Villanova touches down in Rome for college basketball season opener and papal audience

AI Summary

Villanova’s men’s and women’s basketball teams arrived in Rome ahead of a season-opening doubleheader against Notre Dame. Coach Kevin Willard said the university has a responsibility to represent Pope Leo XIV, a Villanova alumnus, during the trip.

ROME (AP) — It hit Villanova coach Kevin Willard early Thursday morning when he got off the charter flight that carried the university’s men’s and women’s teams to Rome for Sunday’s season-opening college basketball doubleheader against Notre Dame.Villanova, Willard believes, has a responsibility to represent Pope Leo XIV, who graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from the Augustinian school near Philadelphia.