Welcome to The Holy Land of Hoops

Oof. A very un-Nova like year. Let's get into it

OUT:
*Caleb Daniels
*Brandon Slater
*Cam Whitmore (going pro)

STAY:
*Chris Arcidiacono
*Justin Moore
*Jordan Longino
*Eric Dixon
*Mark Armstrong
*Brendan Hausen

IN:
*Jordann Dumont
*TJ Bamba (Transfer from Washington State)
*Hakim Hart (Transfer from Maryland)
*Lance Ware (Transfer from Villanova)
*Tyler Burton (Transfer from Richmond)

My 0.02:
I get it. Adjusting to a new coach is not always easy and the Wildcats had to navigate through many injuries this season. Moore was out for the vast majority of the year. Whitmore was out for most of the early part and Longino also missed time. But I still don't like what I see out of Nova. Jay Wright didn't leave the cupboard bare for Kyle Neptune. 4 of the 5 starters this year were in the Final Four a year ago. The one exception (Whitmore, because he's a freshman) is very likely going to be a lottery pick in the draft. Yet the Cats go 17-17 for the year and 10-10 in league play. All of that talent....and that's what you produce? I absolutely hate to pile on the guy but that's not a good look. Even if it's just year 1. They only had 2 wins over NCAA Tourney teams this year against Xavier and Creighton. CU would fight back a couple weeks later and beat Nova in the BET by 13. Then they go out with a whimper with an NIT first round loss to Liberty (albeit without Moore and Whitmore). Could Neptune turn it around? Absolutely!! I'd love to see it because we need Nova to be that national power that it has been for most of the past decade. I apologize for sounding so negative. I just expected better this year with all of the talent they had. All players that got significant playing time were recruited by Wright. Anyway, what say you Nova Nation? Your takes here matter more than mine. Do you still believe in Kyle Neptune and think he can get the Cats back on track?

POST-DEADLINE UPDATE:
Kyle and the Cats have had a good offseason. Really like their transfer portal additions in Burton, Hart, Bamba and Ware. Burton was very highly-touted when he hit the portal and was a very good player at Richmond. He'll need to get adjusted to playing in the Big East though. Hart and Bamba were key players on power conference teams at Maryland and Washington State, respectively. Ware didn't play much at Kentucky. But if Calipari wanted you at one point, you've gotta be pretty damn good. Not to mention Neptune got great players like Moore and Dixon to stick around. Armstrong also had a good freshman season. Future is looking good for the Wildcats. Now, the real question is, can Neptune coach them up and get them to mesh. Last year wasn't very encouraging, but he certainly could turn it around!

I'm skeptical of Neptune but also think he had them playing well down the stretch and he suffered from the lack of strong point guard play.

sort of tough to say that Nova had 4 starters back from last year. really was 3 1/2 given Moore basically played 1/2 the season. If Moore had been there all year long, they would have been better than 10-10 first 20 games, and things are a lot different down the stretch, where Nova had 8 of 13 games against either ranked teams or Providence. And still 2 more with Seton Hall. And still went 7-6 in those 13.

OmahaGuy wrote:Oof. A very un-Nova like year. Let's get into it

OUT:
*Caleb Daniels
*Brandon Slater
*Cam Whitmore (highly likely he goes pro)

STAY:
*Chris Arcidiacono
*Justin Moore (maybe he could go pro?)
*Jordan Longino
*Eric Dixon
*Mark Armstrong
*Brendan Hausen

IN:
*Jordann Dumont

My 0.02:
I get it. Adjusting to a new coach is not always easy and the Wildcats had to navigate through many injuries this season. Moore was out for the vast majority of the year. Whitmore was out for most of the early part and Longino also missed time. But . . .

You know what they say. Everything before the “but” is BS. If you really meant what you said in the first 3 sentences, there would be no “but”.

I still don't like what I see out of Nova. Jay Wright didn't leave the cupboard bare for Kyle Neptune. 4 of the 5 starters this year were in the Final Four a year ago.

