NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of Pennsylvania of last decade

1. Ryan Arcidiacono – Villanova

Earlier we talked about being cut from the Villanova cloth. Arcidiacono walked so that Gillespie and others after him could run. A 6’3 guard from Langhorne, he perfectly fit what Jay Wright wanted for his Villanova program. Arcidiacono was a four-star prospect who evolved into a top player and helped bring home national glory again for the Wildcats.

He started from the beginning, starting 142 games across his four-year career at Villanova. He averaged 11.9 points and 3.5 assists as a freshman, scoring a career-high 32 points in a win over St. John’s. Arcidiacono remained an important piece for the Wildcats, helping them secure a Big East Tournament title as a junior. But senior year is where the magic happened; with Arcidiacono averaging 12.5 points and 4.2 assists a game for a team that won the national championship. Arcidiacono will forever be remembered for his assist on the championship-winning buzzer-beater by Kris Jenkins.

Arcidiacono was named Big East Player of the Year as a junior and was three times named All-Big East. Clearly what people will remember is that impressive run as a senior, especially since he was named NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player for that 2016 performance. The play of Arcidiacono was so vital and important to the success of Villanova, far exceeding anything that we can share with stats or analytics. He wasn’t drafted but played parts of the last six years in the NBA and in the G-League, including a long run with the Chicago Bulls.

We’ve completed this long look at the best college basketball players of the last ten seasons from the state of Pennsylvania; how do these players compare to some of the other states we’ve already covered?