Previewing Villanova: Jay Wright Leaves Behind A Giant Shadow Not Only at Villanova, but the Big East
Villanova very well could have won its third national title in seven seasons last March with any luck.
Disaster struck in an Elite Eight victory over Houston when All Big East performer (and maybe the most talented scorer on Jay Wright’s club last season) Justin Moore tore his achilles. Down Moore, Nova was no match for eventual national champion Kansas in the Final Four, falling 81-65 in what would ultimately turn out to be the final game of Wright’s Hall of Fame career.
Regardless, it was quite the curtain call for Wright. Nova went 16-4 in the Big East, took home the conference tournament title, and went through Delaware, Ohio State, Michigan, and Houston before falling to Kansas in the NCAA Tournament.
Less than a month later, Wright shocked the college basketball world by announcing his retirement, while the school simultaneously shared that their head coaching search was over before anyone knew it had even begun.
With just one season of Division I head coaching experience under his belt, Villanova tapped 37 year old Kyle Neptune as Wright’s successor. Neptune is certainly familiar with Villanova’s culture after an eight-year run in Philly that included a pair of national championships as an assistant under Wright.
Neptune will be just the sixth head coach to lead Villanova since 1936. Wright’s list of accomplishments are too numerous to list here, and how capably Neptune steps into the lead role will be one of the biggest stories in the Big East, both this season and beyond.
Neptune’s lone season as a head coach came last year at Fordham, where he finished 16-16 — marking just the third time in the last 15 years that the program has reached 15 victories in a season.
Perhaps more significantly, he was able to keep a killer recruiting class in-tact this spring. That was critical considering who left along with Wright.
Villanova lost the soul of its club with the departure of point guard Collin Gillespie — a two-time Big East Player of the Year, two-time All American, and Big East Tournament Most Valuable Player.
Their staff is also tasked with replacing veteran forward Jermaine Samuels, and perhaps Justin Moore, who could potentially miss the entire season as he recovers from his torn achilles.
Neptune was able to hold onto three terrific recruits in the class of 2022, highlighted by Cam Whitmore, a 6’8, 230 pound freak of an athlete out of Maryland who could be a top five pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.
Whitmore was MVP of the McDonald’s All American game and the Most Outstanding Player at this summer’s FIBA U18 Americas Championship — big time statements for a player ranked in the top ten by one national recruiting service, but in the 20-range in two others. Whitmore doesn’t turn 19 until next July, and by then he’ll likely be playing in the Summer League.
Mark Armstrong, an uber-athletic 6’2 guard from St. Peter’s Prep in New Jersey, ran the show for the U18 American team this summer alongside Whitmore. He’s a top 60 player in the class of 2022, and will be part of a Villanova backcourt that has big-time potential, but relative inexperience in comparison to recent iterations.
A third 2022 signee, Brendan Hauser, is a 6’4 shooter out of Amarillo, TX who went head-to-head with Providence commit Jayden Pierre last winter at the Arby’s Classic (an event in which Pierre took home MVP honors).
Neptune won’t be without experience next season, however. Nova expects graduate transfer Caleb Daniels, a 10 point per game scorer last year who has shot 38% from three in two years at Villanova, to emerge as a bigger scoring threat this year.
They also have the 6’8 grad transfer Brandon Slater, a slashing wing who was shooting the ball very well (10-15 from deep) before injuring his hand against Purdue in November. Slater was perhaps their best player in the loss to Kansas with 16 points and eight rebounds on 4-7 shooting from deep.
The anchor could be 6’8, 255 pound big man Eric Dixon, a lefty who shot nearly 49% from deep on 35 attempts, and is a load on the interior when getting post touches and hitting the offensive glass. Dixon just seemed to make timely plays last year, and he made a statement by going for 24 points and 12 rebounds against Connecticut big man Adama Sanogo last season. He’s a powerful big who shoots over 80% at the foul line.
The rest of the roster is composed of players who have been in-house, but have yet to make an impact at the college level.
Young center Nnanna Njoku was a teammate of former Friar Jyare Davis at Sanford in Delaware and has a game very reminiscent of Dixon’s — a left hander who can face up, score around the rim, and plays with physicality. An early concussion derailed his season last year.
6’5 sophomore guard Jordan Loningo started playing his way into more consistent minutes late in the season before tearing his meniscus prior to the NCAA Tournament.
Depending upon who you asked, redshirt freshman point guard Angelo Brizzi was Villanova’s priority recruit at the point guard spot two years ago. Connecticut fans swore it was the more highly-rated Rahsool Diggins, who pledged to the Huskies. Diggins is now at UMass, while Brizzi is hoping to play up to his billing as a guard capable of playing either backcourt spot. The lefty came to Nova with the reputation as a shooter.
It’s a testament to what Wright built that in a season in which there were critical departures that it takes this long to get to Trey Patterson, a 6’9 sophomore from New Jersey who was a top 40 player in his high school class. Like Pierre, Patterson is a product of Team Rio on the AAU circuit. He’s an inside/out threat.
Nova also returns senior guard Chris Arcidiacono, a 6’5 guard who saw nearly ten minutes per game, despite being a non-factor offensively (less than two points per game on 27% shooting from the field).
Even without Moore, there are certainly enough veteran pieces and talent incoming to keep Villanova a threat in the Big East. Prior to Neptune taking over at Fordham, they finished last in the Atlantic-10 four consecutive seasons, but placed eighth in the 14-team conference last season — ahead of the likes of George Mason, UMass, URI, La Salle, and St. Joe’s.
Regardless of how promising Neptune’s future may be, this is an opportunity for fellow Big East programs that have watched Villanova win either the regular season title or conference championship in each of the past nine seasons. Conversely, Nova will be out to prove that even without Wright, the culture they have built over the past two decades is strong enough to sustain a level of success that will keep them among the elite teams in the country.
As hungry as fellow Big East teams may be to emerge in a post-Jay Wright Big East, Villanova has been a tremendous flag-bearer during a time in which the league’s future was very much in question.
Wright leaves the Big East in what should be very capable hands — with a talented group of coaches that includes Ed Cooley, Dan Hurley, Greg McDermott, Shaka Smart, Thad Matta, Sean Miller, and potentially high upside leaders in Shaheen Holloway at Seton Hall and Kyle Neptune.
And yet, his departure not only marks a pivotal moment in time for Villanova, but the Big East as a whole.