Is Eric Dixon the last vestige of the Villanova Way? Villanova hopes not.

Villanova is all Eric Dixon knows and, frankly, the only college basketball program he truly cares about. So it was understandable that the 6-foot-8 forward from Willow Grove wasn’t all that interested in speculating about his place in the college game and the possibility that NIL, the transfer portal, and the state of the sport in general make his path one that may not exist much longer.

He came to the Main Line in 2019 knowing that sitting out as a redshirt and learning the Villanova Way had its perks. He watched two local stars on the 2018 national championship team — Mikal Bridges and Donte DiVincenzo — go from redshirt to the NBA draft’s first round. And while DiVincenzo redshirted because of an injury, Dixon only needed to look at the way Bridges transformed himself while sitting out his freshman year to know that it would all be worth it. That 2017-18 Villanova team had five players who had sat through a redshirt year for various reasons.

But so much has changed since 2019, not the least of which being that Jay Wright is no longer Villanova’s head coach. NIL has opened the door for players to make money, and Villanova players are making plenty. The portal no longer requires transfers to sit out a season. Combine the two and it makes it much easier for a disgruntled player, or one just interested in playing right away, to explore other options. In some ways, Dixon might really be the last vestige of the Villanova Way because the sport simply won’t allow for the path from redshirt to leading scorer four years later to exist.

Dixon doesn’t think so.

“I might be a dying breed in other places, but here that’s just what we do,” Dixon said.

As Dixon spoke after a late-February practice, freshman Jordann Dumont was on the court shooting. Kyle Neptune’s lone Class of 2023 high school recruit, another 6-foot-8 forward, is going to put the theory to the test. Neptune said his focus was on what’s going on with his own program and not on whether players like Dixon could exist in the sport much longer.

“Outside looking in, it’s a different path,” Neptune said. “It’s the path less taken, I guess.”

Dixon’s assessment of the 18-year-old who left Abington High as a 2,000-point scorer and showed up as a wide-eyed freshman at Villanova was an honest one.

“I was about 30 pounds heavier,” he said. “I was not punctual all the time, not understanding what it means to be dedicated off the court.”

Sure, he and his father, also named Eric, would practically close down the Willow Grove YMCA many nights. But as the elder Dixon learned when he got to Millersville, college basketball is a whole new world. Dixon quickly realized in his first summer on Villanova’s campus that redshirting was his best option.

The 2019 recruiting class was loaded. Dixon was rated 76th overall by ESPN, but the three others — Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Bryan Antoine, Justin Moore — were all rated higher, and there was a lot of talent still left on the existing Wildcats roster.

Dixon was a prolific offensive player at Abington, but Villanova demands a lot more than that.

“He needed to revamp his habits,” Dixon’s father said.

That included a new diet. It included a lot of time on the basketball court, but also in the gym. He had been warned. Assistant coach Ashley Howard told Dixon that coming to Villanova would “be the hardest road.” There was an easier path somewhere else, but would it offer a similar reward?

Indeed, it was hard. There were times early on during that freshman season that Dixon would call his father and wonder if he’d ever be good enough to play for the Wildcats. He would talk with Moore, his roommate, about how much he just wanted to play, and Moore would keep reminding him that his time would come.

That reward Howard mentioned? Dixon helped anchor a 2022 Final Four team. He made a game-winning shot in the Round of 32. He was named second-team All-Big East this year for the second consecutive season.

“I give them the most credit for doing two things,” Dixon’s father said. “One, helping him change his relationship with food and taking care of his body. The second thing is his mental approach to the game.

“I wish more recruits would hear it, because I honestly believe that’s the best way for most freshmen to make an impact.”

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It’s a tale Wright has told many times, about the redshirt on the scout team mimicking an opponent and tormenting Villanova’s rotation players. How many times have you heard the story about DiVincenzo playing the role of Buddy Hield in practice and lighting his teammates up?

Dixon did some of that, too. Robinson-Earl was the more touted recruit, but ...

“There were times in practice where Jeremiah couldn’t deal with him, just couldn’t stop him,” Wright said. “Four days out of five, Jeremiah would get him. It was just conditioning, but we could see where Eric was going to be.”

It was a path Wright knew well at the time, and he knew how to get a player to the end line. Now? The former coach-turned-analyst-turned-Neptune-mentor knows the way the game has changed and how the old Villanova Way is still trying to find out where it fits in the new landscape.

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“We have to figure out a way — and this is all unchartered territory — to keep the strength of Villanova in this new era,” Wright said. “It starts with the character of the player and the people around him. That’s really a bigger part than ever because they’re the people, at the end of each year, that are going to be thinking about NIL, the transfer portal. If you’re all on the same page, it’s possible to keep it going. We’re not saying that it’s perfect, but we’re trying to find our way to do it in this new era.”

Neptune brought in four transfers this season. The Wildcats have three recruits signed for the Class of 2024, and Wright pointed to the three of them as being the type of players who understand Villanova’s culture and process. Neptune has said that each offseason will be different when it comes to the ratio of transfers to high school recruits, but he also doesn’t want to be the program that people come to solely because of NIL money.

“The new challenge is the Jordann Dumonts,” Wright said. “How many Jordann Dumonts can we find? We still want to try to do it and we have to work a little bit harder to find those people.”

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Dixon’s father kept pointing to the way Villanova changed his son’s mental habits. He could see it all come together Saturday. Villanova got blitzed by Creighton and trailed, 32-8, midway through the first half. Dixon’s three free throws later tied the score before Creighton hit a buzzer-beater.

“His demeanor never changed whether the score was 67-64 or 32-8,” the father said. “That’s what Jay Wright built.

“The physical parts are important, but the mental things he’s learned at Villanova ... if he gets the opportunity to move to the next level and play in the NBA, I think his experience at Villanova will help him.”

He was talking as if the Villanova portion of his son’s life was nearing its end. Dixon, 23, still has another year of eligibility left thanks to that redshirt season and the extra COVID-19 year. But Dixon graduated with his undergraduate degree last May and is just about done with college, his father said.

Dixon said he was focusing on Villanova’s remaining games and would make a final decision after the season ended, but his father said Dixon will “test the waters” of the NBA draft and professional basketball.

His preference would be to not return to Villanova and to begin his professional career, and he seems unlikely to use his fifth year of eligibility at another school — even if his NIL market would command more than the two-way NBA contract of $560,000. Dixon’s father pointed to his age. How many NBA teams are looking to bring in 24-year-olds?

“He came to Villanova for certain reasons, to get certain things, and he’s gotten all of those things,” the elder Dixon said.

At Villanova, Dixon became a better basketball player and a better person, he said.

“I take pride in it, being in this program and going through it,” he said. “I definitely wouldn’t be the same guy without this place.”

The place might not be the same without him, either.