Pope Leo receiving teams and fans from US college basketball before their games in Rome

Pope Leo XIV is set to hold a private audience on Saturday with basketball teams from his alma mater, Villanova, and fellow Catholic university Notre Dame, plus thousands of traveling American fans in town for the season opener.A total of about 7,000 people are expected Saturday in the Paul VI audience hall inside the Vatican.The audience precedes the U.S. college basketball season opener in Rome on Sunday.The Villanova and Notre Dame men’s and women’s teams will play a doubleheader at the 11,000-seat Palazzo dello Sport — which is located about a half-hour drive from the Vatican.The event has been dubbed the Eternal City Tip-Off and was created to honor the first American pope.Leo graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Villanova, the Augustinian school near Philadelphia. He was born in Chicago — not all that far from Notre Dame, which is located in South Bend, Indiana.Like popes before him, Leo has praised the value of sport for both physical and spiritual de