WRIGHT OR WRONG
Nova finishes uncharacteristic week on bubble with coach put in impossible spot
ON WEDNESDAY, Villanova wasn’t tough enough, pushed around for the better part of 40 minutes by previously struggling St. John’s. Three days later, it couldn’t close out a win over mediocre Butler, blowing an 11-point lead in the final 4:23 of regulation.
It was a very un-Villanova week, outmuscled one game and unable to execute in key moments the next. Except, maybe this is what this program is at this point.
At least, this is what the Wildcats have been the past two seasons, aside from the November exception that was the Battle 4 Atlantis Classic in the Bahamas where they beat three projected NCAA Tournament teams, Texas Tech, North Carolina and Memphis, in convincing fashion.
And as the inconsistency and underperformance has piled up, the focus has intensified on coach Kyle Neptune, Jay Wright’s successor. The answers haven’t been there for a team that was ranked 22nd in the Associated Press preseason poll and added projected impact transfers TJ Bamba (Washington State), Tyler Burton (Richmond) and Hakim Hart (Maryland) to the core of Eric Dixon, Justin Moore, Jordan Longino and Mark Armstrong. The transfers are all having significantly worse seasons compared to last year, while Moore hasn’t been himself since missing five weeks with a sprained knee.
At times, it looks like a team without a leader, which is a pretty jarring thing to say for a group with so much experience. It was beaten up by St. John’s on Wednesday, out-rebounded by 19 and dominated over the final 10 minutes, outscored by 15. The loss to Butler was worse. Villanova was up 17-3 out of the gate, and allowed a layup and a dunk at the end of regulation and the first overtime that tied the game in both instances. Again, just not stuff you have seen from this program over the last decade. Villanova is now headed to the bubble, 11-9 overall and trending in a bad direction having lost five of the last six games.
Neptune’s biggest issue is time — he doesn’t seem to have much of it. Expectations were too high for this team to underachieve like it has. The shoes he stepped into may be too big, at least at this point in his career. A second straight season without an NCAA Tournament bid would make next year likely a makeor-break season for him, and that’s if Neptune sees next year.
Personally, I don’t think the Neptune criticism is completely fair. This is his third season as a college basketball head coach. He’s 39 years old. The problem was the hire to begin with. I get that Villanova wanted to keep it in the family, and Neptune served as an assistant for Wright from 2013-21, but this was an impossible spot for an inexperienced head coach. In Wright’s third year as a head coach, he went 12-15 — at Hofstra. He didn’t win 20 games until his fifth season.
It’s easy to fault Neptune, which so many are. The team isn’t performing up to expectations — it is one of the most disappointing teams in the country, now in danger of missing the tournament — so it’s natural to point the finger at the coach. Odds are, though, that whoever took over for Wright would struggle.
You can’t adequately replace a Hall of Fame coach. Villanova is finding that out.
Garden of dreams
Next Saturday is lining up to be a monster day at the Garden, a doubleheader featuring St. John’s-Connecticut at noon and the Knicks-Lakers in the evening. After throttling Xavier by 43 points on Sunday, the Huskies will enter the meeting with the Johnnies No. 1 in the country. St. John’s looks like a tournament team in Rick Pitino’s first season, and has proven to be able to play with the league’s best teams, falling by a combined six points to No. 1 UConn, No. 14 Marquette and No. 17 Creighton.
Then, there is the subplot of Pitino saying he wanted to play the Huskies at Carnesecca Arena next year, which was a way to tweak UConn and Dan Hurley. That’s not going to happen, although there is clearly a burgeoning rivalry and some underlying animosity between the two intense coaches.
St. John’s came away feeling it should’ve won the first contest between the two in Hartford, a four-point loss, back on Dec. 23. UConn star center Donovan Clingan missed that game, it should be noted.
While it remains in good shape to go dancing, St. John’s is without a marquee victory. This certainly would be one — with a bullet. MSG, which is expected to either be sold out or close to it for this encounter, will be rocking.