Villanova Fires Kyle Neptune

[3rdbass]

You could kind of sense something in the last minute when Neptune and Hurley were talking, something along the lines of I'm out of here.

Neptune has a lot of talent on those teams to not do better. I will say like us PG has been a weak spot for them including this year.

 

[Zissou]

I think Odom and Collins would be leading candidates

Who are the Nova fans hoping for?

I’ve been ringing the Odom bell for the past few months.

 

[bendm]

In hindsight, I’m not surprised this turned into an Ollie thread

 

[AZHuskiePop]

If the rumors end up being true here then there's potential downstream impact to UConn here

I'm not making a case the facts show that Ollie was the right hire, turned a 2 year plan into a national championship, him falling off after that is on him. He was the right hire but didn't turn into THE GUY.

Olliie wasn’t even the hire he had a six month interim contract .
In Ollie 4th year we won 26 games and the AAC championship
Got a terrible break in the tournament as a 9
Beat an 8 and lost to the overall 1 seed . B
The Next year was a huge disappointment because expectations were high but as bad as that year was we finished 9-9 in the AAC and won 2 games in the AAC tournament losing in the semis with a makeshift lineup .
Comparing Ollie ‘s record to Neptune’s. Is really beyond ridiculous.
His last year we not only lost a bunch to graduation but team desertions , decommits , ineligibility, and injuries totally depleted the roster.

 

[scotty0330]

Calhoun wasn't perfect but he earned that right and set up Ollie with a staff, Blaney stayed on in the tourney ban year. It's easy to be a genius in hindsight. Would you have trusted Jeff Hathaway to hire the next coach?

I was reading this and ready to disagree with it but that last sentence hit home and was like you’re absolutely right. The name Hathaway sends shivers down my spine. The depth of his incompetence was mind boggling. You wanna see a bad head coaching hire Hathaway would say hold my beer…..

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Unrelated to Nova/Neptune but related to prospective coaches that could be on the move. Drake Coach Ben McC is being mentioned as a potential candidate in the Indiana job.

Rumors suggest Iowa may also be targeting Ben McCollum. Would be a massive catch bringing McCollum back to his birthplace. IU NIL vs U of I?

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

You know what really grinds PC fans gears, UConn beating them on the ice.

Beautiful UConn hockey defeating PC (3-1) to earn the Huskies 2nd (edit) Hockey East semi-final bid is icing on the cake

 

[Scoe]

Beautiful UConn hockey defeating PC (3-16) to earn the Huskies first Hockey East semi-final bid is icing on the cake

2nd Hockey East FF bid but still a huge win, bigger this year since they will be going to the NCAA tournament.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Would be interesting if Bobby Hurley came back to Uconn as an assistant if Kimani or Luke leave. . One year left on his ASU contract and they made it public they are not extending him.

Unlikely, particularly based on media reports suggesting ASU’s allowing Danny Hurley’s brother to return for another year in Tempe.

 

[Phoenixhusky]

Unlikely, particularly based on media reports suggesting ASU’s allowing Danny Hurley’s brother to return for another year in Tempe.

Has one year left on his deal but hearing buy out chatter here.

 

[Leebo]

Comparing Ollie ‘s record to Neptune’s. Is really beyond ridiculous.

Going by torvik rankings, Neptune's worst year was his first season, where Villanova was 61st.
Ollie had 3 seasons worse than that, 2015 (85th), 2017 (90th), and 2018 (185th), so I don't see why it's that ridiculous. I guess your point is that AAC records look deceptively okay?

If anything, Neptune is a bit unlucky that his merely "meh" seasons have felt so god awful. If he had had about the same torvik ranking but without the atrocious losses, maybe he'd be around still.

 

[UCHuskies08]

At the hire, many of us were thrilled, and that feeling lasted until early 2015. Right about when his marriage fell apart. 2014 was one of my 6 favorite years.

I (still) have a cat named Ollie

 

[djct1999]

From my understanding of mixed Trilly tea, Kimani is angling hard for VCU. It's unclear if they have interest in him, but Odom is either going Nova or UVA, so the job will be open either way.

That’s a great job for Kimani. Would love to see him there!

 

[cohenzone]

Calhoun is responsible for essentially forcing the university to hire a wholly unqualified person who had 0 head coaching experience, resulting in a near death knell for the program. Yes.

It took a coach as transcendent as Hurley, what, 3 or 4 years to get us back in the top-25? That's how badly KO screwed this program top to bottom.

Yeah and half this board has 2 of our assistants going to head coach first time in major conferences.

 

[controlfade]

Rumors suggest Iowa may also be targeting Ben McCollum. Would be a massive catch bringing McCollum back to his birthplace. IU NIL vs U of I?

I believe Indiana’s budget is only surpassed by Kansas. Now, neither have done a great job with it.

