The Wright Time for a Return?
Is It Time For Jay Wright To Return to Lancaster Avenue?
Just seconds after Kris Jenkins beat the buzzer to win the 2016 NCAA Tournament for the Wildcats with a dagger from downtown — Head Coach Jay Wright, in one of his trademark custom-made suits from Boyd’s, desperately tried to unpile his players away from the confetti, believing that additional time remained on the clock.
Moments after a replay confirmed that Villanova was indeed National Champions — millions of Americans not living on the East Coast googled the same question?
Where the hell is Villanova?
It had been nearly 31 years since Villanova’s last National Championship against Georgetown. Unlike its Big 5 Divisional Rivals — Villanova — which opened as a Saint Augustine’s Church, roots in Philadelphia began just six years after the death of Franklin. Nearly fifty years later, in 1842, when the University was founded after Saint Thomas of Villanova — and when the Nativist Riots of 1844 burned Saint Augustine’s Church — the School was closed in 1845. What grew from that result would eventually be positioning in the gorgeous Philadelphia suburbs.
PHOTO: Kyle Ross/Imagn Images
Villanova basketball may have been put on the map long before Jay Wright arrived on Lancaster Ave. — but he took them over the top in his twenty-one seasons as Villanova Head Coach, including two National Champions. When he stepped away in 2022, it seemed almost certain that he was destined for bigger things. But neither other colleges nor universities nor vacancies at the top of the Sixers Head Coaching Carousel could lure him back to the bench.
Villanova isn’t just an Augustine-inspired school resting in the comfy confines of Philly’s suburbs. It deserves to spend each season at the top of the standings and in March each year — at the top of the bracket.
It’s time for Jay Wright to return.
It’s not that we don’t believe in this team or their potential. Villanova needs Jay Wright back for a suburban Philadelphia college basketball program that needs to keep up with the best college programs in the country in recruiting to compete.
A ranking of number ten out of eleven in the Big East and a .500 record isn’t what Villanova or its fans deserve. It’s not re-stocking your program. It’s subpar for a Villanova program that deserves parades, not every quarter-century but every decade.
Wright’s presence on the Villanova bench, that salt-and-pepper hair perfectly quaffed against a freshly-pressed designer suit, and unwavering gaze wasn’t just intimidation.
It was a symbol of excellence, one of expectations.
His championships were a symbol of not only what Villanova could do each year but also what it did.
It was a standard of what Villanova basketball should be again.
PHOTO: Kyle Ross/Imagn Images
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Categorized:College