What to watch for: Villanova Basketball’s Recruiting effort in July Live Period

Entering the first July Live Period - which begins on Wednesday at 5pm ET and ends Sunday at 5pm ET - with two verbal commitments and a Top-10 class must have the Villanova Wildcats basketball staff feeling pretty good. While many coaches will spend July traveling far and wide to ‘show love’ to a vast array of prospects, Jay Wright and Co. can focus on a select few.

Having already secured a pair of wings in Brandon Slater and Cole Swider means that there are only four players left in the class of 2018 that hold an offer and are being actively recruited.

Expect to see the staff tracking Jahvon Quinerly, Elijah Weaver, David Duke and Cameron Reddish this month, but more time than usual may be allocated to advance scouting and evaluation for the next couple of classes.

Here’s what is on the docket this week, and the targets Villanova will likely be watching (H/T to Adam Zagoria for a lot of new names).

Nike Peach Jam / Peach Invitational - North Augusta, S.C./Augusta, Ga.

The biggest event of the summer actually doesn’t occur in Georgia as the North section of Augusta lies on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River (the more you know!), but the Peach Invitational (for the non-Jam eligible teams and younger age groups) occurs in in the Peach State.

Being a Nike school, the biggest of Nike events will always get ‘Nova representation. It helps that both verbals are in the event meaning that we’ll get the ever-important babysitter role all weekend.

Perhaps the most interesting storyline comes with Reddish’s Team Final. They’re in a play-in game Wednesday afternoon vs. Nike Team Florida. Reddish and Louis King are en route back from USA Basketball’s overseas trip and might be gassed. If they lose, they’ll spend the weekend at the Peach Invitational.

2018

4-star SG Brandon Slater

4-star SF Cole Swider

5-star SF Cameron Reddish

4-star PF Jake Forrester

2019

5-star PG Cole Anthony

5-star PG Andrew Nembhard

4-star PG Bryce Willis

4-star C Kofi Cockburn

4-star PG Jalen Lecque

4-star C Aidan Igiehon

4-star CG Al-Amir Dawes

4-star CG Paul Mulcahy

2020

5-star SG Jalen Green

PG Lynn Greer III

PF Mikeal Jones

UAA Finals — Atlanta, Ga.

I was actually going to try and attend this on Wednesday night, and then I realized the event is actually in Cartersville (about an hour Northwest of Atlanta) and between work and having an infant I just couldn’t make it work.

The headline for me is a Quinerly vs. Weaver matchup on Wednesday evening to start things off, though there is a boatload of local talent in the 2019 class that Villanova has been involved with. I’d expect Jay Wright and his staff to have a presence at this event all week given the importance of landing a point guard in 2018 and the names playing in the latter classes.

2018

5-star PG Jahvon Quinerly

4-star PG Elijah Weaver

2019

5-star SG Scottie Lewis

5-star CG Bryan Antoine

4-star SG Isaiah Wong

4-star SF Donta Scott

4-star SF Precious Achiuwa

4-star PF Eric Dixon

SF Seth Lundy

2020

4-star SF Jabri Abdur-Rahim

adidas Gaunlet Finale - Spartanburg, S.C.

Villanova has extended three offers to players in this event - Duke, Bacot and Kirkwood. I wouldn’t necessarily expect Villanova to skip this event outright given that they do seem to be heavily in the mix with Duke but the depth of prospects just isn’t there - and historically hasn’t been for Villanova’s recruiting effort.

2018

4-star PG David Duke

2019

4-star PF Armando Bacot

SG Noah Kirkwood

2020

PF Isaiah Todd