Basketball
Villanova has fired men’s basketball coach Kyle Neptune after three disappointing seasons following the Jay Wright era.
The 40-year-old Neptune, who was in Wright’s coaching tree as an assistant at the university for eight years, failed to reach the NCAA Tournament in his three years at the helm and went 54-47 during that span. Neptune failed to break through this season despite having the nation’s leading scorer in Eric Dixon (23.0 points per game) and one of the better name, image and likeness (NIL) budgets in the Big East. The Wildcats went 19-14, highlighted by losses to Columbia and Virginia, and unraveled in several games, including handing Georgetown its first regular-season sweep of Villanova since 1993.
The standard for success changed under Wright, who led Villanova to the top of the map with national titles in 2016 and 2018 while producing high-level NBA players and going 263-53 over his final nine years on the job.
When former Villanova athletic director Mark Jackson, who hired Neptune, took the Northwestern athletic director job last August, it felt like the writing was on the wall — unless Neptune turned the ship around this season. But it was more of the same, with a team that possessed talent and 3-point shooting but lacked the ability to close games.
New Villanova athletic director Eric Roedl, who came from one of the winningest athletic departments in the country at Oregon, took the job in November with the assurance that he would be in control of hiring and firing duties, sources told FOX Sports. Roedl has been in observation mode of the program since taking the job, and with Neptune losing the support of key backers, enough was enough for the university’s brass.
Where do the Wildcats turn now?
Look for Northwestern head coach Chris Collins to be a primary candidate, with Drake’s Ben McCollum, New Mexico’s Richard Pitino, Vanderbilt’s Mark Byington and Colorado State’s Niko Medved potentially on their radar as well, based on what sources told FOX Sports.
Assistant Coach Mike Nardi will serve as the program’s interim head coach and a national search will get underway for Villanova, a brand that had risen to the top of the sport not long ago but with a generational great in Wright. A valuable job? Absolutely. But a curious search for a school that has to head outside the family.
John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him at @John_Fanta.
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Villanova Wildcats
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