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PHILADELPHIA — At the beginning of his high school senior year, Cam Whitmore finally got the OK from his father to get a tattoo. He chose a tiger at the top of his right bicep, and underneath it had the artist write in elaborate, large script: “Only the strong survive.” It was a nod to the double gut punch he suffered three years earlier — a broken tibia that cost him his entire freshman season, and a hairline fracture to the same bone that ended his summer showcase season that year. He did not intend for it to become a lifelong motto.

Yet there was Whitmore, on the doorstep of his college debut, considering the affirmation yet again. In early October, he broke the thumb on his right shooting hand, necessitating surgery. While Villanova and new head coach Kyle Neptune struggled to a 2-5 start and a four-game losing skid, Whitmore, their most NBA-ready player, watched.

Nearly two months after the surgery, Whitmore and Neptune opened the doors that separate the inner workings of the team business at the Wells Fargo Center from the fans pouring celebratory beers inside the club member area. As the door shut, cutting off the celebratory noise, Neptune slung his arm around Neptune and escorted him to the team locker room.

In the boxscore, it will say that Whitmore scored seven points and played 20 minutes in Villanova’s 70-66 win over Oklahoma. Within the Wildcat locker room, his contribution will read a lot bigger. “I’ve been itching to go since I got hurt,” Whitmore said. “I was ready.”

He is, put simply, the best player in a Villanova uniform this year. Despite having not played a single minute of college ball, he remained a first-round pick on virtually every NBA Draft board, and could very well become the Wildcat’s first one-and-done player since Tim Thomas.

Besides the obvious, Whitmore’s size (6-foot-7, 232 pounds), physicality and athleticism open up the rotation for Neptune. He went small (which is relative for Villanova, since at 6-8 Eric Dixon will never be accused of being a true big) for long stretches against Oklahoma, giving Dixon a much-needed blow. Whitmore changed the intensity defensively.

In one first-half possession, he forced a turnover, pushed tempo and then mimicked like he was going to drive, forcing the Sooners to collapse around him. Instead, he whipped a pass to Chris Arcidiacono, who made one more swing to an open Mark Armstrong. On the next possession, Whitmore swished his own trey.

“I’m shocked,” Neptune said of Whitmore’s play, which he also termed to be “mind-boggling.”

“He literally has not played basketball except four or five days in seven weeks. Normal human beings, they would have been completely discombobulated.”

TEAM WIN 🗣 #HumbleAndHungry pic.twitter.com/TPqA0cqbTD

— Villanova MBB (@NovaMBB) December 3, 2022

Discombobulated was perhaps the best way to term Villanova in the early part of this season. To a point, it was understandable. From a Final Four team the Wildcats lost two-time Big East Player of the Year Collin Gillespie. They said goodbye to Jermaine Samuels, who played in 153 games. Oh, and they lost a Hall of Fame coach. Jay Wright was in the building on Saturday, sitting across from the bench he once commanded. It was, to say the least, awkward. Villanova’s record through seven games was its worst since the last years of Rollie Massimino, and the impatient Main Line natives were starting to gulp their Chardonnay and worry their pearls in angst.

Not, it should be noted, entirely unlike how they felt two decades earlier when Wright arrived and failed to deliver an NCAA Tournament berth until Year 4. Then they thought the ex-Hofstra coach might be in over his head to resurrect Villanova; now they worried that the ex-Fordham coach might be in over his to keep the Wildcats humming. The outside noise, the Wildcats insist, never penetrated their inner sanctum. If Neptune has inherited anything from Wright, it is an ability to look calm, no matter how much you might be stewing inside. Next practice, next film session, next play, that was his approach even as the Wildcats limped home from Portland, winless in the Phil Knight Invitational.

As his program sputtered, Wright remained silent, staying out of the spotlight and even away from games to give Neptune space.

This time, he had no choice. Hired by CBS, the network invited him on the broadcast for the start of the second half as a sort of in-game tutorial alongside Tom McCarthy and Bill Raftery (Villanova folks are jokingly referring to Wright as “the intern.” He’ll call their game on Wednesday against Penn, alongside his Villanova predecessor Steve Lappas.) Wright stuck to the X’s and O’s, refraining from weighing in too much about what ails Villanova. His most pointed (and still entirely dull) remark was after a Caleb Daniels’ 3, in which he remarked that “That’s something they haven’t been doing, getting out in transition, getting easy buckets.” If he had thoughts on how to fix things, he wasn’t about to share them into a microphone.

