The Villanova Wildcats are actually proudly represented in Manhattan and Vatican Metropolis.
After Thursday’s Conclave within the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, the world discovered that the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, previously Cardinal Robert Prevost, graduated from Villanova College, the basketball-obsessed college simply outdoors Philadelphia, in 1977.
Villanova later produced Knicks stars Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart, who rose to fame on the hardwood many years after the pope’s time on campus.
“Real cool,” Brunson informed reporters on Friday. “I’m just happy that we’re getting noticed for being a good school.”
Through the interval surrounding Pope Leo’s earlier time on campus, the Wildcats males’s basketball staff, then coached by Steve Lappas, made NCAA Event appearances in 1995, 1996 and 1997 however by no means made it previous the second spherical.
In 2025, Villanova stands alone as the one college within the nation with a pope and a number of nationwide championships, one delivered by Brunson, Bridges and Hart in 2015-16 beneath former head coach Jay Wright, and one other by Brunson and Bridges in 2017-18.
“Yeah, now they can be forgiven for their sins,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau joked.
Pope Leo XIV’s set up in Rome has Knicks followers viewing this season’s playoff success by way of a divine lens. Whether or not in jest or earnest, some now declare the 2024-25 staff is one in all future. Memes and photoshopped photos of the pope with the Knicks have gone viral on-line.
Even Knicks superfan Spike Lee has drawn parallels. The fan-driven narrative is, if nothing else, hilarious.
Brunson, like Pope Leo, is a Villanova grad from Chicago, however the All-Star guard wasn’t occupied with connecting the dots. As an alternative, apart from just a few laughs with native reporters, he stayed centered on the duty at hand: serving to the Knicks construct on their 2-0 sequence lead over the Boston Celtics.
The Knicks overcame 20-point deficits in Video games 1 and a couple of, a feat some would possibly see as divine intervention. They’ll proceed their pursuit of their first NBA championship since 1973 on Saturday at Madison Sq. Backyard.
“It’s really cool for [Pope Leo] and I’m happy for him,” Brunson mentioned. “But I’m a little focused right now.”
