How Donte DiVincenzo's Buddy Hield scout helped win a national title at Villanova
10/14/2024 02:01 PM
Former Villanova basketball star Donte DiVincenzo has become one of the NBA’s top role players. He has been coveted my multiple teams in recent years, and was included in the high-profile Karl-Anthony Towns trade last month after a very good playoff run with the New York Knicks in 2024.
Before DiVincenzo became an everyday player in the pros, he was a star at Villanova, winning two National Championships with the Wildcats. He was the Most Outstanding Player of the 2018 Final Four, but he also played a huge role in the 2016 title despite not playing as much.
DiVincenzo’s role as the scout team player in charge of simulating Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield before the Wildcats and Sooners faced off in the Final Four has become legendary in Villanova hoops lore, according to James L. Edwards III of The Athletic.
“‘He was impersonating Buddy so well that we couldn't guard this dude,’ Villanova assistant coach Ashley Howard said on the phone last month,” Edwards wrote on Monday. “Bucket after bucket rained down on the heads of DiVincenzo's teammates, a handful of who would go on to play in the NBA, including Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart. Describing DiVincenzo as unguardable would be disrespectful to what he was actually doing. DiVincenzo deflated his own team's confidence.
‘If we can't guard Donte, we're not going to be able to guard Buddy Hield,’ Howard recalls saying to other coaches. ‘I know Donte is really good, but he just destroyed us in practice. I didn't know if we were ready for Oklahoma.'”
In the Final Four matchup, Hield scored just nine points and Villanova blasted Oklahoma by 44. He was named the Player of the Year in college basketball the next day. Villanova would go on to win the title on Kris Jenkins’ epic buzzer-beater a few nights later against North Carolina.
Villanova basketball gets no votes in preseason AP poll
Villanova basketball has struggled to keep their rich tradition going after the retirement of Jay Wright. They have failed to reach the NCAA Tournament in each of the last two seasons under new head coach Kyle Neptune, and the preseason polls aren’t being very kind to them in 2024-25 either.
The preseason AP top 25 poll was released on Monday. Not only was Villanova not included in the rankings, but they didn’t even receive a single top 25 vote.
The Wildcats still have some talent, with longtime veteran forward Eric Dixon manning the middle and Miami transfer Wooga Poplar on the wing. If those two stars can carry a lot of the load for the supporting cast around them, Neptune still has the type of team that can make a run to the Big Dance in March.
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