Wright and Villanova Keep Marching On
By SEAN BRENNAN
Special to BIGEAST.com
Almost two decades ago, when his coaching home was Hempstead, Long Island, and he was strolling the sidelines as Hofstra’s head coach, Jay Wright never dreamed where his basketball life would take him.
Life was pretty good on the Island back in the day for Wright, who is now in his 19th season as Villanova’s head man. After some early stumbles, Wright led Hofstra to three straight 20-plus win seasons, a pair of American East Conference titles and two NCAA Tournament invites. All while playing in the, shall we say, less-than-state-of-the-art Physical Fitness Center, Hofstra’s home court.
All that seems like a lifetime ago for Wright.
“It’s funny, I was just in practice and (former Maine and LaSalle coach) John Giannini was here because he’s doing our game for FOX,” Wright said. “And we were just talking about our Hofstra-Maine games and it really does seem like another lifetime ago.”
Since those Island-living days, Wright has, well, done all right for himself. He has posted 14 seasons in which he has won 20-plus games, owns a 453-177 overall record (before the Wildcats’ Dec. 4 meeting with Penn), owns a 204-108 conference mark, has won five of the past six BIG EAST regular-season championships, sprinkled in four conference tournament titles in the past five seasons, is 196-33 overall and 90-18 in conference games since the BIG EAST realigned and has those two national championship rings to show off at cocktail parties.
He also plays to packed houses now, whether it’s the Wildcats’ home lair at the Finneran Pavilion or the more expansive Wells Fargo Center. A far cry from his early days at the old barn at Hofstra.
So it all begs the question: Could he have ever dreamed of such a magical basketball life once he moved to Philadelphia?
“No not at all,” Wright said. “There are a lot of times I think back on it, when you walk out onto the court and you look at the place and you say to yourself, ‘Wow, how did I get here? How did this happen?’ I’m so fortunate. That either happens coming out on the court or standing there for the national anthem. You’re just looking around. Those are the times when you can be retrospective. So yes, I do think about it sometimes.”
Villanova is Wright’s dream job but during his days in New York the Wildcats’ head coaching gig was never on his radar. That’s because there was no reason to believe the job would open anytime soon.
“It was never really my dream job because I know Villanova and as you can see the coaches hardly ever change,” Wright said. “I knew (former Nova coach) Steve Lappas was young and I assumed he’d be here awhile. So toward the end when I was at Hofstra I was living in New York so I thought maybe Rutgers or St. John’s (might come available). I just never thought Villanova would open. When it did (Lappas went to UMass) it was definitely my dream job. But I wasn’t thinking about it. I was living in New York so you were thinking locally. I even thought of the Fordham job. I almost went to Fordham.”
And the rest, as they say, is history. Wright is the dean of BIG EAST coaches with almost 20 years at Nova. The next closest in the conference is Seton Hall’s Kevin Willard, who is in his 10th season with the Pirates. And all he has done is win. But how has he been able to guide the Wildcats to such lofty heights for so long?
Luck, Wright said.
“We caught two breaks,” Wright said. “When (the BIG EAST) went to 16 teams (for the 2005-06 season) that was tough for everybody because you knew that it was going to be a monster. And I’ll never forget our first BIG EAST game was at Louisville that year. But we had Jason Fraser, Randy Foye and Allan Ray as juniors so when that change came, we were good.”
Ditto when the new BIG EAST came on the scene.
“It was the same thing when the BIG EAST broke up and we went to a new conference, we happened to have a really good team,” Wright said. “We were just very fortunate timing-wise. So a lot of this is luck.”
Currently Wright sits in the No. 4 spot on the BIG EAST’s All-Time Winningest Coaches list with 228 victories. Those wins cover regular-season and conference tournament games. He trails former Georgetown coach John Thompson (231) for third place and will pass him sometime in January once conference play gets underway. He already has more BIG EAST wins than such coaching legends as Lou Carnesecca, Rick Pitino, P.J. Carlesimo, Rollie Massimino, Mike Brey, Jamie Dixon and John Thompson III. Once he passes Thompson, Wright will trail only Jim Boeheim (416) and Jim Calhoun (309) in conference history
Yet another monumental achievement Wright could never have seen coming two decades ago.
“That’s incredible company to be in, man,” Wright said. “Those guys are all legends to me and guys I looked up to. So it’s really cool to be mentioned with those guys. If you grew up in the Northeast, those were the guys you were following.”
But despite all the winning, all the titles and the parades for winning those two national championships, Wright said he and his Wildcats are not quite considered the Kings of Philly.
“Philly is such a unique place because, like in New York, St. John’s is the college basketball team,” Wright said. “They love all the other teams but it’s clearly St. John’s. Philadelphia is not that way. Villanova is kind of the outsider because we’re outside the city and Temple, St. Joe’s and LaSalle are like the real Philly schools. And Penn is an Ivy school with great tradition and a big part of Philadelphia. We’re all a part of the Big Five but it’s kind of even amongst all the coaches. When (former St. Joe’s coach) Phil Martelli and (former Temple coach) Fran Dunphy were in town, they were the kings. I was still the up-and-coming guy. Now I’m just getting to be the older guy. But we’re still Villanova and we’re still outside of Philly. It’s totally different than New York.”
It’s still almost a month before BIG EAST conference play tips off and Wright can continue his ascent up the coaches’ win list. And when he eventually does pass Thompson, will he turn an eye toward catching Calhoun and Boeheim for ultimate BIG EAST supremacy?
“I know I don’t have that in me,” Wright said laughing. “I love this job and there is no end in sight. But I don’t know that I have that in me.”