Lappas was subsequently hired as the head coach at Manhattan College, where he turned a perennially sub-.500 team into a conference champion. Lappas was hired as the head coach at Villanova in 1992 and transformed the program into a conference and national powerhouse. For his efforts that season, Lappas was named the Eastern Coach of the Year by the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association, won Big Five Coach of the Year honors, and was a finalist for Associated Press and Naismith College National Coach of the Year awards. Lappas inherits a team that has not gone dancing at the NCAA tournament in three seasons and missed the postseason all together last year. But with a proven winner prowling the sidelines, expectations entering next season will be high.
Expectations go with the turf.
That's the nature of college basketball, and those are the expectations people have and those are the expectations that I have. Due to NCAA regulations that prohibit him from monitoring his team's play in the offseason, Lappas is somewhat unsure of what to expect when he sees his players step out on the court together for the first time next fall. So I'm not really sure what we are. Lappas personally introduced himself to each of his players shortly after his hiring, and impressed them with his communications skills and the fact that he still keeps in touch with many of his former Villanova players. Lappas' team will play an offensive style that differs from the one orchestrated by Flint.