The latest installment of the Nova Notebook offers a look at one of the newest Wildcats, transfer guard TJ Bamba.
 
In its 103-year history as a basketball program, Villanova has mined more than a few standouts from the Bronx, N.Y.
 
Ed Pinckney of Adlai Stevenson High School picked Coach Rollie Massimino and the Wildcats and then enjoyed a remarkable four-year run (1981-85) that culminated in his earning the Most Outstanding Player Award as the 'Cats claimed the 1985 NCAA championship. Two decades later, Pinckney was on the VU coaching staff as another Bronx native, guard Allan Ray, became an All-American and 2,000-point scorer (2002-06). A year after Ray graduated, Corey Fisher came to VU and played an integral role in the 'Cats 2009 return to the NCAA Final Four.
 
The latest Bronx product to don the blue and white is a newcomer, albeit one with an established pedigree of success at the college level. Though TJ Bamba has spent most of his recent past in Denver and Pullman, Washington, he's never wandered far from the ethos of hardnosed, gritty play that longtime Villanova fans came to appreciate in Pinckney, Ray and Fisher and other notables.
 
"How can I not take pride in where I'm from?" asked the 6-5 guard with a smile during a recent interview inside the Gibbs Family Press Room in Finneran Pavilion. "Wherever I go, people know that I represent the Bronx. People from the Bronx are just cut different. Our toughness, our ability to adapt to any situation, our ability to make an impact wherever you go are part of who we are.
 
"I take pride in that, and I definitely want to be the next player from the Bronx to contribute here."
 
Based on what he has already accomplished at Washington State, it's apparent that Bamba is the kind of seasoned performer who can do just that for the Wildcats in '23-24. His progress over the last three seasons reflected the best kind of growth stock. After making four starts and averaging 4.2 points per game as a rookie in 2020-21, he increased those numbers to 16 starts and 7.7 ppg as a sophomore the following year. In 2022-23, he started all 31 games, averaging 32.2 minutes and 15.8 points per outing.
 
In April Bamba elected to enter the National Basketball Association Draft process while simultaneously searching for a new school. A few weeks later, he announced his intention to attend Villanova in 2023-24.
 
"I was just looking forward to going to a program where I can learn the most I possibly could," he stated. "I was looking for a program that was used to winning, is closer to the East Coast. All in all, this was a perfect spot to pick. The program, the prestige, the history, the fundamentals, all align with my goals."
 
That upward trajectory, however, took some time to ignite. At the age of seven, Bamba moved to Senegal, his father's native country, to live with extended family.
 
"We're a Muslim family," Bamba stated, "and my parents felt it was important for me to understand the fundamentals of our faith."
 
For the next few years Bamba adapted to a much different experience than he had known in the Bronx.
 
"I have a lot of family there, but I had never met them before," he notes. "It was a brand-new environment, new culture and basically a new life. I definitely feel like that time helped shape me to be disciplined and tough."
 
Upon his return to the States in 2011, though, Bamba found quite a few of his peers had become enamored with the game of basketball.
 
"I wasn't too serious about it at first," he said. "It was mostly street ball."
 
Bamba's development wasn't instant. In fact, he played junior varsity basketball as a ninth grader in "one of the worst divisions in New York, to be honest."
 
As he looked at his circle of friends, though, he noticed some were taking the sport more seriously than that. Several had begun to hear from Division I schools.
 
"When you're a kid you look at that and think highly of them," he recalled. "I wanted to put myself in that position and I knew what kind of work needed to be put in because I was so far behind. Going into 10^th grade, I decided I would do whatever it takes."
 
Prior to his sophomore year, Bamba moved to Denver to attend Abraham Lincoln High School (not to be confused with the New York Lincoln High School in the neighboring borough of Brooklyn).
 
"If the Bronx and Senegal made me who I am," Bamba said, "that period in Denver taught me how to work. Without that, I don't think I would be in the position I am in as a basketball player. That's where my basketball life took off."
 
Indeed, by the time he was a high school junior – only two years removed from the JV – began to receive recruiting interest of his own. He ultimately selected Washington State. That set the stage for the transition to Villanova.
 
"I bring toughness," stated Bamba. "I think I have the ability to defend (the opponents') best player. I play a winning brand of basketball. Overall, I think I am an efficient basketball player and there's more I can get better at. I never want to stay static. I always want to keep adding."
 
Bamba arrived at Villanova in May, not long after he removed his name from the NBA Draft process. In those weeks he has gotten to know his new teammates, holdovers and newcomers alike.
 
"It's been smooth," he said. "Everybody has the same drive, the same sense of focus. It's easy because we're all chasing one goal. There's a willingness to show love, help one another, and be coachable. It's the same with the coaching staff. They want to see us do well as players and as a team. We're becoming better basketball players and better men."
 
Given that his coach, Kyle Neptune, is a native of another New York City borough, Brooklyn, Bamba was asked if that connection has helped ease the transition.
 
"It has," he said. "We're New Yorkers and there's just great respect there."
 
TJ Bamba takes no small measure of pride in his heritage. Come November, he hopes to write his own chapter in the Bronx Brigade of the Villanova Basketball Family.