(2) Sunday Big East Games 1/29/23

[Jasper67]

Friars keep Bynum in the 6th man role?

After this afternoon, I can’t see it.

[kayako]

It's very possible that Neptune will eventually become a great coach, but he isn't even average right now. 10-11 record with 6 players back from a final 4 rotation + Cam Whitmore is a ridiculously bad coaching job. $4.4 Million salary is nuts for this unproven coach.

[Jasper67]

It's very possible that Neptune will eventually become a great coach, but he isn't even average right now. 10-11 record with 6 players back from a final 4 rotation + Cam Whitmore is a ridiculously bad coaching job. $4.4 Million salary is nuts for this unproven coach.

Wait a minute. Villanova has only 6 players who averaged more than 10 minutes in all games last year. With Moore out all season, 3 of those guys were gone this year, including the top 3 scorers, the top 2 assists leaders, and the leading rebounder, and all 3 were starters.

I don’t know who the 6 players are whom you’re counting from a final 4 rotation, but the fact is that there are only 3 back who played more than 10 minutes per game. And only one averaged in double figures.

Cam Whitmore is a only freshman. He misses 7 games and started in only 8 of their 21 games. So, I don’t see how having him was supposed to prevent the coach from going 10-11.

Villanova fans don’t seem to be long on patience I remember how some Nova fans were calling for Jay to be fired after a losing season about 10 years despite the fact that he had already taken the team to a Final Four. And it’s not like Jay was an instant success. He too had to rebuild the program and suffered a losing season in his second year.

No matter who was coaching this season, it was going to be a rebuilding year. Guards are the most important players on a college basketball team and Nova was without both of theirs from last year, coming into this season. In Colin Gillespie, they didn’t just lose a lead guard, they list one if the most fiery competitors and clutch shit makers I’ve seen in. Years if watching college hoops. In Gillespie, they lost the team leader and the guy who gave them their identity.

You can kick your coach under the bus if you want, but you’ll be doing so at your own expense. Give the guy some time. Please.

[stever20]

Nova got spoiled by the last 2 years of uber experienced teams. You can see it in KP with continuty ratings and D1 experience. Definitely not the case this season.
23 49.1% continuity/127th 1.94 experience/174th
22 73.1% cont/35 2.42/48
21 75.8% cont/8 2.09/50

[kayako]

It's very possible that Neptune will eventually become a great coach, but he isn't even average right now. 10-11 record with 6 players back from a final 4 rotation + Cam Whitmore is a ridiculously bad coaching job. $4.4 Million salary is nuts for this unproven coach.

Wait a minute. Villanova has only 6 players who averaged more than 10 minutes in all games last year. With Moore out all season, 3 of those guys were gone this year, including the top 3 scorers, the top 2 assists leaders, and the leading rebounder, and all 3 were starters.

I don’t know who the 6 players are whom you’re counting from a final 4 rotation, but the fact is that there are only 3 back who played more than 10 minutes per game. And only one averaged in double figures.

Cam Whitmore is a only freshman. He misses 7 games and started in only 8 of their 21 games. So, I don’t see how having him was supposed to prevent the coach from going 10-11.

Villanova fans don’t seem to be long on patience I remember how some Nova fans were calling for Jay to be fired after a losing season about 10 years despite the fact that he had already taken the team to a Final Four. And it’s not like Jay was an instant success. He too had to rebuild the program and suffered a losing season in his second year.

No matter who was coaching this season, it was going to be a rebuilding year. Guards are the most important players on a college basketball team and Nova was without both of theirs from last year, coming into this season. In Colin Gillespie, they didn’t just lose a lead guard, they list one if the most fiery competitors and clutch shit makers I’ve seen in. Years if watching college hoops. In Gillespie, they lost the team leader and the guy who gave them their identity.

You can kick your coach under the bus if you want, but you’ll be doing so at your own expense. Give the guy some time. Please.

I don't know what you're implying here. Are you saying Neptune has inherited a bare cupboard? 3 starters + 3 bench players from the rotation last season, all in their 4th or 5th year except Longino, and 2 straight years of highest rated BE incoming classes? The base talent level, even without a real playmaker (Moore is the closest to being one), is higher than DePaul's. And Butler's. And Portland's. AND this is an experienced roster.

You can preach patience AND criticize Neptune's performance. Nova coaching gig is not a revolving door so he's not getting fired after 1 season. But it sounds like you're trashing Nova fans instead. Nobody wanted Jay Wright fired in 2012.

[Jasper67]

It's very possible that Neptune will eventually become a great coach, but he isn't even average right now. 10-11 record with 6 players back from a final 4 rotation + Cam Whitmore is a ridiculously bad coaching job. $4.4 Million salary is nuts for this unproven coach.

