It was Big East Media Day at Madison Square Garden yesterday and one coach stood above the rest. He was mobbed by the media for interviews and gave erudite responses to virtually every question. That is 56 year old Jay Wright of Villanova.
The Bucknell grad was an assistant at Villanove and UNLV under Rollie Massamino and served as head coach at University of Rochester and Hofstra before taking over the reigns at Villanova from Steve Lappas. If Wright had not been offered the Villanova job, history tells us that he would have ended up at Rutgers and who know what would have happened to him in Piscataway. But luckily for Wright, Villanova came calling and the rest is history.
In 17 seasons at Villanova, he has take his team to the NCAA’s 13 time and won National Championships in 2016 and 2018. The 2018 win did not earn him a trip to the Trump White House, but that didn’t appear to be too much of an issue for the dapper Wright.
His coaching colleagues made Villanova yet again an overwhelming favorite to win the deep Big East, garnering eight of 10 first place votes. St. John’s was picked fourth and Seton Hall eighth.
Wright touted the Big East throughout the interview session. he made it clear that no conference, ACC included would ever match-up to the greatness of the old Big East, but called this year’s version, “unpredictible.”
He called all 10 teams possible NCAA entrants.
Whereas the other top conference are football first, he characterized the Big East as, “authentic and knowing who we are.”
He went as far as to say that,’we are the best basketball conference in the country.” Wright may be right.
The Wildcats return two starters from last year’s Championship team and are led by forward Eric Paschall and guard and team leader, Phil Booth.
With Wright at the helm, anything can happen, but one thing is certain. The Wilcats will be dancing yet again in March.