Assessing Kyle Neptune during a tough rookie season at Villanova

Let’s imagine an alternate scenario last spring at Villanova after Jay Wright retired. A national search. Find the most accomplished coach available, no ties to ‘Nova required.

The results this season may have been similar.

Start with not having Justin Moore, which means your three best players from last season are gone. Throw in a Justin Longino injury. It’s hard to overstate the importance of that. Even when Longino plays, I’m told he’s not practicing. Last season, I had Longino as the ‘Nova player most likely to have a strong NBA career. I expected that to translate to a big step up this season, to him being more of a ‘Nova weapon. Not having that puts more pressure on the rest.

» READ MORE: Villanova hangs on to beat Georgetown

We can’t know what Villanova’s record this season would have been under Coach Alternate Scenario, but I’m not thinking it would be pretty. I don’t think it would be too pretty under Wright.

That’s assuming all the players stayed and the recruits still showed up with a different coach. A massive assumption in this day and age.

Now imagine Villanova fans asking questions about why Villanova had to go find something new and shiny instead of trying to run it back with a former Wright assistant.

Booooooo ….

It could have easily played out this way. It wasn’t like Kyle Neptune was the automatic heir apparent. Villanova honchos could have stayed the course in a different way with associate head coach George Halcovage. They could have reached back to the recent past and gone with Quinnipiac coach Baker Dunleavy, a former top Wright assistant who may have been the choice except Quinnipiac hasn’t reached the NCAA Tournament under Dunleavy.

Neither did Fordham last year, but Neptune improved the Rams in his one year in the Bronx and was heavily involved in recruiting the current players on the ‘Nova roster.

Maybe the school did toss around the idea of going after a big-name head coach, but which of those big names would have wanted to follow Wright?

All that, old business. Neptune has the job. He seems to have the loyalty of former players, no small thing.

Listen, and you’ll hear it’s not all sweetness and light at the Pavilion. Even if you were booing the coach and his substitution moves, not the players, a couple of times at the end of the Georgetown game, there was booing, game on the line. Sure, Neptune needs to be able to take getting his moves questioned. Neptune is well compensated to take some heat. (And he grew up in Brooklyn.)

Maybe you are entitled, since you’ve had to pay a 10-year seat licensing fee just to buy your tickets in the updated Finneran Pavilion. Villanova hoops is big business now. The team was .500 but the building was full. But it also sounds entitled.

If Neptune wanted another ball handler, specifically Chris Arcidiacono, in there for offense once his team had a narrow late lead and wanted star freshman Cam Whitmore back in for defense — the moves didn’t backfire. You can also see Neptune placing more trust in freshman guard Mark Armstrong paying dividends.

The rationale for giving Neptune the job, to provide continuity, has not paid off in … ho, hum, another NCAA team. What that means: Neptune now has to prove himself, and his era will not be looked at as a continuation of the Wright era. A blessing or a curse? To be determined.

» READ MORE: What should Justin Moore do? We asked NBA scouts

Yes, it has been ugly this season. What exactly does this 9-10 Villanova team do well? (“Shoot free throws” was the answer I got asking this on press row. But that’s about it.) While the offense often hasn’t looked cohesive — personally, I’d rather see more offense run through Eric Dixon — the defensive struggles have been the real killer.

When Neptune looks at himself, how does he think he’s done? What can he get better at doing?

“Eh, I think every coach would tell you, every game, you think of all the things you can get better at,” Neptune said.

For instance?

“Everything,” Neptune said. “Literally everything. Whatever it is. Defensively, we can get better. Offensively. Our habits can get better. I think that’s the mark of a good coach, when they’re never satisfied. Even if we were undefeated right now, I would be like, ‘We can better, somehow.’ For me personally, I’m always looking to get better in every facet of the game.”

He’s not giving up any debates he’s had with himself, but he’s not whistling past Villanova’s record.

“It’s tough, man,” Neptune said. “I’m not going to lie. Everyone — you’re in this business because you’re a competitor. Everyone loves to win, everyone hates to lose. I’m no different. After a loss, you’re sick, hurt like everybody else.”

There’s always a tendency to want to see more of a hyped young player. I got plenty of emails and messages in 2018-19 suggesting that playing a sophomore named Gillespie over a freshman named Quinerly was a mistake. Sticking with Collin Gillespie worked out all right for ‘Nova.

If Neptune had known Moore wasn’t going to be back right now, Longino wasn’t going to be Longino this season, Whitmore was going to have his own early physical setback … could he have looked back and said ‘Nova could use some help from the transfer portal?

“I think it’s easy to go hindsight,” Neptune said. “I think if you have that team, that’s a pretty formidable team. We just trusted our guys. I mean, looking at this year, even with all the injuries we’ve had, we’ve been in every game, we’ve had a chance in every game.”

It’s hard to say if that will make people feel better or worse about the record and not winning more 50-50 games.

» READ MORE: How Villanova's Maddy Siegrist and Drexel's Keishana Washington found some points to lead the nation in scoring

“We know that’s one stop, one rebound, one time diving on the floor, etc.” Neptune said. “If you add all those guys, who knows. But we’ve just got to think, we are where we are now, we’ve just got to get better.”

One challenge, Neptune said: “In today’s game, not a lot of teams play young guys.”

He’s got older guys, too. Maybe he’s preaching patience not so much with the young guys as with his use of them.

“It’s pretty unique for Villanova,” Neptune said. “Everybody kind of talks about how we don’t play younger guys. We’ve got three [first-year] guys out there in the rotation. I think they’re good enough to be out there. They’re getting better day by day. What Cam does now I think is impressive. Mark Armstrong is a beast defensively, especially on the perimeter. As those guys get better — their best basketball is way ahead of them. They’re good and they have so much room for improvement.”

Judging a coach on his first season … too soon. Can we all agree on that?

Will Neptune get this all together? Who can know? But how does booing a coach in his first year help answer the question?