Wait a minute. Jay might not have left the cupboard bare, but it was badly depleted. I don’t know who you’re considering the 5 starters to be, but here are the 5 who started the most games:

Dixon
Daniels
Slater
Whitmore
Arcidiacono

Only 3 of those were a factor in that Final Four run. Arcidiacono played 9 minutes a game. We’ve all seen him play and know his limitations. But look at what you’ve got here. Whitmore is certainly a capable replacement for Samuels, but you replaced one of the greatest players in school history with Arcidiacono!!! You don’t think that’s a huge downgrade? You don’t think the team is going to feel that loss. Neptune was just supposed to coach ‘em up and get close to the same results without Gillespie!

Fact: there was no replacement on the roster for Gillespie. That’s huge.

The other thing you ignore is that last year’s team may have had the shortest bench in history. Jay basically had 6 starters, all of whom played more than 25 mpg and half of whom played more than 30 mpg. No one else played more than 10 mpg. Jay would spot players for a few minutes here and there, but no one other than those 6 played meaningful minutes. Losing 2 of those guys was losing a third of your productive players.

The other thing you’re ignoring is that all 6 of those guys were very experienced veterans. All 6 were seniors or juniors. So as talented as Whitmore is, you’re still putting a freshman on the floor to replace a veteran. Last year he was playing against high school kids. That in itself is a downgrade.

Then there’s the injury factor, which resulted in Longino and Armstrong starting a combined 15 games. Again, talented kids but no experience. A sophomore who saw little playing time last year (8.6 mpg in just 26 games) and a freshman. The guys on that 2021-22 team weren’t taking the team to Final 4’s when they were freshmen and sophomores.

The one exception (Whitmore, because he's a freshman) is very likely going to be a lottery pick in the draft, should he officially go pro. Yet the Cats go 17-17 for the year and 10-10 in league play. All of that talent....and that's what you produce?

What do you mean all of that talent? Moore missed 21 games and Whitmore missed 14. 35 games combined. That’s the equivalent of losing one player for a full season. Regardless of how talented they are, they aren’t of any value to the team when they’re not playing. And frankly Moore wasn’t the guy he used to be until maybe his last 6 games.

I absolutely hate to pile on the guy

Actually you seem to love piling on the guy. You do it with such gusto.

but that's not a good look. Even if it's just year 1. They only had 2 wins over NCAA Tourney teams this year against Xavier and Creighton. CU would fight back a couple weeks later and beat Nova in the BET by 13. Then they go out with a whimper with an NIT first round loss to Liberty (albeit without Moore and Whitmore).

Albeit . . . ??? Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play? Yeah, that’s what happens when you take 2 of your best players out of the lineup, one of whom is your senior point guard.

Could Neptune turn it around? Absolutely!! I'd love to see it because we need Nova to be that national power that it has been for most of the past decade. I apologize for sounding so negative. I just expected better this year with all of the talent they had.

This is where your problem begins. You overrated what you had coming back. And then injuries piled up as things went from bad to worse.

All players that got significant playing time were recruited by Wright.

Who did you expect to recruit significant players for this year’s team? Neptune who was working for another school up until April 20? By April 20, he was already getting a late start to be recruiting players for NEXT year’s team.

Anyway, what say you Nova Nation? Your takes here matter more than mine. Do you still believe in Kyle Neptune and think he can get the Cats back on track?

I still believe in Kyle Neptune, but more importantly I expect that Jay Wright still believes in Kyle Neptune.

The biggest problem with Villanova this year is that it had no one to replace Colin Gillespie. Absolutely no one. It wasn’t just a matter of replacing his points, or his assists, or his rebounds. It started with his leadership. He was a 5th year senior PG, who had played on a national championship team. It was like having another coach on the floor. It was his clutch play. He was the go-to guy when the game was on the line. Last year they were 10-2 it games decided by 6 points or less. It was the way he played the game. He was one of the fiercest competitors I’ve ever seen. And it all ended with his toughness. That kid gave you everything he had. Absolutely everything.

We have to stop bashing Kyle Neptune. It isn’t helping Villanova. He’s a good coach. He wasn’t the problem this year other than the fact that he isn’t Jay Wright. No one is. Villanova was going to take a hit no matter who they hired. But losing Gillespie and Samuels combined with the injuries to Moore and Whitmore meant that this team was undermanned more often than not. It was going to be a tough year no matter who was coaching the team.

