Cool, collected Wright guides No. 1 Villanova
PITTSBURGH — Jay Wright never lets anyone see him sweat . . . literally.
It isn’t just that he is annually selected as college basketball’s best-dressed coach. It isn’t even that he may be the only big-time hoops coach who readily admits that he puts cologne on before tipoff.
It isn’t even that his looks and personality are the polar opposite of his mentor, Rollie Massimino, who led Villanova to the national title in 1985.
Massimino’s suits were every bit as expensive as Wright’s. But he was Danny DeVito on the bench, a nonstop whirling dervish who spent a lot of the game inbounds, barking at his team, at the officials and at anyone who happened to wander into his sightline.
Wright is Bond, James Bond. When his team gets upset in the NCAA Tournament, he congratulates the winners, shakes his head and begins preparing for next season. When his team wins the national championship on one of the most dramatic buzzer-beaters in history, he makes certain the shot counts, consoles the losers and - maybe a week or two later than usual - begins preparing for next season.
“The way I’ve come to look at it is the NCAA Tournament is just that - a tournament,” he said Thursday night after his Wildcats, the No. 1 seed in the East Region, had easily beaten Radford, 87-61. “I know our fans don’t look at it that way; I know that’s not the way all of us are judged from outside.
“But when I sit down with my staff at the end of the season, I want to know how did we play from start to finish? How did we do in the Big East regular season? How hard did our guys play night in and night out? How hard did they practice? How close did we get them to their potential? That’s how I analyze a season.
“That doesn’t mean we’re not giving everything we have in this tournament. We are. But we all know things happen. You have a bad night; someone else has a good night. I was on the other end of it at Hofstra, when we were the low seed (in 2000 and 2001) and all the pressure was on the high seed. I know the feeling on both sides of it, winning and losing.”
It is almost difficult to believe that Wright is in his 17th season as Villanova’s coach. He’s 56, but looks 40 with only a few flecks of gray in his dark hair - as opposed to Massimino who was 50 when he won his championship but looked, well, older. Wright is Villanova’s winningest coach ever, with 417 victories, surpassing Al Severance’s mark set between 1936 and 1961.
Villanova is 31-4, the fourth straight season the Wildcats have won at least 30 games. They were 29-5 five seasons ago.
Kris Jenkins’ shot in Houston two springs back put Wright into that rare category of the untouchable coach. He’s won the ultimate game; he’s been a consistent winner; he’s done it the right way with good kids, most of whom graduate; and he charms everyone along the way.
“I’ve done this for a long time,” said Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist Bob Ford, who has covered Philly area sports since 1981. “There has never been anyone who gets exactly what we [members of the media] need like Jay. He knows how to give you what you want with every answer and, at the same time, he also gets across what he wants to get across. He’s unique.”
Of course all those wins, including two Final Four trips and the national title, have a the bar so high for Villanova that it is almost impossible to reach it most years.
The buzz going into Saturday’s game against Alabama here in PPG Paints Arena has little to do with the 31 victories this season.
“It’s ‘are they going to lose in the second round again?’ “Wright said, laughing. “I’m fully aware of that. We’ve lost in the second round a bunch of times. I remember them all, especially the one here three years ago. That turned out to be one of the most important games ever for us.”
Villanova was 32-2 going into that tournament, the No. 1 seed in the East and the No. 2 seed overall, just as it is this season. The Wildcats easily beat a No. 16 seed, Lafayette, in the first round. Then they lost to eighth-seeded North Carolina State, 71-68.