Villanova coach Kyle Neptune talks ‘disappointment,’ turning the page, and whether it’s NCAA Tournament or bust

Kyle Neptune is a human with functioning ears, and while he did his best to say all the things he thought he was supposed to say while his Villanova men’s basketball team struggled in his second year as head coach, he did at times hear the booing.

The frustration reached its crescendo as Neptune walked off the floor of Finneran Pavilion on March 20, when Villanova was knocked from the National Invitation Tournament in front of a light crowd on its home floor. A season that started with so much promise — a transfer portal haul combined with a tournament win in the Bahamas had Wildcats fans excited — had gone awry.

A five-game losing streak in January made the path to the real NCAA Tournament too difficult to overcome, and getting bumped from the NIT at home against an Atlantic 10 team, with the expensive roster and talent that Villanova had, warranted the reaction it got: boos and chants calling for Neptune to be fired.

“There are certain things that just come with the seat you’re in as a coach,” Neptune told The Inquirer on Thursday. “If you’re not getting things done at the highest level, sometimes you will be criticized, and that’s the life we chose, and you either embrace everything that comes with the life you chose, or you don’t and you complain about it.”

Neptune isn’t complaining about it now, and he wasn’t complaining about it then. The season ended late on a Wednesday night, the day before the first round of the tournament people around here really care about was set to begin, and Neptune drove to work Thursday morning with the thought of being fired not on his mind, he said.

“I never thought about that,” Neptune said. “I really truly try to live just putting my best foot forward. We talk to our guys about attitude and doing the next best action. I can’t say that to our guys with a straight face and have them truly believe it if I don’t live in that same mantra and I don’t live the same way.”

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Later that Thursday, Villanova athletic director Mark Jackson publicly backed Neptune and affirmed that a change at head coach was not coming. He described Neptune that day as being “angry and motivated.” Neptune said Thursday that he did his best to channel those emotions into the next steps. Villanova had to figure out its roster. Who was staying? Who was leaving? What holes did his staff need to fill? What lessons could they take from last season’s transfer portal market to apply to this one?

Neptune can seem a bit robotic at times. While Jay Wright gets credit for being affable and perfect for his new job as a television analyst and the face of commercials, Neptune learned these clichés from the master himself. He uses the word “attitude” the same way Wright did. He talks about the next play and not dwelling on the last one the same way Wright did. It has infiltrated almost every aspect of his professional life.

Neptune said he hasn’t stewed in the misery of it all. “To go back and live in those emotions does nothing for me or our program,” he said. But he knows Villanova is a place where competing for Big East championships is the expectation, and he’s a human. So there were feelings on that night March 20 and the morning after.

“Disappointment,” Neptune said. “We’re at Villanova. There’s a certain standard that is expected here, and we didn’t meet that mark, and there’s just no way around that. There’s no excuse that can dispel the fact that we didn’t meet the mark. Me being the head coach here, me understanding that, being part of this place for so long, it just motivated me and it’s motivating our staff to go out and rectify it.”

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He thinks the issues mostly have been rectified. Villanova got all-conference big man Eric Dixon back and its transfer portal class includes La Salle point guard Jhamir Brickus, Miami wing and Philadelphia native Wooga Poplar, Fresno State center Enoch Boakye, and Penn guard Tyler Perkins, who, unlike the other three, has multiple years of eligibility left. Villanova also lost several players to the portal. Two of them, TJ Bamba (Oregon) and Brendan Hausen (Kansas State) are continuing at high-major programs, and two others, Lance Ware (Texas-Arlington) and Trey Patterson (Rice) are not. There were other departures, too. Justin Moore exhausted his collegiate eligibility, and Mark Armstrong entered the NBA draft.

The Wildcats briefly had VCU transfer Max Shulga, one of the highest-rated players in the portal, committed. But Shulga returned to VCU because the school came up with more money and offered an easier path toward graduation.

Neptune thinks Brickus, despite being undersized, is a transformational player. Villanova hasn’t had a traditional point guard with high-level decision-making abilities in two seasons under Neptune. The Wildcats haven’t had a center capable of protecting the rim like Boakye since Daniel Ochefu left campus after winning the national title in 2016.

Poplar is a two-way player looking to prove he can play in the NBA. And Perkins is a tough guard who should give Villanova a jolt off the bench as a sophomore. There’s a four-player recruiting class — Neptune’s first real high school class — that he’s excited about, too.

Most predictions and power rankings won’t have Villanova at the top of the Big East before the season starts. UConn has become the class of the conference, while Villanova has fallen back in the conference’s pecking order since Wright’s departure. Torvik, an analytics site, has Villanova as the 28th-best team in its 2024-25 projections.

Villanova was among the best defensive teams in the country last season but struggled offensively for long stretches. Brickus being a true point guard could help change the tide, as could new assistant coach Jamie Young, who Neptune called a “breath of fresh air.”

Hiring a new coach, Neptune said, was his choice and didn’t come from above him.

“One-hundred percent yes,” Neptune said when asked if he felt his roster was better today than it was on March 20.

Neptune likes the balance of experience and youth, and 28th is good enough to be in the NCAA Tournament after missing it the last two seasons. But Villanova entered each of the last two seasons ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, and the Wildcats are a combined 35-33 over that stretch.

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The idea that another missed tournament could mean he doesn’t get the chance to coach the team beyond this season hasn’t crossed his mind, Neptune said, and 2024-25 is not the final season of his contract, he said.

In the past, Neptune has talked about understanding the pressures and all that come with participating in high-level sports in a job like the one he has. And even despite the disappointment of the first two seasons, he said he’s not feeling any more pressure today.

“I don’t feel anything different than I felt the first day I came to Villanova,” Neptune said. “I feel the same because I know the responsibility. I didn’t look at it as less important at that time, and I look at it in just as high of a reverence as I do today.”

The boos and detractors? He understands those, too.

“Guess what?” Neptune said. “There’s no one that’s more frustrated about how last season went than me. No matter what, there’s no one on earth more invested in this place being what it should be than Kyle Neptune. Period. Sometimes I feel like I could go up there and boo with them. I don’t blame our fan base for being upset because we deserve more.”

The clock is ticking. While he may not admit it publicly, Neptune knows he has to deliver more, and soon. Another season that ends in disappointment might leave him no choice but to watch Villanova games from the stands.