PHILADELPHIA– STUNNING news from the Philadelphia Main Line.
Villanova Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright, who led the Cats to two national championships and four Final Fours since 2009, is retiring at at 60.
Wright’s sudden departure from the spotlight brings back memories of Al McGuire, who left his job at Marquette at age 49 after coaching the Warriors to a national championship in 1972 or John Wooden, who walked away at 65 after winning his 10th national
title at UCLA in 1975.
Like Wright, both men left on a high note.
Wright is following a similar path. He was the face of Villanova basketball for 21 years and may well have been the best coach in college basketball after leading a team without an NBA draft pick to a Big East tournament title and another Final Four. But like Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams, he could see the game changing for the worst with the NIL and transfer portal.
Wright could sense coaching wasn’t nearly as much fun, and he had good kids. But a Covid year followed by long summer that included a stint on the Olympic coaching staff and a longer challenging season where he felt the stress of back- to- back 20 -point losses of Baylor and Creighton took its toll.
Wright did a brilliant coaching job, taking a team without a draft pick to the Final Four. Who knows what might have happened if star guard Justin Moore hadn’t gone down wiht a knee injury at the end of a elite Eight win over Houston. But after a national semi-final loss to Kansas, Wright looked tired.
Wright has been thinking about this for a while. He might have actually done it earlier if not for his loyalty to Colin Gillespie and Jermaine Samuels who came back for a fifth year.
the rumors of Wright’s departure began spreading on campus two weeks ago. Villanova made Wright an intriguing counter offer that included getting the big donors to combine to support the players for NIL purposes. But Wright stayed true to his moral compass.
I feel sad today knowing ihe sport lost a good friend At least, it was Wright’s decision when to to walk off into the sunset. He is healthy as is the rest of his family. No, he is not going to the Lakers. Wright will still be on campus as a special advisor to the president and a consultant for basketball. We could see him as an analyst at CBS some day
But Villanova will have to adjust to changing times. The school followed Wright’s suggestion and hired one of Wright’s former assistants Kyle Neptune from Fordham as its next coach but Neptune only has one year of head coaching experience at Fordham, where his team was 16-16 and finished eighth in the Atlantic 10, and no one knows how that will turn out. Vilanova supposedly have promises from the players and recruits to stay but no one knows how that will turn out after he leaves the office.
It’s a brave new world on the Main Line.
Villanova was blessed to have Jay Wright for a long as it did. But the future is crazy.
