The impossible task building Villanova’s Mount Rushmore since 2000

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SAN ANTONIO, TX - APRIL 02: Jalen Brunson #1 of the Villanova Wildcats reacts in the first half against the Michigan Wolverines during the 2018 NCAA Men's Final Four National Championship game at the Alamodome on April 2, 2018 in San Antonio, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) | Getty Images

Building a Mount Rushmore for Villanova basketball post-2000 is mostly just an exercise in making everyone mad (even though that’s not the point of this article).

When a program wins two national championships and makes four Final Fours in under two decades, a top-four list becomes an impossible math problem. How do you weigh rings against talent, or foundational legacy against peak dominance?

Chiseling just four faces means leaving off players who would have statues built for them at almost any other school. It’s a brutal process, and something tells me your list is probably completely different from mine.

But lines have to be drawn somewhere. Here are the four pillars of modern Villanova basketball. Bring on the disagreements.

Jalen Brunson

There is zero room for debate here. Brunson is the absolute apex of the modern era. The 2018 National Player of the Year operated with a level of poise and footwork that flipped college basketball on its head. He anchored the 2018 squad through arguably the most dominant tournament run in modern college basketball history.

Two rings, consensus player of the year—he’s the first name on the mountain.

Josh Hart

If you need to explain Villanova’s identity to an outsider, just show them tape of Josh Hart. He was a 6-foot-5 guard/wing/forward who routinely out-rebounded opposing bigs and defended elite wings like his life depended on it.

As the competitive engine of the 2016 title team, Hart brought a specific edge that defined that entire locker room. He won Big East Player of the Year, won a championship, and never took a single possession off. If there were an Effort Hall of Fame, Hart would be one of the first inductees.

Ryan Arcidiacono

This is where the debate is going to start, but Arch belongs on this mountain. People tend to forget that before the 2016 breakthrough, Villanova went through a brutal identity crisis in the early-to-mid 2010s (just in time for me to arrive on campus).

Arcidiacono was the local kid who steadied the ship and dragged the program back to elite status after three years of underwhelming basketball. A four-year captain — the only player in program history to do so — his legacy was immortalized by making the selfless underhand pass to Kris Jenkins for the championship-winning shot of the century.

You cannot write the history of the modern program without him.

Randy Foye

The final spot is where the true arguments begin. Do you go with a championship cornerstone like Mikal Bridges or a two-time Big East Player of the Year like Collin Gillespie? What about Scottie Reynolds? To be fair to history, this spot must belong to the pioneer who started it all: Randy Foye.

Before the 2016 rings existed, Foye was the standard-bearer. His spectacular 2005-06 season — where he won Big East Player of the Year and became a Consensus First-Team All-American — put Nova back on the map. He proved that Jay Wright’s guard-centric blueprint could dominate at the highest level, laying the foundation for everyone else on this mountain.

Honorable Mentions

• Scottie Reynolds: His coast-to-coast layup against Pittsburgh in 2009 broke the Elite Eight curse and sent Wright to his very first Final Four. He remains the program’s No. 3 all-time scorer with 2,222 points.
• Mikal Bridges: The ultimate development success story. He went from a skinny redshirt freshman to a lottery pick and a two-time national champion. His elite defense and consistent sharpshooting on those title teams was massive.
• Collin Gillespie: The direct heir to the Arch/Brunson lineage. He won a championship in 2018, won two Big East Player of the Year awards, and dragged the 2022 team to a Final Four appearance on sheer will.

Also shoutout to Eric Dixon, Malik Wayns, Daniel Ochefu, JayVaughn Pinkston, and Dante Cunningham… and so many others. I mean, I could go on forever…

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