Villanova in the Pros: Saddiq Bey Continues Career Year

Villanova Men’s Basketball product Saddiq Bey continued the best scoring season of his five-year NBA career on Thursday, Feb. 26, erupting for 42 points and seven assists on 14-of-20 shooting in the New Orleans Pelicans’ 129-118 win over the Utah Jazz.

That’s the second-highest scoring output of Bey’s career — he dropped 51 points in a March 2022 game with the Detroit Pistons — and is his fourth time clearing the 30-point barrier in the past five weeks. Bey is averaging 17.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game this season, doing a little bit of everything for New Orleans. A first round pick of the Brooklyn Nets in 2020, Bey spent two seasons on the Main Line, starting 60 games.

He attended Sidwell Friends High School in Washington, D.C., the alma mater of Villanova legend Josh Hart and current Wildcat Acaden Lewis. Elsewhere around the NBA Collin Gillespie, one of Bey’s teammates at Villanova, is enjoying a breakout season with the Phoenix Suns, who signed him to a one-year “prove it” deal this offseason after he broke into their lineup in early 2025.

The “Villanova Knicks” trio of Hart, All-Star Game starter Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges, each of whom won at least one national championship with the Wildcats, hold the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference and seem poised for another deep playoff run; Donte DiVincenzo, the 2018 Final Four Most Outstanding Player, has started 59 of 60 games for the Timberwolves after coming off the bench last season.