Fordham turns to Kyle Neptune as next head coach

Shown here cutting net after Villanova won national championship in 2018, Fordham is hopeful that Kyle Neptune can lead Rams to similar fortune after hiring him as head coach. (Photo by VUHoops.com)

Fordham’s last six head coaching searches resulted in five sitting college coaches and a former NBA coach, leading many to question the state of a program mired in a decades-long morass since its most recent NCAA Tournament appearance, back in 1992.

Monday morning saw the Rams try something new to reverse the course of its orbit around the college basketball landscape, turning to a hungry young coach with tremendous upside and a proven championship pedigree.

Kyle Neptune, who spent the past eight seasons on the staff of Jay Wright at Villanova, has reached a deal to become Fordham’s next head coach, replacing Jeff Neubauer — who departed the program in January after a disappointing start to his sixth season at the helm — and interim head coach Mike DePaoli, who guided the Rams to the finish line of a pandemic-marred campaign.

A Brooklyn native, Neptune, 36, gets his first taste of head coaching experience after helping to leas the Wildcats to a pair of national championships, and does so at a program still lauded as one of the best mid-major jobs in the New York metropolitan area, further cementing the Hall of Fame credentials of his mentor Wright, who adds another branch to a fruitful coaching tree that now counts nine head coaches with this latest hire.

Neptune recently completed his second stint on the Main Line, having spent two seasons from 2008-2010 with Wright and the Villanova program following his graduation from Lehigh, where he played for four years and was a team captain as a senior. He then served as an assistant at Niagara from 2010-2013 before following Joe Mihalich to Hofstra for a brief period, only to return to Villanova when Billy Lange left his post on staff for an assistant coach position with the Philadelphia 76ers. Praised as an effective communicator and developer of NBA talent the likes of Ryan Arcidiacono, Saddiq Bey, Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo, Josh Hart, Darrun Hilliard and Eric Paschall, Neptune now takes the next step in cultivating further professional success stories, this time at a shop of his own.

“Kyle is going to make an excellent head coach at Fordham,” said Quinnipiac head coach Baker Dunleavy, who worked alongside Neptune at Villanova before taking over the Bobcats’ program in 2017. “He combines a tireless work ethic, great knowledge for the game, and most of all, a passion for New York City basketball. I look forward to watching him build a terrific program.”

Neptune had risen to the forefront of Fordham’s coaching search two weeks ago, emerging from a pool of candidates that included Yale head coach James Jones, Saint Peter’s head coach Shaheen Holloway, and Bryant head coach Jared Grasso, who was reportedly the runner-up in the process. Sources had indicated on March 18 that Neptune was the favorite, and that the job was “his if he wanted it,” with Fordham athletic director Ed Kull presumably waiting for Villanova to be eliminated from the NCAA Tournament to make an official announcement. Kevin Sweeney of CBB Central and Sports Illustrated was first to corroborate this report Monday morning, with CBS Sports college basketball insiders Matt Norlander and Jon Rothstein following suit shortly thereafter.

Terms of the contract have yet to be disclosed, and an official announcement from Fordham on Neptune’s arrival is expected later this week. More information will be posted as it becomes available.