One way out would appear to be through the point guard spot, and the decision to start Mark Armstrong got glossed over by Whitmore’s return, but in the end, it might be more crucial. With Justin Moore still sidelined by the torn Achilles he suffered in March, the Wildcats looked often like a rudderless ship. The one constant at Villanova since Wright took over has been a reliable point guard — from Derrick Snowden all the way through Gillespie, the Wildcats always had a floor general who directed the offense, and also scored on his own.

Chris Arcidiacono, the baby brother of one of those sure things, was never supposed to be a starting point guard at Villanova. He is a serviceable, smart player who is good in relief and will do all the little things you need a role player to be. Traditionally, though, the Villanova point guard wins you a game; it doesn’t merely not lose you any.

*Randy Foye averaged 20.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3 assists coming off the bench.
^Kyle Lowry averaged 7.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2 assists coming off the bench.

But Villanova, even — or especially — under Wright, has been stubborn about relying too heavily on freshmen. Neptune’s concession to run with Armstrong is a big one, and it paid off, at least for one game. He scored 10 points in 16 minutes and neither he nor Arcidiacono turned the ball over.

The issues, though have gone deeper than one position. Villanova’s KenPom numbers reflect their struggles — 114th in adjusted defense, their worst since 2012, when the team finished 13-19; 247th in 3-point field goals, also their worst since 2012; 295th in effective field goal percentage defense, worst in the KenPom era; 151st in field goal percent defense, worst since 2012; 236th in 2-point percent defense, worst in the KenPom era; and 305th in 3-point percent defense, the worst since 2013.

That last one was on full display as Oklahoma drained four of their first five from the arc, blitzing to a 20-9 early lead. Neptune contends the Sooners made contested shots. Frankly, they often looked fairly open.

Regardless, the early hole has been a steady problem for Villanova. But having watched tons of Villanova tape, OU coach Porter Moser knew better than to think his team could put it in cruise control. If there has been a silver lining to the Wildcats’ early turbulence it’s that they don’t quit. “If you dive in and watch the Michigan State game, the Iowa State game, they kept coming,” Moser said. “They believed in what they were doing. They just fell short.”

Freshman Mark Armstrong earned the first start of his career Saturday. (Gregory Fisher / USA Today)

No one will remember this now, their memories glossed over by the shine of two national championships, but in Wright’s early years, his team had diabolical ways of losing games, too. They’d get behind early, and lose. Lead the whole game and lose. Miss a shot, blow a defensive assignment. Small mistakes that proved costly. They just had to get over the hump, everyone said. Only the hump looked like Mount Everest at the time. The Wildcats turned into believers on a snowy day in January 2005 in this same building. Top-ranked Kansas came in and Villanova, sitting at a very pedestrian 9-4, won. In that game, Kyle Lowry did a very un-Villanova thing; he threw a sucker punch that infuriated Wright and ignited the win.

In this game, Villanova did a very Villanova thing to win. Daniels spent much of the game in the favored Wildcat guard post-up position, and though they practiced for it all season, the Sooners couldn’t stop it. “He’s really really patient, older and strong,” Moser said. “The more you try to gain leverage, he spins on you, and the more you watch for the spin, he gets deep. It’s picking your poison.” Yet the decisive dagger came not from a post-up, but from Daniels taking a shoot-em-and-sleep-in-the-streets 3 that came right from the Wright playbook. Dixon had the ball down low but found no wiggle room and instead kicked it out. With the play clock draining, the Cats swung the ball not once, not twice but three times before finding Daniels on the wing. “We preach every day to look to reverse and make a play,” Daniels said. “It’s just stay on attack.”

It wasn’t snowing this time. It was pouring rain. Oklahoma is not Kansas. Even Neptune concedes the riddle of Villanova is hardly solved. He’s still figuring out his team, still tinkering with the rotation.

But for a team in desperate need of a sign of life, maybe the ink on Cam Whitmore’s arm is all the answer they need.

(Top photo of Cam Whitmore: Gregory Fisher / USA Today)