Villanova’s Nardi to be inducted into Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame

Former four-year starter, and current assistant coach, Mike Nardi is going to be enshrined in the Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame.

On Tuesday, it was announced that the 2007 graduate will be joining 44 other Villanova athletes that have been named to the Big 5 Hall of Fame since its inception in 1973.

Of the bunch, 28 of the 44 Villanova Big 5 Hall of Famer athletes were men’s basketball players. Nardi will become No. 29, joining recent Villanova Basketball inductees George Raveling (2017), Randy Foye (2017), Curtis Sumpter (2018), and the 1985 National Championship Team.

Throughout his career on the Main Line, Nardi amassed 1,306 career points and 423 assists. He was a part of head coach Jay Wright’s first Villanova NCAA Tournament teams, making it to the Sweet 16 in 2005 and then the Elite Eight in 2006. Over his final two years at ‘Nova, the Wildcats won back-to-back outright Big 5 titles.

Nardi went on to enjoy a professional career overseas for nine years, before coming back to join Wright’s staff for the 2015-16 season.

He will be a part of a 2019 Big 5 Hall of Fame class that also features Fran Dunphy, who was a head coach for the last three decades between Penn and Temple, Saint Joseph’s women’s basketball head coach Jim Foster, and former La Salle and Temple AD Bill Bradshaw. It also features former standout Big 5 basketball players like Temple women’s basketball player Kamesha Hairston, La Salle men’s basketball player Steve Smith, and Penn great Mark Zoller.

They will be honored at the Big 5 annual awards banquet on April 15.