In the old college landscape, the players at the end of the bench were walk-ons. Nowadays, those spots are more often consisting of scholarship players from lower-level conferences. Villanova has a mix of those two for its final three roster spots.
For the “old ways,” Villanova veteran Wade Chiddick is back for his third year with the Wildcats. The 6’4” graduate student did not appear in a regular season game in his first season. In his first year under Kevin Willard, Chiddick not only appeared in two games, but he scored in both as well. Chiddick totaled three points, going 3/4 from the free-throw line.
The “new way” brings in former Towson big man Abdou Samb and former Bucknell guard Brady Muller. Samb, a 6’8” redshirt senior, has been a part of the rotation at each of his previous stops. In his freshman season Samb played in 30 games for Rhode Island (starting 17), averaging 3.6 points per game. At his next stop, Samb played in 30 games for IU-Indianapolis, starting 20 of them. His 6.4 points and 3.3 rebounds were career-highs that year. For his past two seasons, Samb played in a total of 41 games (starting 10) for Towson. In the 2025-26 campaign, Samb only appeared in seven games due to a leg injury.
For Muller, coming to Villanova is a family affair. Muller’s sister, father and mother are all former Wildcat athletes. Muller’s sister, Tori, played soccer, his father, Tim, played basketball for Rollie Massimino and his mother, Shauna, was on the rowing team. The graduate student appeared in 31 games for the Bison over the past two seasons, but he only averaged 3.9 and 4.6 minutes per game respectively. Muller made his Villanova debut this past Saturday against George Mason, playing one minute without recording a stat.
The expectation for all three of these players should be that they only see the floor in games that have been decided. The good news is that should be the case for Villanova more often this year, given the upgrade in talent and experience. Chiddick provides more than we will ever know behind closed doors, and the fans let him know that whenever he gets on the floor. Muller has more collegiate experience at a quality Patriot-League school in Bucknell, but he’s best viewed in a similar fashion to Chiddick. And as for Samb, he was the only one of these three who played in both exhibition games. Samb grabbed one rebound in roughly seven minutes played in each contest. He has the size to be used in a pinch, which may be needed given both Kwame Evans Jr. and Matt Hodge’s injuries. It seems like Evans Jr. will be fine for opening day, but Hodge is trending towards needing more time while he recovers from ACL surgery. Ideally though, all three of these players make unquantifiable contributions in practice, while only appearing in games that are out of reach.
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