Villanova Basketball 2021-22 Player Recap: Angelo Brizzi

The breakdown

In the early stages of the 2021-22 season, Jay Wright mentioned that the plan was to redshirt Angelo Brizzi, but the team didn’t want to officially declare that, just in case he would be needed in the event of freak injuries and accidents.

As the season went on, it was made official and the 6-foot-3 freshman guard spent his first year as a redshirt. He learned from the likes of Collin Gillespie, Justin Moore and those ahead of him.

Brizzi’s growth and development took place behind the scenes.

Looking ahead

Brizzi was the final commit and the last piece in his freshman class. Although he wasn’t the highest-rated of the quartet, the Warrenton, Va. native had a great high school career at Highland, where was able to rack up 20 offers before picking Villanova.

His senior year was impacted the most by the COVID-19 pandemic, limiting Highland to just 11 games. Brizzi made the most of his time though, scoring 21.6 points and 7.1 assists per game, and earning conference MVP and first-team all-state honors for the second straight year.

His strengths were his shooting and scoring ability, something that we’ll have to wait until next season to see on display. According to Brizzi, he also enjoys doing the things “not everybody likes to do” — so there will be plenty of hustle plays and dives for loose balls.

It's hard to exactly predict what how big his impact will be, but he'll definitely get to make his debut next season, where he'll play a bigger role and show off what he's learned and how he's grown.

Could Brizzi be the next Wildcat to enjoy some post-redshirt year magic?