Tag: Jay Wright

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.”

Villanova’s 2023 title odds are a little longer after Jay Wright’s retirement

Kyle Neptune has some big shoes to fill.

News of Jay Wright’s retirement sent shockwaves through the college basketball world Wednesday, as the coaching giant leaves Villanova after 21 years, 16 NCAA tournaments, four Final Fours and two national championships.

Including his seven years with Hofstra, where he had another two tourney trips, Wright’s career record was 642-282. With him on the sideline, Villanova was always thought to have a chance to not only win the Big East, but go the distance.

Without him, those odds are a little longer. Villanova went from +1800 to win the 2023 national title to +3000 on Tipico Sportsbook. The odds remain 11th shortest but are now tied with five other teams.

[tipico]

Villanova hired Wright’s former assistant Kyle Neptune to replace him. Neptune was the head coach at Fordham last season, leading the team to a 14-win increase over the previous year with a 16-16 record. He’ll adopt a Wildcats team losing two of its best players from this past season, graduate seniors Collin Gillespie and Jermaine Samuels. And with another top player, Justin Moore, rehabbing a torn Achilles.

2023 NCAA Title Odds
  • Houston +1000
  • Duke +1200
  • Kansas, North Carolina +1300
  • UCLA +1400
  • Kentucky, Arkansas, Baylor +1500
  • Arizona +1600
  • Gonzaga +1700
  • Texas Tech, Michigan, Villanova, Alabama, Tennessee +3000
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Jay Wright, coach of ex-Notre Dame Big East rival Villanova, retiring

A college basketball legend is hanging it up.

Few coaches have established such a legacy in the 21st century like Jay Wright. Between seven seasons at Hofstra and then 21 more with Villanova, he had a 642-282 record, made 18 NCAA Tournaments and won two national championships. Now, the 60-year-old Hall of Famer is retiring. Not often has a college basketball coach achieved so much and yet flown under the radar almost the entire time, but that’s Wright in a nutshell.

Notre Dame first faced Wright during his first season at Hofstra in 1995 and won, 63-52. The Irish would split the next 14 games in which Wright was on the Villanova sidelines between 2002 and 2016. All but the last of those contests were played when the schools were Big East rivals. That last game was a battle between undefeated teams, and the Irish lost to the top-ranked defending national champion Wildcats, 74-66.

Here’s to a great career, and best wishes to Wright in whatever he decides to do in this next stage of his life.

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Jay Wright’s reportedly sudden retirement at Villanova shocked the college basketball world

The NCAA basketball world is STUNNED.

In a truly stunning move, Jay Wright is reportedly set to retire from his position as the head coach of Villanova.

The news shocked the college basketball world on Wednesday, coming a handful of weeks after Villanova’s 81-65 Final Four loss to Kansas in the 2022 March Madness tournament. Though there’s no set timetable for Wright’s departure, he will reportedly be succeeded by Kyle Neptune, head coach of Fordham University and former assistant at Villanova.

Wright has been the head coach at Villanova since 2001, bringing in two NCAA tournament championships in 2016 and 2018. The sudden retirement means Wright won’t get a farewell tour in the same way Mike Krzyzewski got for Duke this past year before the long-time Blue Devils head coach retired earlier in April.

Not only that, Wright’s retirement alongside great head coaches in Krzyzewski and Roy Williams in the last 13 months heralds in quite an unprecedented era for college basketball. Here’s how the college basketball world reacted to the news of Wright’s retirement.