Are Kyle Neptune And Villanova In Trouble?
Photo by: Tom Gralish
Filling in the shoes of a hall of fame coach is no easy task, but things have quickly gone south for Kyle Neptune at Villanova.
Jay Wright established a winning culture at Villanova guiding the Wildcats to four final fours and two NCAA Championships in 21 seasons as head coach. Not to mention their run of Big East supremacy over the course of several years. Winning had become the norm for this program under Wright and fans were hoping that trend would continue under Kyle Neptune. Being the assistant to Wright since 2013, one would think some of Wright’s teachings carried on with Neptune. Through the first year-and-a-half, that has not been the case.
Photo by: Porter Brinks
Neptune’s first season was a rather disappointing one which saw the program miss “The Big Dance” for the first time since 2004. It was hard to point the finger at Neptune given last season was overshadowed by injuries to Justin Moore and Cam Whitmore for an extended period of the season, but Neptune had the opportunity to redeem himself in year two.
During the offseason, Neptune brought in one of the nation’s finest transfer classes, seeing Tyler Burton, T.J. Bamba, Hakim Hart, and Lance Ware all joining the Wildcats. With those players joining a returning core of Justin Moore, Eric Dixon, and Mark Armstrong, last season already seemed like a distant memory.
Villanova were ranked 22nd in the AP Top 25 Preseason Poll and were expected to become one of the top teams in the country once again. Except it only took three games for Villanova to suffer their first loss of the season, in a rather underwhelming performance at Penn in their first game of the Big 5 Classic.
Photo by: Kevin Jairaj
Fortunately, they were able to put that performance behind them as they traveled to the Bahamas to compete in the Battle 4 Atlantis and won Neptune’s first piece of silverware as head coach. Villanova garnered victories over Texas Tech, North Carolina, and Memphis to solidify themselves as one of the nation’s top teams.
Yet, when they returned home to Pennsylvania, everything quickly turned sour. The Wildcats lost three straight games to St. Joe’s, Drexel, and at Kansas State which pushed them out of the AP Poll. Their non-conference schedule ended with a record of 8-4.
Shifting to Big East play, they currently stand as one of four teams with a conference record below .500 even after starting the league with four wins after five games. Villanova are most recently coming off a home loss to an injury depleted Marquette team, to push their losing streak to five games. They currently sit ninth in the conference, only above dismal Georgetown, and DePaul.
Photo by: Charles Fox
Villanova currently holds an overall record of 11-10, 4-6 in the Big East, and are at risk of missing their second straight NCAA Tournament. Many bracketologists have them as a “bubble team” heading into a showdown with Providence at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday.
It has been a roller coaster ride for Kyle Neptune and Villanova fans thus far, but for a program with such high standards, there is no guarantee that Neptune will remain as head coach beyond this season. Though Villanova still have opportunities to pick up quality wins, there isn’t much time remaining for Neptune to prove he is the right man to lead this storied program moving forward.
