Villanova wasn’t as tough on Wednesday, being held back by previously struggling St. John’s for the better part of 40 minutes.
Three days later, they couldn’t get a win against a mediocre Butler, blowing an 11-point lead in the final 4 minutes, 23 seconds of regulation time.
It was a very un-Villanova week, where they lacked strength in one game and underperformed in key moments the next.
However, perhaps this is the state of affairs with this program at the moment.
At least that’s been the case for the past two seasons for the Wildcats, with the exception of November’s Battle 4 Atlantis Classic in the Bahamas, where they had three NCAA Tournament-bound teams: Texas Tech, North Carolina State, and Memphis. Broke it in a convincing way. .
And as the inconsistencies and poor performances pile up, attention has grown on Jay Wright’s replacement as coach, Kyle Neptune.
Ranked 22nd in the Associated Press preseason poll, Eric Dixon’s core includes influential transfers TJ Bamba (Washington State), Tyler Burton (Richmond) and Hakim Hart (Maryland). The team that is expected to do so has not yet found an answer. Justin Moore, Jordan Longino, Mark Armstrong.
All of the transfer players have had significantly worse seasons than last year, but Moore hasn’t been as good as he should have been since missing five weeks with a sprained knee.
It can sometimes look like a team without a leader, which can be quite unpleasant for an experienced group.
In Wednesday’s loss to St. John’s, they outrebounded by 19 points and dominated the final 10 minutes by 15 points.
The loss to Butler was even worse.
Villanova led 17-3 early, but allowed a layup and a dunk at the end of regulation and in the first overtime, resulting in a tied game on both occasions.
Again, it’s nothing like anything we’ve seen in this program over the past decade. Villanova is currently heading into the bubble at 11-9 overall and is trending in the wrong direction having lost five of their last six games.
Neptune’s biggest problem is time. It seems like he doesn’t have much time. Our expectations for this team were too high to underperform like we have in the past. The shoes he’s stepping into may be too big, at least at this point in his career. Next year will likely be a make-or-break season for him if he doesn’t qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season, but that’s if Neptune looks ahead to next year.
Personally, I don’t think Neptune’s criticism is completely fair. This is his third season as a college basketball head coach. He is 39 years old. The problem was the recruitment in the first place. It’s understandable that Villanova wanted to keep this team in the family, and Neptune, who served as Wright’s assistant from 2013 to 2021, was an impossible position for an inexperienced head coach. In Wright’s third year as head coach, he was 12-15 against Hofstra. He did not win more than 20 games until his fifth season.
It’s easy to blame Neptune, but that’s a lot. This team has not lived up to expectations, is one of the most disappointing teams in the country, and is in danger of missing out on this tournament, so it’s natural to blame the coach. . However, whoever takes over as Wright’s successor is likely to struggle.
You can’t properly replace a Hall of Fame coach. Villanova is finding that out.
dream garden
Next Saturday is set to be a monster day at the Garden, with a doubleheader between St. John’s and Connecticut at noon and Knicks and Lakers in the evening.
The Huskies, who held off Xavier by 43 points on Sunday, will now play the No. 1 Johnnys in the country.
St. John’s looked like a tournament team in coach Rick Pitino’s first season and has proven capable of playing with the best teams in the league, trailing first-place UConn, No. 14 Marquette and No. 17 Creighton in total. They are 6 points behind.
Then there was the subplot of Pitino saying he wanted to play the Huskies next year at Carnesecca Arena, which was a way to align UConn and Dan Hurley. There is clearly a growing rivalry and underlying animosity between the two fierce coaches, but that won’t happen.
St. John’s lost by four points in the first game between the two on Dec. 23 in Hartford, but came away feeling like it should have won. Notably, college star center Donovan Clingan missed that game.
St. John’s is in good shape heading into the dance, but hasn’t had any notable wins. This one definitely has bullets in it.
This encounter will shake up MSG, which is expected to be sold out or close to it.
this week’s game
No. 12 Duke, No. 3 North Carolina, Saturday, 6:30 p.m. ET
Duke has won 10 of its past 11 games. North Carolina State has won 10 straight games. Two arch-rivals meet for the first time in Chapel Hill with high stakes.
A win for the Tar Heels would go a long way toward clinching the ACC regular season crown, while a win for the Blue Devils would be a big boost to the restart for a team that needs high-profile road wins.
John Scheyer’s team is just 4-4 in Games 1 and 2 and has little chance in the pedestrian-best ACC.
sowing seeds
1: Purdue, Connecticut, Houston, North Carolina
2: Tennessee, Arizona, Wisconsin, Kansas
3: Marquette, Baylor, Creighton, Alabama.
4: Kentucky, Iowa State, Texas Tech, Auburn.
stock watch
Up
Devin Carter
All was not lost when Bryce Hopkins suffered a season-ending knee injury on January 3rd. Carter made sure of that for Providence.
He kept the Flyers going despite the expected return of Ed Cooley, scoring 29 points with four steals and two blocks, and in the six games since Hopkins’ injury, the 6-foot-3 guard is averaging 23.6 points and 7.8 points. Recording rebounds. 3.5 assists, 2.5 steals.
He’s a favorite for Big East Player of the Year, a surefire All-American, and a future NBA player.
Providence fans, remember that Cooley brought in Carter. This team wouldn’t have won the NCAA Tournament without him.
grant mccasland
Texas Tech’s first-year coach has to be the favorite for Big 12 Coach of the Year right now.
The Red Raiders, who were picked to finish eighth in the conference, lost three of their top four scorers, but what McCasland did after Saturday’s Gatti Road win over No. 11 Oklahoma led the team to become the best in the nation. All we want to do is get them to the top of the conference.
Oh, and he lost starting center Devan Cambridge to a season-ending knee injury on Dec. 6.
Of course, this is surprising to anyone who followed his career from junior college to working under Scott Drew at Baylor from 2011 to 2016 and going 20-5 in six seasons at North Texas. That’s not the point.
under
auburn
Metrics loves the Tigers. They are a top-10 team in the NET, ranked No. 7 by KenPom, and feature the No. 5 defense in terms of efficiency. Still, the team is lacking a notable win and is currently 0-3 in Quad 1 play after road losses to Alabama and Mississippi State this week.
This isn’t a question of whether or not Auburn will make the NCAA Tournament — the Tigers are pretty much guaranteed barring a major collapse — but they’ve been very impressive for most of the season. The team’s performance against high-quality teams is a cause for concern.march
Bruce Pearl’s group will have a chance to improve over the next few weeks at home against the likes of Alabama, South Carolina and Kentucky.
Pac-12
The final year of the current conference structure featured a landmark football season. Washington reached the national championship. Basketball hasn’t had the same success.
Even Arizona State, the league’s only Final Four contender, suffered a blow this week with a disastrous loss to Oregon State. UCLA and USC are the most disappointing teams in the nation with a combined score below .500. Utah has been a hot topic throughout the non-conference season, going 0-5 on the road in conference play en route to the bubble.
The league only has three teams in the top 40 of the NET rankings: Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. That’s not a recipe for more than a few large bids on Selection Sunday.
