Villanova lost its second game of the 2024-25 college basketball season at home to Columbia on Wednesday night. The Wildcats dropped to 1-1 with the loss, which continues a frustrating trend that dates back to the end of the Jay Wright era.
Things have gone so poorly in each of the last two years that Kyle Neptune’s legendary predecessor is being accused of tanking the program on purpose to boost his own legacy.
Wright, now an on-air analyst with CBS, served as the head coach of Villanova University from 2001-2022. He led the Wildcats to eight Big East Conference championships and 16 NCAA tournament appearances in 21 seasons, including four Final Fours and two national championships in 2016 and 2018.
However, the team he left behind has not seen the same success without its two-time Naismith College Coach of the Year. Villanova did not make March Madness in either of the last two years— and lost in the First Round of the NIT in both seasons.
Neptune, a longtime assistant under Wright, took over in 2022. The 39-year-old is 35-33 through his first 68 games. Losing to a middle-of-the-pack Ivy League team was not a great start to year three.
Wright got to help pick Neptune as his replacement, which sparked a new theory.
Curry Hicks Sage is a popular personality in the college basketball space. He spoke to a “source who’s pretty familiar with how things work at Nova” and presented his findings.
I present (these texts) without comment because I’m still speaking to a lot of sources to better learn the idiosyncrasies of the place but this source I’ve known and trusted for some time.
— @CurryHicksSage
The source offered a galaxy brain take about Villanova basketball’s transition of power.
I really truly think that Jay Wright tanked Nova on purpose pushing Neptune on them. He worked with him for 12 years. Famous micromanager of a program. Knew all of the ins and outs.
World class egomaniac. Routinely told former assistants who took head jobs at other schools that copying Villanova was not a recipe for success. Has no former successful assistants (for the most part). I think he tanked Nova on purpose to make himself look even better.
— Unnamed source
A different source who spoke to Curry Hicks Sage offered an alternative perspective.
Jay was a micromanager to some degree but he’s not the level of psycho that was described in those texts. In fact, Jay had various other commitments (olympics, etc.) that pulled him away from the team during a bunch of the last summers. Partially why he retired because he was burnt out. But also, impossible for him to over micro manage while in tokyo and working with USA basketball.
— Unnamed source
If we are being real, the latter viewpoint is far more accurate than the former. Curry Hicks Sage’s first source offered a provocative take that is rooted in armchair psychology.
Jay Wright, by all accounts, is a great guy and a future Hall of Fame coach. Deciding to tie himself to Kyle Neptune on purpose because he knew the hire would not work would be diabolical. It also would not help to cement a legacy of greatness.
With that being said, diversity in perspective is a good thing. People around the Villanova program are trying to figure out what went wrong/what is going wrong. There will be all kinds of theories that come to exist — especially if the Wildcats continue to lose. In the words of Jon Rothstein, losing a buy game to Columbia is the epitome of brutality!