Brand new coaches but familiar look to Villanova-La Salle opener

Face slightly reddened, hands cupped around his mouth as he yelled to his players, jacket off from the start, right arm folded over his left as he watched standing on the sideline.

Maybe Fran Dunphy, taking over at his alma mater, is the oldest rookie head coach in college basketball at age 74, as John Feinstein pointed out to him last week at a Coaches vs. Cancer luncheon. But all this somehow seemed so … normal.

The venue happened to be Villanova’s Finneran Pavilion. The other sideline, that bigger shock to the local hoops infrastructure, Kyle Neptune standing in a dark suit, no tie, fashionably in charge of the home team.

Let’s make the argument that the whole thing — even Neptune taking over for a Hall of Famer — somehow seemed normal because it is normal. If college sports is fundamentally about change and how you handle it, here it all was Monday night, in living color, building packed.

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You saw exactly what you should have expected to see, ‘Nova taking it, 81-68. Sure, Villanova doesn’t have Jay Wright (although he was there) or Collin Gillespie or Jermaine Samuels, who seemed to be at the school almost as long as their head coach. But the Wildcats started three vets who also had started in Villanova’s previous game, which happened to be at the Final Four. Anybody who thinks ‘Nova is starting over simply isn’t paying attention. From the start, Caleb Daniels heating up outside and Eric Dixon taking over inside … those were practically givens. The fact they did it so smoothly … givens.

Realize this about Daniels: This was a man playing his 121st college game. His first at Tulane before transferring to ‘Nova was in 2017. As a reference point, that was two seasons before Sixers star Tyrese Maxey played his first college game at Kentucky.

This Villanova lineup (except for the missing Justin Moore) was supposed to be just about what the Wildcats were going to put out last season until Gillespie and Samuels got extra pandemic-provided seasons. If it’s possible to be ranked 16th in the country and be underrated, this club could be it. Or maybe that’s the right national ranking before Moore and highest-touted freshman Cam Whitmore return from their injury rehabs.

For Dunphy to “debut” against this squad, that’s obviously diving right into the deepest end of the pool. You don’t get to wonder how La Salle could have fared if Clifton Moore hadn’t transferred to Providence and Jack Clark hadn’t moved on to North Carolina State. (See college sports, all about change.)

The 2022-23 La Salle Explorers may give everything Dunphy can get out of them and still be some jump shots short. They may make their share, as they did Monday night (40% on three-pointers), but when ‘Nova makes 65% …

The Explorers may get a terrific 22-point effort from Josh Nickelberry, but it won’t keep Dunphy from experiencing some heartache.

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It’s that agita, by the way, that Dunphy said he missed during his three-year absence since leaving Temple’s sideline.

“You miss the juice,” Dunphy said. “You get agita all day long, but when the ball goes up, it’s just awesome.”

Feel like he hadn’t been on the sideline for a while?

“Yeah, I’m sure I was rusty on some of the things I did,” Dunphy said. “My assistants were telling me some things, but it was great.”

What time did he get up in the morning?

“How many times did I get up?” Dunphy said. “It comes with the age. You think about this, think about that.”

Overall, Dunphy had perspective about what he’d witnessed, La Salle closing within 11 with five minutes left but never able to apply real pressure.

“I thought we did enough good things to be feeling OK about the game as we come out of it,” Dunphy had said after noting that Dixon and Daniels were outstanding for Villanova throughout. “However …”

Dunphy isn’t the type to skip past the howevers …

“We made some mistakes that just didn’t go our way if we were going to hang a little bit longer,” Dunphy said.

Such as?

“There were a couple of drives to the rim where we didn’t help quite enough,” Dunphy said. “I thought we gave up a couple of looks to a guy like Daniels, who, in the first half, we couldn’t give him anything because he was so focused and so on target. On the offensive end, I thought we tried to win it ourselves a couple of times and we just can’t do that.”

On the positive side of the ledger, Dunphy noted, “My good friend Coach Chaney would be proud of us, because we only had nine turnovers.”

The same went for the home team, nine turnovers. Dixon and Daniels combined for just one of them, and Villanova was 10-for-11 from the foul line, continuing that NCAA-record trend from last season.

What’s the tone Dunphy has taken with this group? Same as it ever was.

“It’s all about defense with the coach over here,” said Nickelberry, sitting next to Dunphy at his postgame media conference. “You won’t be on the court, no matter how good you are, if you don’t play defense. I hear it from him every single day.”

Maybe Neptune and Dunphy share this trait … an ability to be take-charge personalities without being dramatic about it.

Any nerves for Neptune going into this one?

“Not really,” Neptune said about coming back to replace his former boss after a season coaching Fordham. “I get all the hype; first game, Big 5 game, brand new coaches’ first game, all that stuff. But going into this game, being part of this program for so long, I think everyone here just has a unique resolve.”

Worth asking: How did Neptune sleep the night before?

“I slept like a baby,” he said.