Villanova Wildcats

Kyle Neptune had a tough ask, not just following Jay Wright after his surprise retirement, but doing so without being hired after a true coaching search. As Ron Sanchez quickly saw at Virginia this season, if you get handed the job, you’d better do something with it.

Neptune’s teams were talented. I can’t say for certain if he was part of the talent acquisition process or if that lived above him with program GM Baker Dunleavy, but either way, the Wildcats had the players to compete in each of Neptune’s seasons. They would hang around the middle of the pack in the Big East, ultimately missing the NCAA Tournament three straight years. That was a Villanova first since…Jay Wright’s first three seasons, but expectations changed. Wright took over a program that hadn’t made the tournament in two years and hadn’t reached the second weekend in over a decade. Neptune took over one of the premier college basketball programs on the East Coast.

So where do they turn next? The list will be long and the search will span wide. It’s a good job for a variety of reasons. The NIL budget is clearly strong enough to get talent and the expectations are now at attainable levels. Start making tournaments, then worry about making deep runs in March.

Tier One

First call: Ryan Odom, VCU

Odom checks a ton of boxes. He’s young. He’s won everywhere he’s been, from the NCAA’s first 16-seed upset with UMBC, to two strong years at Utah State, to now two 24+ win seasons at VCU.

If Villanova lived in a vacuum, Odom would be the first and only call. The issue? The coaching carousel has plenty of horses and plenty of riders. Notably, the job at Virginia is available.

That would be a logical step for Odom from VCU, but he also has family history in Charlottesville. His father, Dave Odom, was an assistant at UVA for seven seasons. During that period, Ryan grew up around the Cavaliers program.

If I was nine years old and my dad was an assistant coach at an ACC program, the chance to lead that program when I grew up would seem like a dream gig.

Villanova would need to paint a better picture, whether that is the allure of the Big East over the shaky ACC, the path to winning, or simply the digits on a paycheck.

My guess is he goes to Charlottesville, but he’s still the first name on Villanova’s list.

The hot name: Chris Collins, Northwestern

There’s a lot of smoke around Collins and the mutual interest between he and Villanova. If anything, he has same pull to a job like Villanova that Odom would to UVA, or at least to the Philadelphia area. For the first seven years of Collins’ life, his father played for the 76ers. After retiring from the NBA, he spent a year as an assistant coach at Penn. Doug and his wife still live in the Philadelphia area.

Here’s my issue: Should Villanova be interested in Collins, based on his resume? More importantly, does Collins want to leave what he has going in Evanston?

To the first point, Collins still has a little bit of pixie dust on him from his time playing and coaching at Duke. A school like Villanova will factor that in. At Northwestern, he’s led the Wildcats for 11 seasons, making the NCAA Tournament three times, when the program had never done so prior to his tenure. He won a first round game all three times but lost in the second round each time. It’s a solid, but unspectacular resume.

As for Collins’ interest in leaving, I’m skeptical. He’s the head coach at a Big Ten program amidst a massive investment into athletics, currently building an $800M football stadium. It’s worth noting that Northwestern’s athletic director is Mark Jackson, who just came from Villanova. If there’s anyone who can pitch why Evanston is a better gig than the Main Line, it’s the guy who literally just made that decision for himself.

Collins holds a ton of capital at Northwestern. Unless the program nosedives to a mega-rock bottom, would they ever fire the guy who won the program’s first three tournament games?

So, would you leave a Big Ten job where you think you’d never get fired? I’m not sure I would.

Tier 2: “Is He Interested?”

Porter Moser, Oklahoma

This one may sound odd. Moser is about to make the tournament for the first time in four seasons in Norman, but barely will do so after months on the bubble. If he were to miss the tournament next year, it’s possible or even likely he’d be shown the door.

Why would Villanova hire a guy on the hot seat?

Because Moser can coach, plain and simple. He built a great program at Loyola-Chicago, reaching two Sweet Sixteens and a Final Four. His work at that school, one that shares many core tenants to Villanova (Catholic, private) should not be ignored.

At Oklahoma he has done a solid job, but his forte is coaching the team on the floor, not assembling the team in the offseason. If Villanova is going to keep the “front office” of Dunleavy at GM and the powers-that-be in the NIL world in tact, I love the idea of Moser taking over the Wildcats.

If the timing had worked out where Moser was at Loyola when Wright retired, he’d have been the obvious candidate at the top of the list. The last four years have not done enough for me to completely dismiss him.

To the same point as Collins, would Moser take the gig? It may be a paycut and a step down to a lesser conference, but it’s also a chance to “beat the posse out of town” and reset the clock on your time to build a program.

Randy Bennett, Saint Mary’s

At this point, I worry that Bennett has missed his chance to make a step into a power conference program. He’s 62 years old and has been in charge in Moraga for the entire 21st century.

His ability to draft behind Gonzaga and build a perennial NCAA Tournament team in the West Coast Conference has been nothing short of wildly impressive.

The issues, when considering him coming to Villanova: he’s never coached on the East Coast, he’s 62 years old, and his talent acquisition strategy has been built almost exclusively on the international pool. All of those are yellow flags, but if Bennett was interested, there’s no candidate on this list that could immediately make the Wildcats competitive on the court more of a sure thing than him.

