that Cooley said was “emotionally and physically frustrated” by Villanova in the second half.

“Villanova does what they do,” Cooley said. “They use a ball screen 118 times a game, and they took advantage of that and made some shots.

“This game is all about discipline. It’s all about connection. It’s all about emotional and mental toughness.”

One team had it Wednesday, the other didn’t. One team’s season is spiraling, the other’s continues Saturday afternoon in Hartford, Conn., where it gets another opportunity for a signature win.

The good part about this time of year, Willard said, is that he’s seen about all of his conference opponents on film. No. 2 UConn, he said, has a lot of veteran talent and he loves watching freshman Braylon Mullins, who attempts nearly six three-pointers per game in 26 minutes and is “always hunting.”

Villanova entered Thursday rated 24th at KenPom and 34th at Torvik, two of the primary college basketball metrics sites, and was 33rd in the NCAA’s NET rankings. The Wildcats are on a path to snapping their NCAA Tournament drought of three seasons. But what they don’t have yet is a marquee victory, due respect to Wisconsin and Seton Hall. Each major step up in competition has been met with much resistance.

“Every league game is important,” Lewis said when asked about Saturday. “It’s the same approach, same things we always do.”

If that’s not working early on, there’s always halftime.

For sophomore guard Jasmine Bascoe, Villanova is “right where we want to be” after a 73-65 victory over Butler on Sunday at the Finneran Pavilion.

Bascoe led the way with 22 points and added two rebounds and six assists as Villanova (15-4, 8-2 Big East) maintained its hold on second place in the conference.

The Wildcats trailed by 33-31 at the half but used a productive third quarter to seal another Big East win. In their last outing, they were thumped, 99-50, at No. 1 UConn on Thursday.

“We want to be trailing UConn in the Big East,” Bascoe said. “That’s a great spot for us going into the second half of the league [schedule], and then hopefully the Big East Tournament. … So it’s just continuing to push through.”

Turning it around

Heading into the game, Villanova coach Denise Dillon urged the team to come out stronger after halftime.

Butler (8-11, 2-7) went on a 7-0 run in the final 1 minute, 13 seconds of the second quarter. The Bulldogs kept the game close in the first half with efficient shooting, going 60.9% from the field. Meanwhile, Villanova shot just 34.4% from the field and 16.7% from the three-point range in the half.

“[At halftime,] we just acknowledged that we weren’t playing like ourselves in the first half,” Bascoe said. “And to finish off the game right, we had to come out hard in the third quarter. So, you know, we drew up some plays, we intensified our defense, and then it kind of slowed down from there and we didn’t have to force any shots.”

Carter has her moment

Villanova opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run of its own. Bascoe sank a three-pointer and layup off a Butler turnover. Then, sophomore forward Dani Ceseretti assisted on a layup by junior forward Brynn McCurry.

The Wildcats outscored the Bulldogs, 24-15, in the third quarter and led for the rest of the game.

Graduate forward Denae Carter accounted for 11 of those points, shooting 5-for-7 from the field. She added six points in a scoring burst within the last 1:31 of the quarter.

“This is [Carter’s] final run, and when she realizes it, it just fuels her,” Dillon said. “There’s nothing better for this group. You can even see it in the huddle, when all of a sudden she’s like, ‘I’m ready to go.’ … Denae is one of our top defenders, and when she’s disruptive, good things happen for us.”

With less than four minutes left to play, Carter had to leave the court after she was struck in the face and Butler was charged with a flagrant foul. She finished the game with 15 points and four rebounds.

Next up

Villanova visits St. John’s (15-5, 5-4) on Saturday (2 p.m., FS1).