Big 5 Men’s Basketball
Villanova Reaction: Suigo Stars, Crowd Size Under the Microscope
Villanova Men’s Basketball opened the 2026-27 Big 5 pod play season with an 80-59 win over La Salle on Tuesday, Nov. 10, riding a dominant performance down low from Italian center Luigi Suigo to victory.
The game came with bulletin board material for the Explorers, as Villanova head coach Kevin Willard put the rest of the Big 5 — which the Wildcats will exit next season — on blast in October, specifically criticizing the crowd size at La Salle home games. With the Wildcats hosting this time, opposing fans were quick to note any open seats in the Finneran Pavilion, and Explorers head coach Darris Nichols said after the game that Willard’s comments did bother him “a little bit.”
La Salle managed to keep it close in the first half both because of their own plucky defense and a series of Villanova misses at the rim that created opportunities going the other way, but the Wildcats managed to pull away in the second half.
Here’s the reaction from fans and media in the final meeting between these two teams for the foreseeable future.