One of the first times Jay Wright faced Jim Calhoun as Villanova head coach, one of the coaches was kicked out before the end of the game.
And believe it or not, it was Wright, now known as the George Clooney-looking, slick sideline operator, who got the toss – not the often-quarrelsome Calhoun.
“He said the wrong thing and the referee threw him out,” Calhoun recalled. “After the game he said to me, ‘But you said things.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve been saying that for a long time. But Jay, there are stripes.’ ”
Ultimately, Wright earned those stripes, and then some: two national titles, four trips to the Final Four, 13 Big East titles, induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last summer, and the unbridled respect of nearly everyone associated with college basketball.
Indeed, Wright essentially stepped into the role once played by Calhoun and Jim Boeheim, and before that by John Thompson, Lou Carnasecca and Rollie Massimimo, as the face of the Great East. A role that Calhoun believes Wright performed “incredibly well.”
On Wednesday night, Wright shocked the basketball world by announcing that he was stepping down after 21 seasons at the helm of Villanova. Wright, who coached Hofstra for seven seasons before taking over at ‘Nova, is “only” 60 – far younger than Calhoun was when he retired at 70 in 2012, or Roy Williams (71) a year ago or Mike Krzyzewski (75) just a few weeks ago.
Is Calhoun shocked by Wright’s decision?
“In this time and era, I’m not,” said the fellow Hall of Famer. “With the way Jay says he wants to build a program, and in a way Danny[Hurley]says he wants to build a program by developing kids — Jay did it, I think Danny tries, but a lot Good luck with that.”
The NCAA’s one-time transfer rule, which allows players to transfer once without having to sit out a season, coupled with the extra year of eligibility granted to all student-athletes a few years ago, makes recruiting and maintaining a roster all the more relevant difficult difficult. In fact, Villanova and UConn were the only two Big East programs not to earn a single transfer last season.
Add in things like Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) legislation and other factors, and it may not be a coincidence that Wright, Williams and Coach K all retired within 13 months.
“Pretty soon, I don’t care if you’re 60 or 70 or 40, it must be weighing you down,” Calhoun noted. “And now a little bit more of what he’s been doing so well for so many years, taking kids who are really good players and growing them into great players… the grind of it.” You can’t leave the phone a day. All of that builds up.”
Calhoun returned to the sidelines five years ago to coach the young Division III University of Saint Joseph coach, but left that position in November, not because he wasn’t healthy, but because he was was healthy – which frees him up to do things like go to Mexico for a week with his wife and some friends, as Calhoun will do on Friday.
Quinnipiac head coach Baker Dunleavy played under Wright for four years and later joined his staff as an assistant for seven seasons. The only thing that shocked him about Wright’s resignation was the timing.
“I think he probably rushed it a bit based on the leaked news,” Dunleavy noted. “But he’s been talking about that for a long time. He never wanted to be a guy who trains into his 70s. I think he wants to experience more of life, the flexibility of life that he never had. He has been training for over 30 years. He never had a summer off, he never got to do some of the nice things with his wife that they wanted to do. And I think he wants to do it while he’s still relatively young. I knew that was his mindset, but I didn’t know that he would be retiring on Wednesday (Wednesday).
Dunleavy agrees that the changing nature of college coaching in recent years may have hastened Wright’s retirement.
“The business that we all know in recent times has changed,” he said. “It’s just very different how you recruit. The ability to build a program the way he wants, through the high school ranks and through maturation and growth from within, might be a little threatened out there. Maybe not at Villanova, but in general there will be fewer and fewer of them and we can already see it. Could he learn a new way? Absolutely. He could do anything. But is that what he wants at this stage in his career? I think only he can answer that, but I think that would probably be part of it.”
Who is the new face of the great East?
For the record, Calhoun went head to head 12-4 against Wright. Hurley went 1-5, his only win coming in a dramatic fight this past February 22 from which Hurley was knocked out a few minutes before halftime. Undoubtedly, Wright benefited from the Big East split in 2013, dominating a league suddenly devoid of UConn, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Louisville, etc.
Now Wright’s departure creates a huge void – for Villanova and for the Great East. Kyle Neptune, a former Villanova assistant who took over at Fordham last year, will follow in Wright’s footsteps.
“I’m sure they set him up, he must be very good,” Calhoun remarked. “Considering that, it’s a tough job. (Wright) took Villanova to a different height than before.”
As for the Big East, who will step into Wright’s role as the “face of the league”? Ed Cooley is now the “Dean” of Big East coaches, beginning his 12th season at the helm of Providence. Creighton’s Greg McDermott has been with the school the longest (since his 13th season), but the Bluejays didn’t join the Big East until 2013.
Hurley may have the most notoriety, and he certainly turned the Husky program on its head. Wright’s retirement could open up a way for UConn to reclaim its league-top dominance from two decades ago, although Hurley improves his overall record against both McDermott (1-5 overall, 0-5 at UConn) and Cooley (2-5). got to. 7 overall, 1-2 at UConn).
There will also be youngsters in the league. Shaheen Holloway, who led Saint Peter’s to a miracle run into the Elite Eight last month, is Seton Hall’s new head coach. Quinnipiac fell to Saint Peter’s in the semifinals of the MAAC championship tournament and Dunleavy believes Holloway, who was once a star player at Seton Hall, will be a great addition to the Big East.
“I think he’s obviously a perfect fit there,” Dunleavy remarked. “He’s going to bring a mentality that they’re used to, which is a defense-first mentality. I think they won’t miss a beat in terms of the personality of the program.”
With Holloway and Neptune, seven of the Big East’s 11 head coaches are black, a percentage as high as any other league in the country.
The face of Villanova and the Great East changed practically overnight. Who will fill the void left by Jay Wright?
“We’ll miss him,” Calhoun remarked. “Jay has been very grateful from day one for what Steve (Lappas) and Rollie (Massimimo) have done for him. He acknowledges that there were people before him who made it very special. I think he was a great spokesman for the game.”
david.borges@hearstmediat.com