Villanova after loss to Columbia – “We have to get better”

After a home loss to a Columbia team that had won just seven Ivy League games in the last three seasons, Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said he had to watch the film to understand what went wrong.

The Lions' 90-80 win Wednesday night at Villanova's Finneran Pavilion was their first against a Big East opponent since 2012. Neptune, meanwhile, suffered its second straight loss to an Ivy team; Villanova lost 76-72 at Penn last year.

Neptune, entering a pivotal season after failing to reach the NCAA Tournament in his first two years at the helm of the Wildcats, suffered its sixth loss to a team ranked below 100 by KenPom game came.

“If we had won this game, we would have to be a lot better,” he said. “We’re just not where we need to be at the moment. We have to go back, watch this film, learn from it and move on to the next game and get better.”

Columbia, picked to finish fifth in the Ivy League preseason poll, entered the game as a 17.5-point underdog on ESPN BET. Guard Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa scored a team-high 22 points for the Lions as they connected on 53.7% of their field goal attempts (29 of 54) and 92.3% of their free throw attempts (24 of 26).

Columbia (2-0) has never had a winning season under coach Jim Engles, who was hired in 2016.

“I don’t think offense was the problem,” Neptune said. “We shot 45% [overall]. …. I thought we just couldn't get any stops. And I think we turned the ball over. And we just have to get better defensively. They scored 90 points. It gets tough when teams score 90 points against you.

In 2022, Jay Wright abruptly retired after winning two national championships with the Wildcats, which he built into one of the most respected programs in America. Villanova then hired Neptune, a former assistant to Wright, to lead the program after a year as Fordham's head coach.

Neptune is now 35-34 at Villanova, which was ranked 31st by KenPom entering Wednesday's game. With the return of star Eric Dixon (33 points against Columbia), the Wildcats should finish seventh in the Big East preseason poll and compete for a first NCAA Tournament appearance under Neptune. While both remain possible, Neptune said his team has serious challenges to overcome before hosting NJIT on Friday.

“They just executed us offensively — better executed, I should say —,” Neptune said of the Lions.

“It is like it is. We are human beings. You don’t want to come in and lose. Everyone wants to win. So we have to think about it a little bit and accept the fact that it happened and now we have to move on and prepare for the next game.