As part of the 100^th season of Villanova Basketball (#NovaMBB100), the Nova Notebook will appear with features focused on the Wildcats. In this account we catch up with junior forward Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree.
 
            Nearly three weeks have passed since Villanova's 2019-20 season came to an unexpected halt as the athletic world adapted to the Coronavirus pandemic and the need for social distancing. The 2020 Big East and NCAA Tournaments were cancelled in the span of less than four hours on a Thursday afternoon in March.
 
            The first of those announcements was made just before 1 p.m. on March 12 as the BIG EAST closed down its annual event in New York City. The Wildcats boarded their team bus shortly after 2 p.m. and arrived back on campus at approximately 4:05 p.m. After Head Coach Jay Wright met briefly with Philadelphia area media members, the news came that the NCAA Tournament had announced there also would be no March Madness this month.
 
            Wright gathered his Wildcats in the locker room to inform them of the news.
 
            "I think all of us were hurting when Coach told us in the locker room," stated junior forward Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree who served as a 2019-20 team captain alongside Collin Gillespie and Jermaine Samuels. "As an athlete, it felt like we didn't have a chance to go out on our sword so to speak."
 
            If those early moments were jarring, the perspective offered by what has transpired since that day has been even more sobering. Villanova shut down its campus a few days later in response to the pandemic and pivoted to online studies. The student population returned home and major parts of the northeast corridor transitioned to lockdown status. Staying at home became the new normal.
 
            As a Philadelphia native, Cosby-Roundtree didn't have far to travel. The 6-9 junior is at home with his family, recovering from minor surgery on his right shin to remove screws and metal plates inserted in previous procedures. He's back to walking around and expects to be able to resume full athletic activity – when that becomes possible – once stitches are removed at the end of the month.
 
            "We talk about attitude all the time," Cosby-Roundtree says, "and this is a time where it's important. It's disappointing we couldn't finish our season, but you understand why it's such a serious situation. What we can do is be with our families, stay home, get our academic work done and stay connected to one another."
 
            A variety of text chains among Wildcats players, coaches and staff help accomplish that.
 
            "We have multiple group texts going on," Cosby-Roundtree notes. "We usually connect at least once a day, sometimes more. We miss each other."
 
            The virtual classroom experience has been a new one for the junior. He stays in frequent contact with Academic Advisors Marissa Paffas and Jenn Brophy.
 
            "It's different not being physically in the same place," Cosby-Roundtree says. "I've just tried to really communicate with my professors, Marissa and Jenn, and make sure I'm completing all my work."
 
            On the hardwood, Cosby-Roundtree is hopeful that the recent surgery can help alleviate issues he has been dealing with in his right tibia since his senior year at Neumann Goretti High School. Prior to his arrival at Villanova in 2017, he underwent surgery to have a metal rod inserted to help stabilize the leg and allow it to heal. The most recent procedure removed the hardware supporting that, including screws and a metal plate.
 
            Throughout 2019-20, Cosby-Roundtree refused to point to the leg as an excuse for a dip in on-court production from solid freshmen and sophomore seasons in the Blue and White. His minutes dropped from his first two seasons to 7.7 per game and he averaged 1.5 points and 2.2 rebounds a game. He appeared in 29 games.
 
            However, he does concede that in watching game tapes from early in the season, "I can see I was sort of limping at times."
 
            He believes the biggest issue was a metal plate.
 
            "I could feel it," he states. "At times it was very irritating."
 
            Yet Cosby-Roundtree did his best when called upon and never complained. As the year went on, he adapted.
 
            "I did become used to how to manage it," he says and his production over the final weeks did tick up.
 
            Now, with the recent surgery behind him, he believes he experience can help him moving forward.
 
            "I think it made me more resilient," Cosby-Roundtree explains.
 
            With a senior season to look forward to, Cosby-Roundtree hopes that he is now on a path to returning to the form he showed as a freshman, when he was an important reserve on a 2018 NCAA national champion, and, as a sophomore, when he was selected as the Most Outstanding Player at the Advocare Invitational.
            He also will be in his second season as a team elder, a role he thrived in even while some of his on-court contributions were constrained by the troublesome shin.
 
            "Our season was a success," he says. "I thought we were still getting better at the end of the year. With every game you could see the progress.
 
            "As leaders, Collin, Jermaine and I got better too. We learned more about each other and I think we can still get better at that.
 
            "I'm really proud of the way our team grew from where we started to where we were at the end of the season. We all grew closer as the year went on."
 
            For now, Cosby-Roundtree is doing his best to make sure that bond remains strong, even in these challenging times. And he's very much looking forward to that day when life returns to a more familiar routine.
 
            "Whenever that day comes," he says, "I'm running back to school. I can't wait. I miss everyone – teammates, coaches, professors, students. We just have to keep a great attitude until that day comes."
 
            The 2019-20 season – Villanova's 100^th college basketball campaign – is presented by Hartford Funds and Coca-Cola.