Five months after he was dismissed as the head coach of the Villanova Wildcats, Kyle Neptune has found his next coaching opportunity.
Neptune was hired as an assistant coach by the Charlotte Hornets on Friday, joining coach Charles Lee’s staff less than two months until the season gets underway.
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Charlotte went 19-63 last year in Lee’s first season, led by young stars LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller. The franchise is continuing to build a young core in hopes of competing in the near future, and they added quite a collection of talent via the NBA draft in Kon Knueppel (Duke), Liam McNeeley (UConn), Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton), and Sion James (Duke).
Neptune will be very familiar with McNeeley and Kalkbrenner, having seen each of them last year while coaching at Villanova in the Big East.
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Charlotte is a new venture for Neptune, who has spent most of his playing and coaching career in the northeast. First he played four years at Lehigh before beginning his coaching journey as a video coordinator at Villanova under Jay Wright in 2008.
Neptune then spent four years as an assistant at Niagara before coming back to Villanova, this time as an assistant coach. Neptune coached under Wright from 2013-2021, helping the Wildcats to a pair of national championships in 2016 and 2018.
He then took the head coach job at Fordham, going 16-16 for the Rams in 2021-22 before coming back to Villanova for a third time, this time as the program’s head coach replacing the retired Wright.
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Villanova spun its wheels for three seasons under Neptune, going 54-47 overall and just 31-29 in Big East play. They finished sixth in the conference all three years Neptune was at the helm, failing to make it out of the second round of the Big East Tournament or into the NCAA Tournament, only making two NIT appearances.
Villanova moved on after this past season, hiring Kevin Willard away from Maryland. Neptune dabbled as a media analyst shortly after his firing, but now he’ll head to the NBA to try to help Charlotte’s young core blend together in coach Lee’s system.
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Aug 29, 2025, where it first appeared in the NBA section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
