Villanova’s Kyle Neptune enters a second season with real expectations. Now, the evaluation can begin.
Neptune’s Wildcats struggled last season, but there were reasons for that. Can Villanova make a big comeback this season?
If you have already formed an opinion of Kyle Neptune as a basketball coach, you’ve done a great disservice, to yourself and to the coach.
There are probably a lot of you. Humans — sports fans especially — tend to overreact before things have a chance to play out, before all the necessary context is in place.
Jay Wright left and Villanova went from the Final Four to an opening-round NIT loss in Lynchburg, Va. The mighty had fallen — from 30-8 to 17-17. Wrong guy, wrong hire. The Villanova Way: dead (It might be, in its previous form, but that’s another story for another day). The most reactionary of fans on the Main Line probably said some of those things.
But whether you think Neptune is the right guy for the job or not flies in the face of the reality that not even Wright could have guided last year’s Villanova team to the NCAA Tournament, which the Wildcats missed out on for the first time since 2012. They played seven total games with what amounted to their normal game rotation (and went 5-2 in those games). Justin Moore, the team’s best player, missed the first 20 games. Several players were asked to do things that didn’t fit their styles in a perfect world.
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To be clear, these aren’t excuses Neptune is making himself, at least not publicly. The season ended without much fanfare late on a Tuesday night on ESPN2. But then the real work started, and now we get to the playing out stage and the necessary context when it comes to evaluating Villanova’s second-year coach (third-year when counting Neptune’s one-year stint at Fordham).
The Wildcats retooled their roster, adding four impact players in the transfer portal. They were in the mix for all-American Hunter Dickinson. Speaking of that transfer portal, more than 1,700 players entered it, and Villanova didn’t lose a single player to it after the season ended (guard Angelo Brizzi transferred in December). That includes now-sophomore Brendan Hausen, the sharpshooting guard who struggled to find playing time and could have found more of it elsewhere. It includes Moore, who could have gone closer to home (Maryland, Georgetown) or sought more money for what is his final year of eligibility.
Was that reaffirming for Neptune?
“It just showed the power of Villanova,” Neptune said. “It’s been a big-time program for a long time. It showed how much the guys here believe in us and believe in Villanova.”
The question was phrased in a way that opened the door for Neptune to pat himself on the back a little bit, but he didn’t bite. Nor did he bite when asked about the added pressure that comes after retooling the roster and entering the season as No. 22 in the preseason Associated Press men’s basketball rankings. He’s smart enough to know that at a place like Villanova, with a burgeoning NIL program and demanding donors, there’s pressure every year. This season with a real contender to win the Big East, no different than last, an inexperienced and injured group.
“We just focus on what it is we have to do this year,” Neptune said. “I try to just worry about the task at hand. It really doesn’t matter about what happened last year, about what the parameters are moving forward. All that matters is this year we have this group of guys.”
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This group of guys, though, is second-weekend good, and maybe beyond. Missing the NCAA Tournament, assuming there’s not a run of injuries that derails the season, would be a failure any way you slice it up. What was at times a seven- or eight-man rotation last season is more like 10 this season. Moore could be an all-American. Eric Dixon could be the top big man in the Big East. Sophomore Mark Armstrong could take the leap. The Wildcats have seven players who are either seniors or fifth-year college players.
Neptune has gone from needing alumni and managers to participate in practice and/or the Blue-White game last season to having a full bench.
Yes, there’s a different feeling about this team, Neptune said, but it would have been that way with the transfer portal haul or without it.
“Every team is 100% different,” he said. “Even if you bring back the entire same roster, the young men are actually different year to year. They’re growing in light-years right in front of you.
“The roster is completely different than last year. It’s a new puzzle that we have to put together and try to get there by the end.”
Where “there” is doesn’t have a target. The Wildcats don’t talk about end goals, just getting better daily, that part of the Villanova Way hasn’t gone anywhere.
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But is Neptune at least more comfortable in his job this time around, having gone through an entire offseason at the same place for the first time? After having success in the portal? After recently getting a few 2024 recruiting commitments?
“I don’t think it’s good to feel comfortable,” he said. “I think it’s good to have an edge and always put every ounce of energy into getting better. Comfortable … I don’t know how good of a thing that is. I think everyone who is a competitor is always trying to strive for better. You win a championship, you’re still going to come back and try to be better the next year.”
The mission starts Monday against American University. And where it all goes this time around will provide much more context when it comes to what you or anyone else should think about Villanova’s coach.
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