Wright is prepared for changes coming to ’Nova
Change is coming to college basketball, Villanova coach Jay Wright said earlier this week, specifically in recruiting.
Call it the coronavirus effect. With campuses shut down and a recruiting dead period in place until May 31 because of COVID-19, where coaches are not allowed to have face-to-face contact with a potential recruit, programs like Zoom and other online measures could be the wave of the future.
Wright or his assistant coaches could be at home or in their office and the player and his parents could be in the comfort of their home. In terms of transfers, where the student is one place and his parents or guardians in another, a meeting could be conducted from multiple locales.
“Damn, I might be Zooming my butt off and not traveling so much,” Wright said. “That hit me because you could save a lot of money and a lot of time and it’s efficient because the time they come on campus is most important, just little things like that. Even with the draft, I’m talking to NBA guys, friends of mine that are head coaches that are telling me … I’m talking to Steve Kerr (the Golden State Warriors coach) and he’s in San Diego and he’s like, ‘I never watched video on draft picks ever like this because we’re always in the playoffs. I never got to. This is fun.’
“He’s talking to me about our guys. We might be able to get to that, I don’t know. There’s so many things that I think are going to come out of this for the better that are going to change. Obviously there’s things coming out of it for the worst because we’re losing a lot of wonderful human beings, but there will be a lot of positives that come out of this for college athletics and for our country.”
While the pandemic will create some problems for some recruits, namely the seniors who have not committed or players looking to transfer, Wright believes it will have a greater effect down the road.
“The spring and summer are really big for us,” Wright said. “Fortunately we’ve gotten to see everybody. The spring is when we can prioritize and go to work with what we’re doing. That’s going to make it harder for us. The summer is when we can really nail it down and almost get a feel for where we’re going to be commitment-wise, so it’s going to impact everybody and it’s going to impact us. The 2021 class is huge for us because we’re going to lose a lot of guys, maybe underclassmen and three seniors next year. So, again, I really think it could impact us.
“I’m not making excuses. We’re going to have to adjust.”
One adjustment Wright and his staff may have to make is to replace forwards Saddiq Bey and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl. Both will test the NBA Draft waters but when that will be is up in the air. Many NBA teams are hoping the league pushes back the draft from June 25 to Aug. 1, according to a story on ESPN.com.
So it could be a while before Wright finds out if he’ll have the Julius Erving Award winner (Bey) and the Big East Freshman of the Year (Robinson-Earl) next season. Wright believes that the Wildcats could withstand that hit even with no freshmen class coming in.
Guards Collin Gillespie and Justin Moore are back, as is starting forward Jermaine Samuels, and key reserves Dhamir CosbyRoundtree, Brandon Slater and Cole Swider. Caleb Daniels, a 6-4 guard who sat out last season after transferring from Tulane, will be eligible. He averaged 16.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists as a sophomore in 2018-19. He has two years of eligibility remaining.
The keys, though, could be guard Bryan Antoine and forward Eric Dixon. The 6-5 Antoine, a five-star recruiting from the Ranney School in New Jersey, played in just 16 games as a freshman following major surgery on his right (shooting) shoulder. He averaged 1.1 points and 5.4 minutes per game.
“I am so proud of Bryan,” Wright said. “We tried to get him healthy and tried to get him up to speed, but halfway through the year we said to him, ‘Look, you’re so far behind,’ and he knew it, ‘let’s learn and treat this like a redshirt year.’”
The 6-8, 270-pound Dixon sat out last season as a redshirt. He was the Pennsylvania Player of the Year as a senior at Abington in 2019. He could play a pivotal role if both Bey and Robinson-Earl make the jump to the NBA.
“I think he’s going to be a really good player,” Wright said of Dixon. “He’s going to help us next year. He really had a beneficial redshirt year. We love this dude. He’s going to be able to play inside. He’s a low-post player like we haven’t had. Again, he’s going to have to develop but he’s got a natural instinct playing inside that we haven’t had from a guy inside in a long time.”
Change is coming. That much is certain. COVID-19 saw to that and Wright is ready to deal with whatever comes down the road while keeping the bigger picture in mind.
“If it affects us and hurts us a little bit, so what?” Wright said. “Suck it up. There’s a lot more important things going on in our world right now.”