Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Wright finds positives in adversity
Jay Wright thinks the odds are “50- 50” that his Villanova Wildcats will get in 25 games this season, let alone the full complement of 27 allowed by the NCAA.
Nothing is certain in the age of COVID- 19, as Wright knows all too well. He had to shut down workouts for several weeks late last month after a few members of the program tested positive for the coronavirus. Wright would not say who, citing privacy reasons, but said he was not one and is tested each week along with the rest of the coaching staff.
Throw in some nagging injuries that have slowed a few players down and this has already been the most challenging preseason in Wright’s 20 years on the Main Line. And the season is not scheduled to start for another month yet.
Wright isn’t complaining or looking at the setbacks as a negative, though. On the contrary, the two- time National Championship coach views the preseason adversity as preparation for a season that could change in an instant.
“We’re looking at this, our little COVID thing and some of our little injury things, as positives,” Wright said in a Zoom conference Thursday afternoon. “We’re playing people in different positions knowing that in this season more than any, you could have unique lineups available to play on different nights. It’s not just the virus. We didn’t have the whole summer and we have these nagging injuries from guys not being in the same condition. We haven’t had a Shack summer or a Shack fall. Our strength coach ( John Schackleton) we feel is the best and we haven’t had that so I just think there are so many variables like that you have to be ready to use different lineups and be ready to adjustmore than any other season.”
And those adjustments have had to come on the fly.
“Our summer is a big part of our program,” Wright said. “We have our guys here during June and July. It’s a big part of our player development and we didn’t get it. And then when we came back in August we could only work out in pods, groups of four, and then we had our little COVID issues so we probably only had maybe 10 full practices the whole time.
“It forces you as a coaching staff to be creative about what you put in, how much you put in, knowing that you have a game on the 25th of November. We’re really doing things a lot differently. We are. We’re trying to stick to our core values, but we are doing a lot of things differently.”
One plus is that Wright has a veteran team that is expected to be one of the best in the country. The Wildcats have 12 of 13 scholarship players back from last season. The only loss is forward Saddiq Bey. The “newcomers” are guard CalebDaniels and forward Eric Dixon, and they’ve been in the programfor a year. Daniels sat out last season after transferring from Tulane, and the Abington grad Dixonwas redshirted. There are no freshmenwho have to learn the Villanova way.
“I feel good that we can work our way through this weird preseason and come out of it OK because of our experience,” Wright said.
As to who will start and who will come off the bench, those roles have not been defined yet. Wright expects a schedule to be announced soon. Look for the
Wildcats to play a number of Big East games in December when the student body is not on campus, to minimize contacting or spreading the coronavirus.
As for fans, well, that’s up to the state. The Finneran Pavilion has a seating capacity of 6,500. The current state guidelines for indoor gathers limit the crowd for venues that seat between 2,001- 10,000 to 15 percent of capacity. That puts the number at 975, including players, support staff, security and media. Wright said that would leave roomfor about 700 fans. How those tickets will be doled out also is a work in progress.
But while there are stillmany questions that have to be answered the possibility of a full season remains up in the air, Wright said he and the players
are glad to be back on the court.
“I do sense amongst the players and all of the coaches that we’re into a routine again, that in- season routine that all of us love,” Wright said. “I think all of us during these times are looking for any outlet to get us back to that sense of normalcy and I sense that on the court with the guys. I haven’t felt one day where we’ve gone in there and felt like the guys were, ‘ Oh man it’s the drudgery of preseason.’ Everyone’s so excited to be there. We’ve tested. We’ve done Zooms. We’ve done Zoom classes, now it’s back to normal and we’re really enjoying it.”