Villanova on Friday officially announced that it had added guards Tony Chennault of Wake Forest and Dylan Ennis of Rice and lost forward Markus Kennedy to transfer.
Chennault has applied for a hardship waiver to play this season, but Ennis will the NCAA required year out.
“We are very excited to welcome Tony and Dylan to Villanova,” said head coach Jay Wright.
Chennault is an alumnus of Philadelphia’s Neumann-Goretti High School who announced in April his intention to transfer from Wake Forest to be closer to his family. The 6-2 guard was the 2009-10 Gatorade Pennsylvania Player of the Year
and ranks as Neumann-Goretti’s second leading all-time scorer. He started all 31 games for the Demon Deacons in 2011-12, averaging 9.0 points and 2.8 assists per outing.
“Tony is a great Philadelphia guard who comes from a family of outstanding basketball players,” said Wright. “We have known Tony and his family for a long time and he was well taught by Carl Arrigale at Neumann-Goretti. We are very excited about his future as a Wildcat and happy to welcome another Philly guard to Villanova.”
Chennault retains two seasons of college eligibility.
A native of Brampton, Ontario, Ennis averaged 8.5 points and 4.3 rebounds for the Owls in 2011-12. He also established a new school record for assists by a freshman with 144 and was selected to Conference USA’s All-Rookie team. Ennis came to Rice from Lake Forest (Ill.) Academy and was listed as one of the top 30 senior guards by ESPN in 2011.
“Dylan is coming off a very productive freshman season at Rice University,” stated Wright. “He has the skill and work ethic to develop into an outstanding Villanova guard. He also brings sound fundamentals to our team, which is a credit to his high school coach Matt Vaughn. We are thrilled that Dylan is joining our basketball family.”
Ennis will have three seasons of eligibility at Villanova.
Chennault and Ennis began taking summer classes at Villanova this week.
Kennedy, a 6-9 freshman forward, is transferring out.
“Markus has been a valued member of our basketball family,” Wright said. “We wish him the best in his new endeavor.”
Kennedy, a native of Philadelphia, appeared in 31 games for the Wildcats in 2011-12 and earned three starting assignments. He averaged 3.0 points, 4.4 rebounds and 14.8 minutes per contest in his first season at the collegiate level.
