How Villanova is balancing a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ trip to Rome with an important season opener
There’s a balance to strike this weekend in Rome. Kevin Willard wants his team to make the most of the experience, but it's also a “business trip.”
ROME — The team bus didn’t arrive downtown at the team hotel from Fiumicino airport until well after midnight early Thursday morning. Villanova was a little delayed leaving Philadelphia Wednesday, and there are a lot of logistics at play with two teams and many more staff members, administrators, and others on a chartered flight.
The men’s basketball team pushed Thursday’s practice back an hour, and the players were still a little bleary-eyed as they climbed the steps outside the multi-sport PalaFonte facility where they practiced in Rome’s southeast.
The Wildcats, who received multiple votes in the initial Associated Press Top 25 poll this season, open their 2026-27 season Sunday here vs. Notre Dame, and there’s a lot more going on besides the basketball. The team will attend a mass Saturday morning given by Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez before moving over to the St. Paul VI Audience Hall, where Pope Leo XIV, the most famous Villanova alum, is expected to host an audience of thousands.
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There wasn’t time for much sightseeing between the late arrival and Thursday’s practice. The Wildcats practice again on Friday, but head coach Kevin Willard said a visit to the famed Spanish Steps was also on the docket. But he wasn’t sure if there would be time for a full experience at the Colosseum.
There’s a balance to strike this week in Rome, Willard said, and it’s a “difficult” one.
“This is one of my favorite cities in all of the world,” he said. “There’s so much history here and it’s such a cool city, but at the same point, we play Holy Cross three days later when we get back. We’re here to play a game so it’s still a business trip, but we’re going to do our best to make sure they have an unbelievable experience.”
Cornell transfer Jake Fiegen, a fourth-year guard, said the Colosseum looked cool when the team bus drove by it before practice Thursday. There will be time to enjoy some of the trip, but there’s also an understanding that Sunday is an important non-conference game.
“It’s a long way to come for a game, so you want to make it count,” Fiegen said. “Obviously we want to win and make the trip kind of complete, but it’s also, I think, a great team-bonding experience.”
Willard was asked Thursday if he felt any extra pressure to win on Sunday given that the pope is a Villanova alumnus. He conceded that he did.
“At first I didn’t think it was going to be that big of a deal,” Willard said. “But when we landed you understand he is our best alumni and most notable alumni. I would say he’s the most famous person on earth.”
The gravity of that part, Willard said, doesn’t appear to have sunk in on his entire roster.
» READ MORE: Back home in Italy, Villanova center Luigi Suigo braces for his first college basketball game
“I think this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and my goal is that when they’re 50 years old they sit back and tell their kids they had this opportunity,” he said.
“I’m Catholic so for me it’s going to be something that’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Just to have mass in St. Peter’s Basilica is something that most people don’t get to experience. So just from that standpoint it is amazing.”
Luigi Suigo, a native of Italy, said he isn’t religious but knows an audience with the pope is a big deal.
Fiegen, meanwhile, said it’s “an honor” to represent Villanova, the pope, and the university community this weekend.
Plus, it’s not hard to know who the pope will be rooting for, even if he’s not attending the game itself.
“It’s crazy to hear and hard to process,” Fiegen said when reminded of the pope’s basketball fandom. “But we’re very excited to have the opportunity to possibly meet him.
“It’s crazy the things that basketball has led us to do. To be able to come here and maybe meet the Pope, it’s just an unreal experience.”
How did we get here, with Villanova and Notre Dame opening the men’s and women’s college basketball seasons in Italy a day before the rest of the country?
Willard said Thursday that he was having beers with Fox Sports executive vice president Jordan Bazant last year when the idea came up. Pope Leo XIV is a Villanova alum, which made for an easy excuse and a marketable event even if a small percentage of both guys were looking for an excuse to have wine and pasta in Rome, Willard joked.
“From a beer to this has been amazing,” Willard said.
