Fran Dunphy returns to the bench with La Salle, and his first game back comes against ‘formidable’ Villanova

The La Salle men’s basketball season starts Monday as the Explorers look for successful under Fran Dunphy, the winningest coach in Philadelphia Big 5 history.

“Apprehensive” is how Dunphy described the feeling going into the season opener at Villanova.

“I think what all coaches worry about — is your team prepared?” he said. “And there’s only one way to find that out, is to play the game and try to do our best against a very formidable opponent on the road.”

Dunphy returns to the bench for his 31st season as a head coach — his first since stepping down at Temple at the end of the 2018-19 season. La Salle will face off against a Villanova team that’s playing its first game of the post-Jay Wright era after reaching the Final Four last season. The Wildcats, led by new coach Kyle Neptune, were ranked third in the Big East preseason coaches’ poll.

Neptune was an assistant coach under Wright from 2013 to 2020 and was head coach at Fordham for one season, leading the Rams to a .500 record — a mark they hadn’t reached since 2015.

“This is not his first time coaching his own team, and he knows what he wants to do. He’s a good man. He’s worked hard,” Dunphy said. “My sense is he will have a terrific program at Villanova starting Monday night, and we better be ready. And that’s the message to our guys. Every possession will be critical, and we have to play our best basketball.”

» READ MORE: Fran Dunphy back on practice court at La Salle, still aiming for ‘perfection’

In the last outing against each other, the Wildcats came away with a 72-46 win. La Salle has an eight-game losing streak against its Big 5 rival, and the Explorers’ longest losing streak against the Wildcats is nine games.

Will history repeat itself?

The last time Dunphy faced Villanova, Temple lost, 69-59.

“We have a couple of guys that shoot very very well, and we need to see if we can put them in good position to get shots,” he said. “But we have to be really good decision-makers out there and especially against a team like Villanova who will guard us very, very efficiently with a great purpose.”

La Salle went 11-19 last season, making it 29 years since the Explorers have had three straight winning seasons. In the spring, the university parted with Ashley Howard to bring in 1970 graduate Dunphy to revive the program.

He has the resumé for the challenge with his time at Penn and Temple. Dunphy has collected 580 wins in 30 seasons, and his teams have appeared in the NCAA tournament 17 times.

“It’s equal parts excitement, fear, nausea — all those things,” Dunphy said about coming out of retirement to coach for his alma mater. “So, it’s a worrisome thing, and yet when the ball goes up, all that worrisome piece will leave, and you will be coaching your guys and hoping that they will play well.”

The Explorers were voted 14th in the A-10 preseason poll and have faced a roster overhaul this offseason.

While they lost leading scorer Clifton Moore to Providence and Jack Clark to North Carolina State, sophomore guard Khalil Brantley (8 points per game) and junior guard Jhamir Brickus (8.9 ppg) remain after returning from the transfer portal. They are key returnees along with senior guard Josh Nickelberry, who averaged 11.2 points per game.

As for the new blood, the Explorers have welcomed St. Peter’s twin transfers Hassan and Fousseyni Drame and freshman Rokas Jocius, who played in the second-highest tier of the Lithuanian basketball league.

» READ MORE: With aspirations of returning to basketball prominence, La Salle looks to a pair of twin transfers

“We’re different than last year’s team. So hopefully we will play well,” Dunphy said. “As far as our team is concerned, as much as we’ve been able to work with them, there still are unknowns because again, when the lights go on, it’s a whole different world.

“We have some really great teams that we’re playing in and outside the league. It’s a really good league with good coaches, good players, good programs,” he said. “So, we have our hands full. It’s a daunting challenge and something that you got to be ready for. We got to be ready to go, and hopefully we will be Monday.”