Neptune is especially high on the 6-foot-8 Dixon, who averaged 9.1 points and 6.4 rebounds last season and could be poised to make a big jump. “Caleb, Brandon and Eric are locks, we’re just trying to figure out our team from there,” Neptune said. Neptune says Daniels, Slater and Dixon will anchor the starting lineup but that the other two positions are up in the air. In the recent Lindy’s College Basketball preview, the Wildcats were also picked 16th nationally and second in the Big East. In the preseason poll from July, Villanova ranks No. Neptune said he did not know when Moore would return, but speculated possibly sometime in December or January. The Wildcats did lose fifth-year seniors Collin Gillespie and Jermaine Samuels, and junior guard Bryan Antoine, a former McDonald’s All-American who transferred to Radford after an injury-plagued career in the Big East.īut they return graduate students Brandon Slater and Caleb Daniels and redshirt junior forward Eric Dixon and have a core of young talented players in the mix, including freshman forward Cam Whitmore, who could be the program’s first one-and-done player since Tim Thomas in 1997.Īt some point, the Wildcats are also expected to get back senior guard Justin Moore, who averaged 14.8 points and 4.8 rebounds before tearing his Achilles during last year’s run to the Final Four. Just as Davis took over an experienced team with several key veterans, Neptune inherits a Villanova team that isn’t starting over. “We’re just trying to focus on our team, trying to be the best team we can be by the end of the season,” Neptune said succinctly. There’s only one Jay Wright and he knows it better than anyone. Now Neptune is following a similar path in taking over for a legend, and he will do it his way. “I have a passion and a desire to walk the same path as Coach Smith and Coach Guthridge and Coach Williams … with my own personality, and in my shoes,” Davis had said upon taking over.
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