Dick Weiss on College Basketball
PHILADELPHIA– Villanova is going through a rare rebuilding season, trying to right a sinking ship of a 12-10 season that has put them on the
cusp of missing the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year and has angered a demanding fanbase to a point where some are calling for Kyle Neptune’s head.
The Wildcats got a temporary reprieve here last night when they buried Providence 68-50, with a suffocating defense that sent the friars into a coma during a
historically bad first half when Providence only scored 15 points on 4- of -24 shooting and had nine turnovers.
The Wildcats desperately needed this win to keep their NCAA hopes alive after losing five straight games in the Big East to UConn, St. John’s, Butler and two to Marquette.
Nobody said the Big East was easy.
It’s a physical journey that can grind you down if you aren’t careful.
Neptune, a former Jay Wright assistant who only had one year of head coaching at Fordham when he took this job two years ago, has been trying to figure it out ever since.
It’s never been easy replacing a legend and Wright, who won two national championships in 2016 and 2018, is the closest thing this Main Line Catholic university has to one.
Neptune coached the Cats to a 17-17 season and a brief NIT appearance that ended with a first round loss at Liberty.
this year has had its ups and downs. The Cats had Maryland down 45-17 during an early season 57-40 victory at the Finn, then beat three seemingly competitive teams– Texas Tech, North Carolina and Memphis– to win the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. Carolina is ranked third in the AP poll.
But they also lost to three Big 5 teams— Penn, St. Joesph’s and Drexel– who mystified them with a zone defense.
This Villanova team has post season talent. The Cats started the season with two stars– 6-8 forward Eric Dixon and 6-3 senior guard Justin Moore. They build a deep, experienced rotation with four upper class transfers–6-5 senior guard TJ Bamba from Washington State, 6-9 senior Ware of Kentucky, 6-8 fifth year wing Hakim Hart of Maryland and 6-7 fifth year Tyler Burton of Richmond–and blended them with three Jay Wright recruits– junior guard Jordan Longino, sophomore point guard Mark Armstrong and sophomore three-point specialist Brendan Hausen.
Villanova is the oldest team in the conference.
But the Cats, who are 5-6 in league play, are not without their flaws. Nova is eighth in the league with field goal percentage at 42.4 and have shot less than 40 percent 10 times. Aside from Hausen, they lack consistent three-point threats, shooting just 32.6 percent from behind the arc as a team. The jury is still out on whether Armstrong is a true successor to Ryan Arcidiacono, Jalen Brunson and Colin Gillespie. And Moore, a one- time potential NBA player, has not been the same since he tore his Achilles in the 2022 NCAA Elite Eight game against Houston.
And there have been technical glitches on Neptune’s part in critical situations. In an overtime loss at Butler a week and a half ago, the Cats had a two- point lead with fouls to give. Butler had the ball with 12 seconds left in regulation. Nova not only let them run offense without fouling and score on an uncontested layup to tie the game and force overtime.
Neptune is learning on the job and I am reluctant to judge a coach until the end of a season.
The Cats have put themselves in a situation where they have must win games the rest of the season.
They have nine games left– road games at Xavier, UConn and Providence, two games against Georgetown and two against Seton Hall.
They need six more wins to get to 18 wins before the Big East tournament and lock up an NCAA bid.
They can do it.
But nothing has come easy for this team in January. That’s why it was a welcoming sign to watch Villanova, which led 26-15 at half, overcame a rough shooting first half itself to crank up the defense for 40 minutes and constantly contesting PC shots, limiting the Friars (14-8, 5-6) to just 15- for- 50 shooting. Providence coach Kim English calls his team’s shot selection, “sickening.” We agree.
“I was really proud of the way our guys came out defensively just in terms of our effort,” Neptune said. “I thought we played extremely hard and were really locked in.”
Dixon led the Cats with 12 points and Hausen and Bamba added 10 for the Cats, who will remain in the survival mode when they travel to Xavier for another road test Wednesday.
