Tag: Jay Wright

Jay Wright and Nate Oats take their name out of the running for Kentucky job

Jay Wright and Nate Oats say they won’t be the next coach at Kentucky

Amid much speculation about what’s next for the Kentucky Wildcats after the departure of John Calipari, Jay Wright and Nate Oats have both quickly said they pass. Neither will be the next coach in Lexington.

Wright and Oats were both popular names put forward by analysts as possibilities for the job. Wright was the long-time coach at Villanova who won two championships there. He retired and is now covering the sport for CBS.

Oats is the current coach at Alabama, where he has had them in the Sweet Sixteen or better in three of the last four seasons. His style would have fit well with what Kentucky historically likes to do.

There are several more big names likely to be contacted by Kentucky in the coming days. There is certain to be coaches with interest along the way. However, it won’t be Jay Wright or Nate Oats. They are happy where they are at.

College basketball legend Jay Wright ‘intrigued’ by the Wisconsin Badgers

College basketball legend Jay Wright ‘intrigued’ by the Wisconsin Badgers

Wisconsin basketball has gone through a volatile few weeks since February began.

The Badgers entered the month off a big win at home against Michigan State. The team was 16-4 overall, 8-1 in Big Ten play, in first place in the conference and projected as a borderline 1-seed in many bracketologies.

Then came a slide. The team lost four consecutive games, including deflating road losses to Nebraska, last-place Michigan and Rutgers.

Related: ChatGPT ranks the most intimidating Big Ten football stadiums to play in

Now, things appear to be stabilized for the moment. Wisconsin took care of Ohio State earlier this week to end the skid, and are in action again this afternoon at Iowa.

Right now the Badgers stand at a 4-seed in most bracketologies. The team is a tournament lock, though may need a hot stretch at the end of the season to enter as a top-3 seed.

College basketball legend and current CBS Sports analyst Jay Wright weighed in on where the Badgers stand entering the final week of February:

“Wisconsin intrigues me,” Wright said. “They’ve been all over the place. And they played a really difficult schedule, they got blown out at Arizona, but yet even in a loss to Purdue, I thought they looked really good. But talk about recency bias that the committee does not have, Wisconsin lost four in a row then got right with a win against Ohio State…Recently, four losses in a row and they’re still a four-seed.”

Wright seems to be impressed by the Badgers despite their recent stretch, pointing to a possible run on the horizon.

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Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes, and opinion. Follow Ben Kenney on X.

Alabama Guard Jahvon Quinerly entering the transfer portal

Jahvon Quinerly shockingly enters the transfer portal

To the surprise of many, Alabama’s [autotag]Jahvon Quinerly[/autotag] plans to enter the transfer portal and potentially finish out his collegiate career elsewhere. Quinerly is entering his sixth year of college and only has one more remaining year of eligibility.

The former five-star recruit spent the first year of his career with Jay Wright and the Villanova Wildcats before joining the Crimson Tide in 2019-2020. He had to sit out a year due to transfer rules but had been a very impactful player for Nate Oats over the past three seasons as he appeared in 123 games, starting 40 of them.

He saw his role diminish a bit this past season as he only started six of 35 games, but he was a reliable veteran presence in the locker room averaging 8.7 PPG, 3.6 APG and 1.9 RPG. Quinerly declared for the 2023 NBA draft but ultimately decided to return to college basketball and Alabama.

So, his final decision to leave comes as a stunner, but Oats has done an outstanding job reshaping the roster this off-season. Mark Sears and Rylan Griffen will take over a majority of the guard duties as a result.

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Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Sam Murphy on Twitter @SamMurphy02.

Former Villanova head coach Jay Wright discusses Nets’ Mikal Bridges

Jay Wright heaped some massive praise on the Nets’ Mikal Bridges.

Brooklyn Nets guard Mikal Bridges has been a revelation for a franchise that is between a rock and a hard place. While Bridges is showing that he has the potential to be an NBA All-Star, it remains to be seen how he factors into Brooklyn’s rebuild after trading three superstars in James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant over the course of one year.

