Kyle Neptune’s days at Villanova may be numbered as free fall continues

In his two-plus seasons at Villanova, Kyle Neptune is 37-34 and still looking for his first NCAA tournament berth. (Photo by Porter Binks/Getty Images).

The chants echoed through Hagan Arena on Tuesday night with the home team seconds away from closing out an 83-76 victory over Villanova.

“Thank you, Neptune! Thank you, Neptune!” the Saint Joseph’s student section mockingly sang at Villanova’s embattled men’s basketball coach.

This was another new low for Kyle Neptune after two-plus years of plunging Villanova basketball from the top of the sport to the depths of mediocrity. This was the moment where Neptune’s seat went from hot to scorching, where it became difficult to envision a scenario where he regains the trust of Villanova’s donors and ticket buyers and earns another season.

A Villanova program that missed the NCAA tournament in both of Neptune’s first two seasons has opened his third year in exactly the way that he couldn’t afford. The Wildcats have dropped two of their opening four games, the defeat at Saint Joseph’s coming less than a week after a disastrous home loss to Columbia.

Under Neptune, Villanova has now lost eight times in two-plus seasons against teams ranked outside the KenPom top 100. Jay Wright suffered two such losses in his final nine seasons as head coach of the Wildcats.

That Villanova has fallen this far this quickly is an indictment of Neptune given the state of the program when Wright abruptly retired shortly after the 2022 Final Four. Villanova was then at its apex, having captured the 2016 and 2018 national championships, won at least a share of seven of the previous nine Big East regular-season titles and sent a slew of impact players to the NBA.

Neptune was an unproven but logical choice to succeed Wright because of his deep ties to the Villanova program. He had spent eight seasons as an assistant coach under Wright before leaving to become Fordham’s head coach for a single season. Many of the veterans on Villanova’s…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-11-13 19:23:00

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