Tier 3: Small School Roulette

Hiring from the ranks of the mid-majors is risky, especially when dipping into guys with flash-in-the-pan success. If Villanova can’t hire one of the names above, they could dip their toe into the list below, but with a word of caution. Any coach coming from the mid-to-low-major class of schools had better have a clear track record of winning, not just an upset win or two. He should also have a clear plan for dealing with the world of the big time, NIL and the portal.

Drew Valentine, Loyola-Chicago

I gave the Moser case. Why not his successor at Loyola?

The case against is simple: Loyola took a step back when Moser left. They only returned to the tournament in Valentine’s first season. Yet Valentine has won 22+ games in three of four seasons, while acclimating the Ramblers from the Missouri Valley Conference to the more difficult A-10. This would be a bit of a bet, but one I’m willing to make. Valentine will be a successful power conference coach some day, so give him a shot now.

Matt Langel, Colgate

Langel’s Raiders have absolutely dominated the Patriot league over the last half decade, reaching the Big Dance five times since 2019. Great, but that’s the Patriot League.

Even if Langel can coach, I question if he’s ready for the modern trappings of power conference hoops. He’s more likely to take over his alma mater at Penn and really, if someone is considering Penn, aren’t they beneath Villanova?

Mitch Henderson, Princeton

Copy and paste the section above. Henderson is a smart tactician but the Ivy League is its own world.

Speedy Claxton, Hofstra

Hiring the young, sharp coach at Hofstra worked for Villanova once before. That’s where it found Jay Wright.

Claxton, however, has not had a long enough run or bright enough highlights to warrant a step this large.

Tier 4: Secretly this is Tier 2.5 And I Swear I’m Not Crazy

Tom Crean, former Marquette and Indiana coach

Yeah.

It would be very weird if Villanova hired Tom Crean, who has not coached since flaming out at Georgia in 2022. But you know what? It would work. Crean has become underappreciated in his post-Indiana years. He led the Hoosiers to three Sweet Sixteens. They haven’t been back since he was fired. He consistently made the tournament with Marquette, back when the Big East was at full strength, even making the Final Four with Dwyane Wade.

It is time we all believe in Crean.

Iowa Hawkeyes

Fran McCaffrey led the Hawkeyes for 15 years, consistently keeping Iowa relevant in the Big Ten. In many ways, he was the exact mirror image of Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz. Both coached Iowa to strong, but never nationally competitive profiles. While Ferentz was stoic and defensively focused, with inept offenses, McCaffrey is a blowhard whose teams always could score but never get stops.

In his final game, McCaffrey paid tribute to his tenure, getting ejected from a loss where Iowa’s opponents scored 100+ points. Chef’s kiss.

The act wore old for a guy who failed to ever reach the Sweet Sixteen in 15 seasons.

Ben McCollum, Drake

After winning four Division II national championships, McCollum has made a mark in his first year at the D1 level. Drake is 30-3 and heading for the Big Dance. McCollum wins, plain and simple.

Letting anyone else swoop in and hire a talented coach from a school in your state would be a mistake. Iowa, make the call.

Greg McDermott, Creighton

If McCollum is not interested for some reason, the Hawkeyes could look to Iowa native McDermott. He played at Northern Iowa and has done a solid job in Omaha.

It’s possible he’d prefer to coach a top five Big East program to a middling Big Ten team, but money talks.

Tom Crean

This feels even better than Crean’s fit at Villanova. If he can win at Indiana, which he DID, he can win at Iowa.

Virginia Cavaliers

Already touched on this situation above. Tony Bennett surprised retired right before the season, mainly to get his assistant a year with the job. That went poorly, with Ron Sanchez overseeing the worst season at UVA in decades.

Ryan Odom, VCU

As stated in the Villanova section, if Odom wants this job, it should be his. The decision is up to him.

If Odom opts for Villanova, Indiana (?), or stays put, there’s two names UVA should consider:

Tier Two

Tony Skinn, George Mason

The Nigerian-American head coach played at George Mason before a long international playing career. He was an assistant at Ohio State, Seton Hall, and Maryland before getting the gig at his alma mater.

In two seasons, Skinn has won 20 and 25 games (and counting). Like Valentine above, he will be a power conference head coach someday. Buy early.

Bucky McMillan, Samford

Ok, this one is a little bit of a joke but also the most serious I’ve ever been in my entire life.

Bennett’s Virginia teams played at the slowest, most methodical pace in college basketball and found success. McMillan’s teams do the opposite, with a run-and-gun-and-run-more style known as BuckyBall.

I think Virginia fans deserve a little chaos. Let’s get nuts.

Still to come: Indiana, Minnesota, NC State, Penn

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Shane McNichol is the founder, editor, and senior writer at PalestraBack.com. He has also contributed to ESPN.com, The Action Network, Betway Insider, Rush The Court, Larry Brown Sports, RotoBaller, and USA Today Sports Weekly. Follow him on Twitter @OnTheShaneTrain. You can find every post from this blog on Twitter by following @PalestraBack.