Villanova heads back to the drawing board to ‘get better’ after Big 5 loss to Penn at the Palestra

Ten times in five minutes Monday night, Kyle Neptune used a version of “be better” when dissecting what went wrong during his Villanova team’s 76-72 loss to Penn at the Palestra and what had to happen in the aftermath.

Simplistic, yes, but what else was there to say? No. 21 Villanova, which won by margins of 27 and 26 points to start its season against inferior competition, did little well on Monday night. The Wildcats missed open jump shots, layups, 8-footers, and were way too indecisive against a Penn zone that shouldn’t have come as any surprise — the Quakers deployed it in each of their first two games.

“We were ready for it, went over it, they just did a good job,” Neptune said of the zone.

What’s the quickest way to beat a zone? Shoot a team out of it. The Wildcats made just one of their first nine three-point attempts. Meanwhile, they were 2-for-8 inside the arc. Start a game 3-for-17 from the field, and you’re fighting an uphill battle. Penn’s lead was never double digits until late in the second half, but it felt like Villanova, which led for just 53 seconds, was down by 10 the whole game.

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The Wildcats found their spots at times, but they couldn’t convert. Villanova shot just 34.9% from the field. Only once in 37 games since Neptune took over the program did the Wildcats have a worse shooting night, during a November loss last season to Portland at a Thanksgiving-week tournament.

It’s pretty hard to win a basketball game shooting at that clip. Villanova missed 24 of its 33 attempts from three-point range. If your argument is that’s too many three-pointers, the Wildcats weren’t all that great inside the arc either (13-of-30).

“I don’t think you can ever 100% rely on making or missing shots,” Neptune said. “If that’s all you’re relying on, you’re not going to be a good team.”

He had a point, but make two more triples or three more two-point shots and the result is flipped. Sometimes it is just shot-making and nothing else. Penn freshman Tyler Perkins made two tough threes in the second half, and sophomore Cam Thrower hit one from about 28 feet, while Villanova didn’t seem to make a clutch shot until it was too late. In some ways, that’s the game right there. Penn shot 51.1% from the floor, which included 41.2% on three-point attempts. The disparity between any two teams in that department on most nights is more than enough. Storm the court, have a party, and send the away team westbound on I-76 with a Big 5 loss and a lot of work to do.

But taking Neptune’s line of thinking a bit further, there indeed are plenty of ways to win a game in areas that don’t include the field-goal portion of the box score. You have to get stops (Villanova couldn’t stack them). You have to rebound on the defensive end (Penn grabbed 10 offensive rebounds and scored 12 second-chance points). You have to stay out of foul trouble (Villanova committed 23 fouls, and Penn shot 34 free throws).

The Villanova team that looked so deep and dominant and so connected during a season-opening win over American was hard to see Monday night. The Wildcats had just six assists on their 22 makes.

This is a roster still getting used to playing together, implementing four transfers who play big minutes in a much deeper rotation than Neptune had last season. Penn coach Steve Donahue made sure to mention that part after the game.

» READ MORE: Villanova’s Kyle Neptune enters a second season with real expectations. Now, the evaluation can begin.

“Let’s be honest. They have incredible expectations,” Donahue said. “But that’s really hard what Kyle’s got to do, in particular at a place like Villanova that really lives on their culture. So now you have four guys who have been other places … [and need to] come together. That’s way harder than people realize. I think they’re going to be a really good team.”

Time, of course, will tell. Time is undefeated. This was, after all, Game 3. Villanova lost to Penn in December 2018 and snapped a 25-game Big 5 winning streak in the process. The Wildcats then went on to win the Big East championship. It was a one-game blip in an otherwise good season.

This could be, too.

Is November a good time to get punched in the mouth while a new-look roster figures it all out?

“We don’t really think about it like that,” Neptune said. “We just have to keep getting better. If we would have won that game and snuck that out, we would have had all the same things we still have to get better at. We try to be even-keeled in that thought process where we’re always thinking about getting better, win or lose.

“We have to go back, dust ourselves off, go back to practice, and get better.”

Neptune’s detractors probably won’t like the answers, but it’s all there is. Next on the schedule is Maryland on Friday night at Finneran Pavilion. How these Wildcats respond will be pretty telling.