 

[runner11]

Going by torvik rankings, Neptune's worst year was his first season, where Villanova was 61st.
Ollie had 3 seasons worse than that, 2015 (85th), 2017 (90th), and 2018 (185th), so I don't see why it's that ridiculous. I guess your point is that AAC records look deceptively okay?

If anything, Neptune is a bit unlucky that his merely "meh" seasons have felt so god awful. If he had had about the same torvik ranking but without the atrocious losses, maybe he'd be around still.

This post is entirely devoid of context.

 

[huskymedic]

With Kyle Neptune out, who’s next to coach Villanova? Here are some candidates to watch.

The Villanova job is still a desirable one, and the school’s administration will likely cast a wide net, but the search will have a needed sense of urgency.

www.inquirer.com

 

[AdamaNation]

The rumors are they'll target Ryan Odom which opens up the VCU job for Kimani

My other school. It’s the only place I’d be good with. 2011 was awesome!!! Kinda full circle as Shaka was on our short list at one time and probably still is. Who do we bring in to continue the nyc/tristate recruiting pool? I’ve always been open to vcu joining the big east too. Bring back temple as well. They may be down but they’re a good b-ball school and it adds to the nova experience.

 

[Scrutineer]

Looking back and saying "well we won a natty so Calhoun was right" isn't going to help your case. We could play what if's all day. Maybe we hire Shaka and win 3 nattys. Maybe we hire some other schlub and never crack the top-100. No one knows.

What we do know is KO was completely unqualified in every way. Plain and simple.

I understand your point but disagree with using Shaka Smart as an example of someone who could win, as you say, "three nattys". It's a pet peeve just like Tex Schram with the Cowboys. The media kept hyping his draft choices from fifteen years before as the team was failing to make the playoffs. Shaka seems similar.

He's a gentleman, seems to recruit nice kids who seem to love him, but his success the last two years was based on the play of two kids he didn't recruit: Kolek and Ighodaro.

And, if you look at his performance at VCU, Texas and Marquette a pattern seems to emerge. He does better early, possibly an indication he can manage a roster but doesn't recruit well or recruit the right players.

He got to the Final Four his first year at VCU then tailed off. Texas was a disaster as he was one and done the three times he made the tournament and didn't make it his other three years.

While his trend is good at Marquette, I could argue the team improved as Kolek and Ighodaro improved. Now they're gone and he's losing Jones, Mitchell and Joplin. I don't see them going far this year and next year could be a downer.

After the FF:
2012 VCU--Round of 32
2013 VCU--Round of 32
2014 VCU--One and done
2015 VCU--One and done
2016 Texas--One and done
2018 Texas--One and done
2021 Texas--One and done
2022 Marquette--One and done
2023 Marquette--Round of 32
2024 Marquette--Sweet Sixteen

 

[EROCK CONN]

I’m not sure Jay picked Neptune

A colleague of mine, has a brother whose cousin’s best friend’s sister’s love child’s former college roommate’s father, who owns a car wash - apparently this guy is on the board of Nova, he also tweets a lot, but i was told by this person that Neptune was not Jay Wright’s first choice.

On a siriass note, i do have a colleague - nova grad who has friends in the nova athletic department and he told me that Neptune was not Wright’s first choice.

 

[Scrutineer]

The league is a shadow of itself compared to 25 years ago so let's hope we see some leadership from Val and that the Villanova Board of Trustees is committed to winning. Maybe remind them what St. John's did in just two years.

Val should be all over this reminding Villanova the league's credibility regarding getting teams chosen for the tournament and its ability to generate media revenue is dependent on the member schools all being somewhat competitive and the desirability of having five or six name programs leading the way.

They were one of them the past ten years.......until the Neptune hire. They, and to some extent the league, can't afford a second massive failure so they should be going for a successful mid-major coach over some high level league assistant.

 

[GoConn]

We need Nova to be good for the sake of this conference. Besides us, Nova is really the only other big brand, Pitino/NYC buzz of late has helped St Johns. But UConn and Nova run this conference.

 

[EnochRoot]

Looks like Kevin Willard is going to use the Villanova vacancy into goading Maryland into giving him a contract in the top 10 of all MBB coach contracts.

I wouldn't include Willard in my top 25 of coaches. I get that timing is everything, but this reeks of Maryland being afraid of what's behind door #2.

 

[CTBasketball]

Looks like Kevin Willard is going to use the Villanova vacancy into goading Maryland into giving him a contract in the top 10 of all MBB coach contracts.

I wouldn't include Willard in my top 25 of coaches. I get that timing is everything, but this reeks of Maryland being afraid of what's behind door #2.

Willard also knows Villanova has more NIL than Maryland. Regardless he needs a big run this year to have any leverage.

He’s been nothing short of mid.

 

[RuffRuff]

Latest word is Kevin Willard open to Nova, doesn’t like the travel in the B10.