There is one thing that is still bewildering to me. They knew Moore was hurt and would miss time when the season ended. They knew Arch and his limitations. Still they did nothing in the transfer portal. Many teams in the BE made significant upgrades that paid off this year. Villanova coming off a Final Four run, with the prestige of the name, clearly could have upgraded also, but did nothing. They must have been comfortable with the team they had coming back. Neptune was handed the keys to a Ferrari. He still hasn't proven he knows how to drive.

hoops22 wrote:There is one thing that is still bewildering to me. They knew Moore was hurt and would miss time when the season ended. They knew Arch and his limitations. Still they did nothing in the transfer portal. Many teams in the BE made significant upgrades that paid off this year. Villanova coming off a Final Four run, with the prestige of the name, clearly could have upgraded also, but did nothing. They must have been comfortable with the team they had coming back. Neptune was handed the keys to a Ferrari. He still hasn't proven he knows how to drive.

Very good points. Why weren't there adjustments made?

OmahaGuy wrote:I apologize for sounding so negative. I just expected better this year with all of the talent they had. All players that got significant playing time were recruited by Wright. Anyway, what say you Nova Nation? Your takes here matter more than mine. Do you still believe in Kyle Neptune and think he can get the Cats back on track?

Your take is benign compared to a lot of Nova fans. Neptune was hired specifically to keep the train rolling, and it appeared to work as he managed to retain the incoming class and nobody had entered the portal except Antoine. He had a solid group of players to work with, but in hindsight what probably killed our chances this season was the decision to not bring in a point guard (Neptune did recruit one Ivy kid who ended up in Michigan). A lot of us were way too optimistic with Armstrong/Brizzi manning the PG position. Unsurprisingly, the result was Arch being forced to play 35 mpg losing to Temple and going winless in PK85. Instead of a soft transition period (Jay has talked about this extensively), next season is looking to be a total rebuild, which probably wasn't the plan. Villanova is more patient than most, so Neptune is going to get his few years to learn and improve. I think we should have brought in the most qualified coach to lead a top 10 program Jay has built, but nothing can done about that now. We're kinda stuck just hoping Neptune is a fast learner.

I'll add one thing that doesn't get mentioned outside of Nova community. We had way too many recruiting misses over the past few years, and that's really on Jay. Just way too many highly ranked players never sniffing the court, and that's eventually going to catch up to a program that doesn't like to bring in transfers.

kayako wrote:

OmahaGuy wrote:I apologize for sounding so negative. I just expected better this year with all of the talent they had. All players that got significant playing time were recruited by Wright. Anyway, what say you Nova Nation? Your takes here matter more than mine. Do you still believe in Kyle Neptune and think he can get the Cats back on track?

Your take is benign compared to a lot of Nova fans. Neptune was hired specifically to keep the train rolling, and it appeared to work as he managed to retain the incoming class and nobody had entered the portal except Antoine. He had a solid group of players to work with, but in hindsight what probably killed our chances this season was the decision to not bring in a point guard (Neptune did recruit one Ivy kid who ended up in Michigan). A lot of us were way too optimistic with Armstrong/Brizzi manning the PG position. Unsurprisingly, the result was Arch being forced to play 35 mpg losing to Temple and going winless in PK85. Instead of a soft transition period (Jay has talked about this extensively), next season is looking to be a total rebuild, which probably wasn't the plan. Villanova is more patient than most, so Neptune is going to get his few years to learn and improve. I think we should have brought in the most qualified coach to lead a top 10 program Jay has built, but nothing can done about that now. We're kinda stuck just hoping Neptune is a fast learner.

I'll add one thing that doesn't get mentioned outside of Nova community. We had way too many recruiting misses over the past few years, and that's really on Jay. Just way too many highly ranked players never sniffing the court, and that's eventually going to catch up to a program that doesn't like to bring in transfers.

It's been funny listening to Jay talking a lot about Quinerly on TV. Really talking him up.

stever20 wrote:
It's been funny listening to Jay talking a lot about Quinerly on TV. Really talking him up.

Man, I'd be rooting for Jahvon and Alabama if it wasn't for that other incident down there.

FWIW...

https://twitter.com/BigFivePlusOne/status/1636108783209402375?s=20