Wait a minute. Villanova has only 6 players who averaged more than 10 minutes in all games last year. With Moore out all season, 3 of those guys were gone this year, including the top 3 scorers, the top 2 assists leaders, and the leading rebounder, and all 3 were starters.

I don’t know who the 6 players are whom you’re counting from a final 4 rotation, but the fact is that there are only 3 back who played more than 10 minutes per game. And only one averaged in double figures.

Cam Whitmore is a only freshman. He misses 7 games and started in only 8 of their 21 games. So, I don’t see how having him was supposed to prevent the coach from going 10-11.

Villanova fans don’t seem to be long on patience I remember how some Nova fans were calling for Jay to be fired after a losing season about 10 years despite the fact that he had already taken the team to a Final Four. And it’s not like Jay was an instant success. He too had to rebuild the program and suffered a losing season in his second year.

No matter who was coaching this season, it was going to be a rebuilding year. Guards are the most important players on a college basketball team and Nova was without both of theirs from last year, coming into this season. In Colin Gillespie, they didn’t just lose a lead guard, they list one if the most fiery competitors and clutch shit makers I’ve seen in. Years if watching college hoops. In Gillespie, they lost the team leader and the guy who gave them their identity.

You can kick your coach under the bus if you want, but you’ll be doing so at your own expense. Give the guy some time. Please.

I don't know what you're implying here. Are you saying Neptune has inherited a bare cupboard? 3 starters + 3 bench players from the rotation last season, all in their 4th or 5th year except Longino, and 2 straight years of highest rated BE incoming classes? The base talent level, even without a real playmaker (Moore is the closest to being one), is higher than DePaul's. And Butler's. And Portland's. AND this is an experienced roster.

You can preach patience AND criticize Neptune's performance. Nova coaching gig is not a revolving door so he's not getting fired after 1 season. But it sounds like you're trashing Nova fans instead. Nobody wanted Jay Wright fired in 2012.

Neptune did not inherit 3 starters unless you’re counting Moore whom he just got back. What he’s had are 2 starters from last year + last year’s 6th man + a bunch of other guys who saw little to no playing time and had no meaningful involvement in making them a Final Four team last year. As for 2 top recruiting classes in a row, that’s true. But Whitmore is the only one in either class who was considered an impact player. The others needed time to develop. Well, Longino was the only one from the 21-22 class who got any real playing time as a freshman. Njoku got little to no PT and Bruzzi took a redshirt season. So, they had some talent from those 2 groups but young and largely inexperienced.

That all equals a rebuilding season. What I’m saying is that criticizing his coaching at this point because the team is 10-11 is totally unfair and that the 10-11 record is in no way an indicator of his coaching abilities.

Nobody wanted Jay Wright fired? I saw an interview with Jay a few years ago and he himself said that there was an element in the Villanova community who wanted to run him out of town. I know little to nothing about what goes on in and around the Villanova community, so I was just taking Jay’s word for it. My bad, I guess.

[XUFan09]

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.

It does help to have Moore back, especially because he's replacing a lot of Arcidiacano's minutes. That's a huge substitution.

[hoops22]

Neptune has a lot more talent than plenty of the teams he's lost to. Most polls had Nova in the top 20 coming into this season and that was with the knowledge Moore would be out for awhile. So far, he hasn't won any game he was expected to lose, and has lost plenty he was expected to win. It's early and maybe he'll turn out to be a good one, but with the early results I can understand Nova fans getting a little fidgety.

[kayako]

That all equals a rebuilding season. What I’m saying is that criticizing his coaching at this point because the team is 10-11 is totally unfair and that the 10-11 record is in no way an indicator of his coaching abilities.

Nobody wanted Jay Wright fired? I saw an interview with Jay a few years ago and he himself said that there was an element in the Villanova community who wanted to run him out of town. I know little to nothing about what goes on in and around the Villanova community, so I was just taking Jay’s word for it. My bad, I guess.

By your definition, UCONN is also in a rebuilding year. I don't know what to tell ya other than our team is stacked with 4th, 5th, and 6th year players, and that Whitmore just matched up well against Bryce Hopkins.

Jay has used hyperbole when talking about his job security. I wouldn't take it to heart.

[stever20]

I wasn't sure so I went to check the Nova SOS. It's #54 right now in the country, and with 7 of 10 remaining games being Q1 games, it's going to just improve from there- wouldn't be shocked if it ends the year in the top 30. I think it's a better schedule than you think. I will say that it's definitely easier than last year when it was on this day #14 in the country. On Selection Sunday it was #15. So will wind up a smidge easier this year, but not by much.