Jay Wright doesn’t care much for the media. And he certainly isn’t interested in being termed a local celebrity. What this champion-making basketball coach does care about is Villanova University and the Wildcats basketball team he has cultivated into an NCAA powerhouse and one of the top recruiters in the nation. So, getting a foot in his office door for an interview proved nearly impossible—until I let drop the fact that I’m a ’Nova alum.

When I stopped by on a Thursday morning this fall, Wright was sorting through “social issues” among a few players, planning for a speaking engagement that night and feeling pretty damn good about the season that gets underway Nov. 6, with an exhibition game at the Spectrum against Northwood University, and then Nov. 14, with regular-season play against Albany.

After all, when Wright became head coach in 2001, he inherited a team best known for underachieving tournament play and slowly turned it into a major force in college basketball, earning a place in post-season tournament play every year since he arrived and seriously contending in the NCAA tournament for the last four years running. And he has no plans to let up: His 2009 recruiting class is ranked No. 2 behind North Carolina with three verbal commitments from McDonald’s All-American players. That’s a virtually unprecedented influx of talent for Villanova.

“When you’re the Villanova head coach, it’s a lot of responsibility to keep that going,” Wright admits. “It’s not just winning; it’s more.” So, sure, Wright has sent a handful of players, like Randy Foye and Kyle Lowry, on to play in the NBA. But he’s far prouder of a different aspect of his record: Each and every one of his Wildcats has received a degree within four years. “The fact that the players understand about being a man and living their lives for others is what’s important,” he says.

On the other hand, we’re pretty sure the up to 19,000 people who attend each game think winning counts for something, too—and Wright’s team does plenty of it.

So maybe, the reason that Wright doesn’t need to hold court in the press or reach for greater fame is that his ambitions have already been satisfied: Villanova is the perfect place for him.

“I remember Bob Hurley,” Wright recounts, “a legendary coach at St. Anthony’s High School in New Jersey, who has never left that high school saying to me one time, ‘Certain places fit certain guys.’ I’m a Philly guy. I love Philadelphia, I love the Main Line area and I love Villanova. So this is a dream for me. It really is.”

1. Great article!! Jay Wright is a great guy. My stepson attended the basketball camp this summer and he was there everyday greeting the kids and giving the right message.

   Posted by Bernadette Reiley | November 12, 2008, 9:00 pm

2. Jay is a local treasure. It’s most refreshing to know that we have right here an athletic coach of a major university whose priority is building men rather than building a personal resume’ by racking up victories in a personal won/lost column. We need more role models like that.

   Posted by Rich Bied | November 13, 2008, 12:15 pm

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