"A big-name dark horse is in the mix for the coaching opening at Villanova, NJ Advance Media has learned. UCLA coach Mick Cronin is a “dark horse” contender for the job along with Northwestern’s Chris Collins, multiple people close to the situation said," Zagoria wrote.

Villanova parted ways with men's basketball coach Kyle Neptune on Saturday morning, according to multiple reports. The move follows Villanova's 73–56 loss to UConn in the Big East tournament quarterfinals Thursday.

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.