Luigi Suigo is back in Italy and set to make his college debut Sunday when Villanova opens the 2026-27 season against Notre Dame in Rome. For the 7-foot-3 freshman center, it will be the first time he has played a college game in front of the family and friends who watched him grow up in Tradate, northwest of Milan in Lombardy.
The timing gives the trip an edge he could not have had anywhere else. Villanova practiced Thursday at PalaFonte in Rome, and Suigo said the return has made the adjustment feel easier in a small but meaningful way: “It’s not my home home, but still my country.” He added, “The best feeling is understanding what people are saying without my teammates knowing.”
That comfort matters because Suigo arrived with real expectations. He played professionally last year in Serbia, came to Villanova as a potential late-first-round pick in the most recent NBA draft, and carries the nickname “The Italian Wemby.” Kevin Willard said after an exhibition game that Suigo was still working through “growing pains,” but the coach also said on Thursday, “He’s getting there.” That leaves Sunday as less of a debut than a first test of how much of Suigo’s size and skill can show up right away.
The off-court scene will be just as unusual. Jake Fiegen said Suigo was already giving teammates hotel etiquette lessons, telling them not to put meatballs with pasta. Suigo’s father, Massimo, will be among the people in the building, and the game sits inside a weekend that has drawn Villanova’s men’s and women’s teams to Rome, along with celebration surrounding Pope Leo XIV, a Villanova graduate and the first American-born pope.
For Villanova, the opener is the start of a season. For Suigo, it is the beginning of the version of his story that will be watched most closely now: whether the freshman who came home to Italy for his first college game can turn the attention around him into minutes, production and, eventually, proof.
