No. 22 Villanova ready to regain spot among nation’s elite in coach Kyle Neptune’s second season

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kyle Neptune took over a Villanova program that hummed along as one of the best in college basketball.

Those Big East titles, automatic. Final Four expectations, as high as the national championship banners raised in the rafters at the Pavilion.

Sure, some growing pains were expected when Neptune inherited the top spot on the bench once Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright made his shock retirement ahead of last season.

But the hits — and the L’s — were relentless on the Main Line.

Cam Whitmore, a first-round NBA draft pick, missed the first chunk of the season following thumb surgery. There was a loss in the second game of the season to city rival Temple. The Wildcats lost four straight games in late November and then lost five of six in — gasp! — conference play.

By the time the Wildcats (17-17, 10-0 Big East) ended the season with an NIT loss at Liberty, Neptune’s debut never neared the lofty standard set by Wright.

Neptune’s second season has all the potential to not only surpass his first one, but to stake the No. 22 Wildcats back among the nation’s elite.

“Villanova, from what everybody tells me, is back in a big way,” St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said. “I know most of his players since I was looking at some of them. Villanova will be back as one of the premier schools in the nation again. It takes a while to replace Jay Wright. They had a rash of injuries, and it was unfair. Now (Neptune’s) got a great basketball team.”

Pitino has been around a time or two. And a time or two more, so his scouting report on the Wildcats might prove to be spot on.

Here’s a look at why optimism has returned to Villanova.

LOOK WHO’S BACK

By most scouting reports, guard Justin Moore should be in the NBA or, at worst, playing professionally somewhere this season. Moore tore his right Achilles’ tendon in the waning moments of the 2022 NCAA regional final, costing him a chance to play in the Final Four, sending him into months of rehab, and stripping him of…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/no-22-villanova-ready-regain-185127286.html

Author : Associated Press

Publish date : 2023-10-26 18:51:27

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