Everyone within the Nets organization has given glowing words on how impactful Bridges is and what it means to be in his presence. Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn has talked about how great of a teammate Bridges is and how selfless of a player he is. Who better to talk about Bridges than his former college basketball coach, Jay Wright?

Wright, the former Villanova Wildcats head coach for 21 seasons, recently spoke to Steve Serby of the New York Post about his thoughts regarding Bridges. According to Serby, Wright texted Bridges before Monday’s Game 2 96-84 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers just to let his former player know to never let the NBA change how he plays basketball. Wright had more to say to Serby about Bridges:

“I always text him — ‘Stay hungry and humble, you have a beautiful mind. Don’t let the NBA change your beautiful basketball mind. He’s so unique, and he’s such an incredible person and player. He’s already got a great contract and having a great career, I just don’t want it to change him, so he can enjoy the rest of his life as a beautiful person.”

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Jay Wright tried (and maybe intentionally failed) to recreate Tom Izzo’s rageful clipboard snap

Maybe it’s not quite as easy as Izzo made it look.

Michigan State slipped by USC in the first round of the 2023 NCAA men’s basketball tournament on Friday thanks to a big second half, but coach Tom Izzo went viral for a different reason.

Heading into a timeout in the second half after a heated conversation with an official, Izzo effortlessly snapped his keyboard in one of several overt emotional displays we saw Friday.

But perhaps it’s not quite as easy as the longtime Spartans coach made it look. After the game, former national title-winning Villanova coach turned studio host Jay Wright attempted to recreate Izzo’s angry clipboard snap with less successful results.

Compare that to Izzo’s form:

 

Now, I’m just going to say it. I find this dubious.

First of all, Wright pretty clearly isn’t putting all his effort into it. I think there may be some theatrics going on here.

If you don’t find that argument compelling, though, may I direct you to Exhibit B, straight from the mouth of one of his former players?

Something seems fishy here. But hey, maybe Izzo’s just been putting in time in the weight room between games.

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Not so fast on Jay Wright coaching in …

Not so fast on Jay Wright coaching in the NBA. He told MaximBet on Wednesday that he wants to spend next season in his new position as assistant to the president at Villanova. After that, it’ll almost certainly be the NBA. This is news that will resonate throughout the Association’s coaching ranks, because Wright will be considered the No. 1 coaching candidate on the market when he is ready to get back to doing what he does best. “I want to take this year (to) work at VU – get a perspective on what’s next,” Wright wrote in a text to Maxim. One day earlier, he said he’d considered NBA coaching on the Keyshawn, J-Will and Max show.

Wright’s ties to the Philadelphia …

Wright’s ties to the Philadelphia basketball scene would make him a natural for that position if Rivers lost his job, which we’ve seen happen more than once in the last few years. The second-biggest possibility is with the Brooklyn Nets, according to MaximBet who has them at +150, a testament to the lack of satisfaction that franchise has with Steve Nash after the team was swept out of the playoffs by the Boston Celtics despite having Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving (and after having traded for Ben Simmons, who never played a single minute).

“He’s Mr. Villanova to all of us. You …

“He’s Mr. Villanova to all of us. You kind of have a feeling, but I was shocked. Everyone who saw that story texted me about it,” says Randy Foye, who was Wright’s first NBA player from the Villanova program and who still keeps in close contact with his former coach. “What I see him doing is going somewhere in a team president role where he could do both, build a team and be the coach. He could run a Fortune 500 company if he wanted to.”

Less than a week after retiring as head …

Less than a week after retiring as head coach at Villanova, Jay Wright is leaving the door open to someday coaching in the NBA. Appearing Tuesday on ESPN’s Keyshawn, JWill & Max, Wright said that he’s not looking to coach right now, but said “I’d be lying” if he said he hadn’t thought about coaching in the NBA. “Not right now. That was something I always thought about,” Wright said of his NBA ambitions. “My experience with the Olympics kind of scratched that itch. … I kind of feel like I did it a little bit. And I loved coaching those guys.”