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kayako wrote:

XUFan09 wrote:[youtube][/youtube]Neptune looked fine with what he had (except that Portland game) until Villanova lost to DePaul and Butler on the road and then almost lost to Georgetown at home, winning by only four. Individually, you'd shrug your shoulders at these performances as just something that could happen with a team of this caliber, but collectively, that was a rough stretch. Is it just a blip in Neptune's career or a sign of things to come? It remains to be seen, but right now I'd rank him behind a lot of Big East coaches. That's his competition for the foreseeable future.

9th in the conference above Ewing and Anderson, I think. I can't rank him above Stubblefield or Matta.

Yeah, Stubblefield and Matta are tough to figure out, considering what they're working with. Even if he's ahead of them, though, that still only puts him at 7th.

stever20 wrote:
It shows even moreso the situation. Also the 2 guys that are back are more post type guys. College basketball is a guards game- has been for a while.

I think if Moore had been healthy from the jump, it's a totally different story this year. But he wasn't. I think that's the thing about this year, not really the coach all that much.

Lack of returning minutes, injuries, Collin Gillespie, Justin Moore, lack of guards, you guys are bending over backwards for Kyle Neptune. All other programs deal with same exact issues. Nova's injury situation is no worse than most teams, especially with Moore which was known since last April.

kayako wrote:

stever20 wrote:
It shows even moreso the situation. Also the 2 guys that are back are more post type guys. College basketball is a guards game- has been for a while.

I think if Moore had been healthy from the jump, it's a totally different story this year. But he wasn't. I think that's the thing about this year, not really the coach all that much.

Lack of returning minutes, injuries, Collin Gillespie, Justin Moore, lack of guards, you guys are bending over backwards for Kyle Neptune. All other programs deal with same exact issues. Nova's injury situation is no worse than most teams, especially with Moore which was known since last April.

Bending over backwards???

As a Villanova fan you’re badly underrating Gillespie and Moore. College basketball is a guard’s game and you just lost one of last year’s elite backcourts. Most teams have NOT lost the exact same thing because they never had the exact same thing to begin with.

And you’re complaining about minutes being brought into the conversation? The only reason is that minutes were brought up is because you erroneously stated that they brought back 4 players from a Final Four rotation. Jay went with a short bench last year. They only went 6 deep. Claiming that guys who only came in for a couple of minutes here or there were a significant part of a Final Four rotation is simply wrong. It was corrected as a point of fact, not to make excuses for the coach. And how does knowing about Moore’s injury since last April help? It’s still a loss of the guy who was expected to be the team leader and the team’s best player.

You can beat up on your first year coach to your heart’s content. I don’t care. But the guy needs the support of fans if he’s going to succeed. Dumping on him and blaming him for the fact that the team isn’t having the success it has had in recent years isn’t helping the situation.

I say this as someone who’s always liked the Villanova program. I cheered for you guys in ‘85, in ‘16, and in ‘18. I loved Gillespie and hoped that team would go as far as possible. One of my grandkids was just accepted at Nova and is leaning toward going there. Another grandkid is a HS junior and has Nova at the top of his list for applications. My point is that I have nothing against you guys and would like your team to do well. I also have no reason to make excuses for Neptune. I think I’m simply being realistic about what this team was coming into the season and what it is now. As a fan you have other stresses on you. You’re free to reject anyone else’s perspective as you have been. But the notion that any of us are making excuses for the coach is frankly absurd. What’s our motive to do that?

Jasper67 wrote:
You can beat up on your first year coach to your heart’s content. I don’t care. But the guy needs the support of fans if he’s going to succeed. Dumping on him and blaming him for the fact that the team isn’t having the success it has had in recent years isn’t helping the situation.

I was about to submit a very lengthy reply, but I think answering this can pretty much cover what's needed without sounding very aggressive. You think Nova's roster was overrated, and that Kyle didn't have the tools to be better than 10-11, or 10-12 now. While I must point out that it is your opinion that is an outlier, not mine, we'll just have to agree to disagree. You're not necessarily wrong. But you've made a series of incorrect assumptions, and the big one is thinking I'm dumping on Kyle because I was spoiled by Jay Wright's recent success. I try to be as objective as possible, including my own team. You shouldn't equate my opinion, shared by a lot of people more knowledgeable than I am following the team btw, to basically throwing tantrums.

kayako wrote:

Jasper67 wrote:
You can beat up on your first year coach to your heart’s content. I don’t care. But the guy needs the support of fans if he’s going to succeed. Dumping on him and blaming him for the fact that the team isn’t having the success it has had in recent years isn’t helping the situation.

I was about to submit a very lengthy reply, but I think answering this can pretty much cover what's needed without sounding very aggressive. You think Nova's roster was overrated, and that Kyle didn't have the tools to be better than 10-11, or 10-12 now. While I must point out that it is your opinion that is an outlier, not mine, we'll just have to agree to disagree. You're not necessarily wrong. But you've made a series of incorrect assumptions, and the big one is thinking I'm dumping on Kyle because I was spoiled by Jay Wright's recent success. I try to be as objective as possible, including my own team. You shouldn't equate my opinion, shared by a lot of people more knowledgeable than I am following the team btw, to basically throwing tantrums.

Okay. All good.