‘What’s Thanksgiving without food and sports?’: For Villanova, Turkey Day is served on a ‘business trip’

The question was about family Thanksgiving traditions, but Caleb Daniels wanted to make a point. He’s a proud New Orleans native, and the city, he said, is home to the best food in the country — especially when it comes to serving Thanksgiving dinner.

“Not to brag,” the Villanova graduate student and men’s basketball guard said with a smile, “but it’s not arguable. There’s no debate on that.”

For the first two years of his college basketball career, when he went to school and played basketball at Tulane, a 15-minute drive across the city from the high school where he was valedictorian, Daniels was able to enjoy the holiday the way he always had as a kid. The day started with church. (“Receiving the word before you receive the foods that fill your belly … ”) He would then go to a cousin’s house for a “mean” Thanksgiving meal.

But Thanksgiving week in college basketball has — especially over the last decade — become loaded with tournaments and plenty of matchups between ranked teams. Sure, Thanksgiving Day has its regular NFL tripleheader. College basketball, though, has “Feast Week,” ESPN’s creation, and it is highlighted by two marquee events over Thanksgiving weekend. There’s the Phil Knight Invitational, which Villanova will play in this week, and the Battle 4 Atlantis, which Villanova has played in previously.

So there will be no “mean” Thanksgiving meal in New Orleans for Daniels. Villanova plays at 3:30 p.m. in Portland, Ore., on Thursday against Iowa State. The same fate for fellow graduate student Brandon Slater, a Virginia native who will be missing out on his mother’s collard greens, turkey, ham, and macaroni and cheese. He has become used to this setup, however. The Wildcats played in Orlando, Fla., over Thanksgiving in 2018 when Slater was a freshman, and other holiday family meals have been impacted by COVID-19 bubbles.

There will be a Thanksgiving meal, however. Villanova is traveling with a party of about 70 people, the team’s director of operations, Joey Flannery, said. That group is made up of the team, coaches, some family members, staff, and school administration.

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The team is staying at a Portland hotel, and Flannery said Thanksgiving dinner will be served in a ballroom there, nearly 3,000 miles from Villanova’s Pavilion, at about 4 p.m. Pacific time. Food will be provided by the hotel with consultation from Villanova. Flannery said Arleshia Davidson, Villanova’s director of program administration, takes the lead in planning larger events like this one, and the Wildcats have become regular planners of these sorts of things, seeing as they’ve made a few deep NCAA Tournament runs of late.

The team’s strength and conditioning coach, John Shackleton, makes sure nutrition and recovery are top of mind. The players have surrendered their dining preferences.

“Whatever Shack says,” redshirt junior forward Eric Dixon said when asked what he wanted to see on the table. “Whatever Shack is feeling.”

Flannery said the players will be brought back for another meal later Thursday night. They’ll play again Friday at noon PST if they lose and 2 p.m. PST if they win.

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As for bucking family traditions and being on the road, the players said they’re looking forward to it.

“You’re playing basketball and it’s a business trip, but at the same time this is your family,” Slater said. “This is your new family. I love my parents, but I’m not with them every single day. It’s a cool trip. It’s cool to be away from everything and just focus on ourselves, our teammates and our coaches.”

Every Thanksgiving meal needs a wacky relative. Slater said Daniels fits the bill as the crazy uncle at the table.

“Never,” Daniels said. “It’s Slate, for sure.”

There will be plenty of fun and jokes, the players said, but the Wildcats are 2-2 this season and have some work to do.

“It’ll be cool seeing everybody come together for the day,” Slater said. “Then we get over that in 20 minutes and we’re back to preparing for whatever team is in front of us.”

If Villanova beats Iowa State on Thursday, that next team in front of them is likely to be No. 1 North Carolina, which starts the tournament Thursday against the University of Portland.

“What’s Thanksgiving without food and sports?” Daniels asked.

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