Report: Kyle Neptune Fired as Villanova MCBB HC After 3 Seasons, 54-47 Record

Villanova informed head men's basketball coach Kyle Neptune of his firing Saturday after three seasons on the job, according to Dylan Johnson of The Villanovan and Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports.

The Wildcats fell 73-56 to UConn in the Big East tournament quarterfinals on Thursday, dropping them to 19-14 on the season. They are not expected to make the NCAA tournament field.

In three seasons under Neptune, Nova went 54-47 with no NCAA tournament appearances.

It wasn't long ago that Villanova was consistently among the top men's basketball programs in the country, making nine consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament from 2013 to 2022.

The Wildcats also won two national championships and had one other Final Four appearance during that stretch.

All of that came under Jay Wright, who was Villanova's head coach from 2001 to 2022.

Wright is the winningest coach in program history, going 520-197 with two national titles, 16 NCAA tournament berths, eight Big East regular-season titles and five Big East tournament titles.

Despite his enormous success, Wright surprisingly retired following the 2021-22 season, and he was replaced by Neptune.

From 2013 to 2021, Neptune was an assistant coach at Villanova under Wright. He left in 2021 to become the head coach at Fordham, going 16-16 in his only season at the helm for the Rams.

Neptune left Fordham for the opportunity to lead one of college basketball's most prestigious programs in Villanova, but success largely eluded him.

With a 17-17 record in 2022-23, Villanova's streak of nine straight NCAA tournament appearances came to an end.

Things didn't get much better from there, as the Wildcats went 18-16 last season and 19-14 this season.

With Villanova poised to miss three straight NCAA tournaments for the first time since doing so from 2002 to 2004, change may have been inevitable, as the Wildcats look to return to prominence and national title contention.