Villanova redshirt senior forward Eric Dixon has declared for the 2024 NBA draft, per an announcement made on his social media pages. 

Dixon will not be returning for a sixth year on campus and a fifth season on the floor. He had the opportunity to do so because he redshirted during the 2019-20 season, which did not count towards eligibility exhaustion.

The Willow Grove, Pa. native scored 1,499 points over four years, averaging 16.6 points across 34 games in his redshirt senior season. He averaged 11.8 points and 5.7 rebounds over the course of his career.

“As a young kid from Abington, Pennsylvania all I ever wanted to do was make my hometown proud,” Dixon wrote in a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.

Dixon became a full-time starter for the ‘Cats in the 2021-22 season and was an important piece of that year’s Final Four run. His importance to the team increased during an injury-riddled 2022-23 campaign. He averaged 31.6 minutes per game that year.

Dixon emerged as the team’s top offensive weapon in 2023-24. Dixon and senior guard TJ Bamba were the only players on this season’s team to average double figure scoring.

Pending any more roster moves and sophomore guard Mark Armstrong’s decision to stay in or withdraw from the NBA draft, the Wildcats will return five players from their 2023-24 team. If senior guard TJ Bamba departs, most likely to the NBA draft, that number could be down to four.

Assuming Bamba returns and Armstrong remains in the draft, neither of which are given, the Wildcats will return 22.3% of their scoring and 23.1% of their minutes played for 2024-25.

Players must enter the NBA draft by April 27. The transfer portal closes on May 1.