Villanova Basketball’s Hoops Mania Will Be More Team Focused

Happy Monday Nova Nation! I hope you all had a great weekend, but if you didn’t I’ve got some good news. As of today, we can kick off the 50 day countdown to the start of a new college basketball season! What’s even better than that? We’re just four weeks away from the Blue/White scrimmage. I can’t wait!

Speaking of the start of the season, there’s been a lot of buzz around this year’s Hoops Mania. Specifically, the administration has decided not to invite a “celebrity performer”, aka musical guest, to the festivities. The school’s public reasoning is that they want the focus to be on last season’s success and the opening of the newly renovated stadium. While I get that those are important, a lot of students and fans have voiced their disappointment with this decision.

I’ll admit my gut reaction was that the University was just trying to find a way to avoid the issues they’ve run into with past performers, specifically French Montana last year. However, the more I think about it, the more this makes sense.

Villanova only started bringing in outside performers in 2006, and they’ve had some pretty big names over the past decade. But this event isn’t a free concert for the students, it’s a basketball promotional event. It really should be all about basketball. Not only do fans get the chance to celebrate the accomplishments from the previous year, but it’s part of the selling point of Villanova Basketball. Literally.

When it boils down to it, this is the biggest recruiting event on Nova’s calendar. It’s an opportunity to get elite recruits on campus and spending time with the players and staff. Want to know how important Hoops Mania can be? It’s the reason Ryan Arcidiacono decided to attend Villanova over Florida. Sure there was more involved in that recruitment than one night, but Hoops Mania was the night he decided he wanted to choose Villanova. And no, it wasn’t because Drake performed that year. Ok, maybe a little bit, but mostly it was the focus on basketball.

The point is, Villanova Basketball needs to be the center of attention that night and not just the opening act. I’m interested to see what else the school and team come up with, but I think this is the right move for the program and the fanbase. Who knows, maybe Drake will show up anyway.

In other “news”, ESPN is putting Nova vs Kansas on at 11AM local ($%@&!), recruiting updates, and more. Enjoy!

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