Villanova forward Cam Whitmore Announced Tuesday It announces NBA Draft After an outstanding freshman season. Whitmore won Big East Freshman of the Year after averaging 12.5 points and 5.3 rebounds in 26 games for the Wildcats. He missed the first seven contests of the season due to a thumb injury but claimed a starting role in Villanova’s final 20 games.
Whitmore entered college ranked No. 11 in the recruiting class of 2022, according to 247Sports, and delivered the hype. Although the Wildcats finished just 17-17 amid the coaching transition from Jay Wright to Kyle Neptune, Whitmore emerged as a bright spot during an up-and-down season.
With a rare combination of size and skill, Whitmore shoots 57.8% on shots inside the arc while also demonstrating comfortable shooting from the outside by hitting 34.3% of his 3-point attempts. During a 3-1 stretch to close out the regular season that included wins over Xavier, Creighton, and Seton Hall, Whitmore averaged 15.3 points on 52.5% shooting from the floor.
Whitmore became the latest Villanova player to win Big East Freshman of the Year, joining Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (2020) and Omari Spellman (2018) as recent Villanova winners.
Projectionist Cam Whitmore in the NBA
At 6-foot-7 and 232 pounds, Whitmore has the combination of size and athleticism needed to thrive in NBA. He is physical enough to protect the big wingers and forwards but agile enough to switch to goalkeepers defensively without getting burned. His offensive game showed great promise during his freshman season.
Whitmore is ranked #4 in the 2023 NBA draft rankings from CBS Sports. He finished 7th overall in a recent mock draft from Kyle Boone and landed 8th overall in a recent mock draft by Gary Parish.
“Whitmore is like (Jaras) Walker in the sense that he doesn’t look like a typical teenager,” Parish wrote. “He’s an explosive athlete who hits the ball well enough from 3-point range to make him a lock for the top 10 in this draft even if Villanova is having a disappointing season.”
Impact on Villanova
With his high rating as an NBA prospect and typical skill set, it was always unlikely that Whitmore would spend more than one season at Villanova. However, his departure leaves another question for Neptune to answer this off-season. Fellow freshmen Brandon Slater and Caleb Daniels are ineligible, and the Wildcats have only one player left in the 2023 draft class.
Barring a few late additions to the program’s recruiting class, it makes sense that the Neptunes would fill out the Wildcats’ roster through the transfer gate as the program seeks to find its direction after Wright’s sudden retirement after the 2021-22 season.