Villanova Basketball sets 2017 Hoops Mania for Saturday September 30th

Look at you, Villanova. Getting in on the Summer Friday news dump. Except this is actual, exciting news! Hoops Mania will be in September this year, about a month earlier than previous iterations.

No time or venue has been announced, but if I had to venture a guess I would say the event will be held in the evening at the Wells Fargo Center. With the Pavilion under construction, Nevin Fieldhouse has been floated as an option, but it is clearly not big enough to house the entire student body and Jay Wright has made a big deal about including all - and only - students during his tenure.

The WFC is not (currently) scheduled to host a 76ers, Flyers or concert on that day, and the event has historically been held at night. That would give the school plenty of time to bus students downtown and back. The additional capacity (ahem) would allow regular fans into the event as well and give the school the opportunity to generate revenue off an event many fans have wanted to attend in the past (double-ahem).

Hoops Mania is typically the biggest recruiting event of the year as well, and while the event will be held earlier than usual it may allow Villanova to get their current class targets on campus.

Cole Swider has an official visit to use, as does Brandon Slater. And while Jalen Carey is scheduled to be at Kansas that weekend (he’s reportedly coming to ‘Nova the weekend before), David Duke hasn’t set any official visits yet.

Expect a big number of 2019 and 2020 prospects as well.