Villanova men’s basketball coach Jay Wright is retiring several reports. The Athletic’s Shams Charania was the first report this retirement was probable.
Wright, 60, had privately wrestled with the decision throughout the offseason, sources with knowledge of the situation tell Sports Illustrated. Eventually, the Hall of Fame coach decided to move on, a decision that will impact a sport that already sees many coaching turnovers.
Wright is known for his brilliant offensive mind, ability to develop guards and, until recently, his elegant side-team attire. Wright rose from a Division III assistant to become one of the most recognizable names in the sport. During his 21-year tenure at Villanova, Wright won 520 games, reached four Final Fours and won national championships in 2016 and 2018.
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Wright, once known as one of the sport’s top coaches without a national title, finally capped that mountain with a smashing win over North Carolina in 2016. He then went on to lead the Wildcats in dominant fashion to their second title in three seasons over Michigan in the title game ’18. Wright also won a gold medal at the 2020 Olympics as an assistant coach under Gregg Popovich and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.
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Villanova is expected to fill Wright’s place with Fordham manager Kyle Neptune. reports Jon Rothstein. Neptune, 37, spent eight years under Wright as an assistant coach, including for both national championships. He went 16-16 in his first season at the helm of Fordham and had the program’s highest total of conference wins in the past 15 years. Neptune is a Brooklyn native with strong ties to the Northeast. He is known as an accomplished recruiter and astute tactician.
Wright’s decision is the latest in a string of high-profile names to leave the profession in recent years. The most successful basketball coach of all time, Mike Krzyzewski, was coaching his final 2021-22 season, while longtime North Carolina coach Roy Williams resigned after 2020-21 and was replaced internally by Hubert Davis. Lon Kruger, who won 674 games in his career, also resigned last spring. In fact, many coaches privately said over the past year that they expected Wright to help lead the sport through a period of leadership transition without Williams and Krzyzewski at the helm. Instead, Wright will join them from the outside and look within.
With these recent retirements, the only two active men’s coaches with multiple NCAA championships to their name are Bill Self (Kansas) and Rick Pitino (Iona), although Pitino’s second championship was vacated by the NCAA.
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