Big East Basketball: Ranking all 11 head coaches after Pitino/English hires

9. Kyle Neptune – Villanova

A native of Brooklyn, Neptune played his college ball two decades ago at Lehigh and sniffed the NCAA Tournament once while there. He’s been a more active participant in his coaching career, which included a decade on staff at Villanova. He was a full-time assistant during both of their recent national championship runs before becoming Fordham’s head coach in 2021, his first shot at being a head coach.

After a decent first season with those Rams, he came back to Villanova to replace the retiring Jay Wright last season. Villanova had high expectations before the season but finished the year 17-17, tying for 6th in the conference and settling for a quick appearance in the NIT. While the season was largely a disappointment, this is only the beginning for Neptune, embarking on the near-impossible task of stepping into the shoes of a Hall of Fame coach.

Another thing to keep in mind with Neptune is that Fordham has been a much better program this season, with Neptune helping to build that roster last year. He’s been a vital piece of the puzzle at Villanova for the last decade and he’ll have chances to figure everything out with these Wildcats. We cannot rank him higher than this on the list, we’ll just have to see if he can turn Villanova back into the winning machine that they’ve been in this league over the last decade.