By JACOB POLACHECK
CHAMBLEE, Ga. – After their attempt to repeat as national champions was thwarted on Saturday, the Villanova Wildcats are ready to re-load with a four-man recruiting class that includes McDonald’s All-Americans Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Bryan Antoine.
“We’re going to be something special to watch,” said the 6-foot-4 Antoine at media day Tuesday. “I’m here with Jeremiah [Robinson-Earl]. Jeremiah and I have had the same coach since freshman year, so the chemistry is already there.”
Antoine also made it clear that the duo have a great relationship off the court.
“It’s crazy,” said Antoine. “We text each other every day. We FaceTime and snapchat each other. It’s very cool.”
The pair will have their first opportunity to play alongside each other under the bright lights in Wednesday’s McDonald’s All-American Game (7 p.m., ESPN2), as they will both represent the West Team.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” said Robinson-Earl. “I feel like we’re real comfortable with each other. This is one of the first times we’ve played with each other on the same team, but I feel like we already have that chemistry. It’s going to be a lot of fun next year.”
In addition to Antoine and Robinson-Earl, Villanova’s 2019 class also consists of four-star prospects Justin Moore and Eric Dixon.
“Justin and Eric are great,” said Antoine. “I played with Eric on the AAU circuit, so I’m comfortable with him. I got to know Justin after he committed. The freshmen coming in are going to be crazy.”
In a relatively down year for Villanova, the Wildcats were still able to finish with a 26-10 record (13-5 Big East), winning both the regular season and Big East tournament championship.
They will lose redshirt seniors Phil Booth and Eric Paschall, but returns a key core including Collin Gillespie, Jermaine Samuels, Saddiq Bey and Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree.
“We started off kind of slow,” said Antoine on the Wildcats. “But we started to pick it up. It’s very sad that we lost to Purdue. I still think we were a really tough team this year.”
Jersey on Jersey action as Bryan Antoine (5 in black) is matched up against Kahlil Whitney pic.twitter.com/2Z8fLn08fK
— Josh Newman (@Joshua_Newman) March 26, 2019
Big East coaches are already worried about how to defend the high-flying Antoine, who has high expectations for next year’s team.
“I think we’ll be very tough,” he said. “I think we’re going to have some players stay next year, a couple of the juniors who have experience in March Madness. The freshmen coming in will have to lean on them for experience.”
Antoine’s appearance in the McDonald’s All-American Game comes after a “storybook” season which saw him and Florida-bound wing Scottie Lewis lead Ranney (NJ) to their first New Jersey Tournament of Champions title in school history, defeating Bergen Catholic, 67-63.
“Last year, we fell short in the state championship,” he said. “This year, we had a really tough schedule this year and finished it off as TOC champs for the first time ever. No team in our conference has even won TOC, first time in school history. It was a great senior year.”
Photo: McDonald’s All-American Game
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