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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: BOSTONMarch 22, 2018Jay WrightBoston, Massachusetts THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by the head coach of Villanova University Wildcats, representing the Big East Conference with a record of 32-4. We welcome Coach Jay Wright. First, congratulations on advancing and get your thoughts on the Tournament so far and your thoughts on the matchup with West Virginia, please. JAY WRIGHT: Hello, everybody. Great to be here in Boston. Great town. We're staying down at Copley Plaza, which reminds me of my old days as an assistant coach, when we used to stay there and play at the Garden against BC, so it's nice to be here. Tournament's been amazing, everything you'd hoped it would be. We've played well. The upsets are crazy. Just a typical crazy NCAA Tournament. And then the matchup with West Virginia, it's what you get at this point in the Tournament. Sweet 16, you're going to play a great team that's playing on all cylinders. You can't get this far unless you're really clicking right now. I think very similar to us, I think it's a team that has grown throughout the year and is really playing their best basketball right now, as we are. A really unique style of play that you don't see any other time during the year or from any other opponent. So I think it's going to be the kind of game where we're going to have to get in it, kind of take a punch in the mouth there for a second, and then get ready to adjust because it's hard to simulate. We just haven't seen it anywhere else this year. Q. Jay, I'm wondering, and I know you're probably just focused on you guys and West Virginia, but Purdue and Texas Tech, this is like the only region that's kind of true to form and hasn't had the crazy upsets. I wonder if there's anything you sense between the teams here in Boston that's allowed them to play through and avoid these crazy upsets that you mentioned. JAY WRIGHT: Good defensive teams. You know, I think each of us, each of these four teams have at some point survived maybe a half of not making shots but their defense has kept them in it in one way or another. But all the teams -- we really haven't been that kind of team during the year, but we've become that kind of team at the end. But Texas Tech-Purdue, really solid. Obviously, West Virginia, incredibly effective defensively. That gives you your best chance to survive and advance. Q. Jay, Sagaba Konate has the ability to change games and swing momentum with a big block. What's the plan to try and neutralize him and try and almost kind of go around him offensively? JAY WRIGHT: Again, I don't know -- I just don't think we've faced anybody like that during the season. We didn't play Arizona. We were going to play them in the Bahamas. So you have to just really make good decisions when you get to the rim. You can't say that, all right, they've got a great shot blocker, so we're not taking the ball to the basket. You can't say that. And you can't say we're going to challenge this guy because we've seen some teams try to do that. You just have to be a good decision-maker, and you can't be afraid of failure. So sometimes you're going to go, you're going to make the right decision, and you might catch a foul on them. Sometimes you're going to go, and he might get you. But you have to be smart about it. Q. Jay, the last time you were coaching here, Scottie Reynolds was taking a shot against Pitt. I'm writing something about how, obviously, this season, those two programs are at opposite ends of the spectrum. I'm curious, when thinking about the craziness of that, looking at the context of league realignment, since you were pretty open about looking to be in the top league you could be, whether it was Power Five, Power Six, whatever. I'm just curious if you can get your own head around how sometimes there are unexpected consequences. JAY WRIGHT: Yeah, that's a -- Mike's from Philly. He always comes out with good stuff. That's an interesting perspective right now, one I obviously haven't thought about a lot since I'm concentrating on West Virginia. But it is really interesting. I would say at that time when we were playing Pitt here, I was hoping to be in the old Big East forever in the greatest league ever and the best basketball league in the country. I never thought we would be at this point here where we're in a new Big East, and now I think that's the best league in basketball. And when this league first started, I was -- I wasn't as much concerned about this league as I was just really disappointed in the old Big East that we knew and loved that was so solid and that it was going away. So I didn't really think about how it was going to affect the other teams going to the ACC or whatever they did. But I'll tell you what, I would have never thought back then that we would be in a league as successful as we are and I would be as happy about a new league and that Pitt would be where they are, to give you an honest answer. That's probably the best I can say. Q. You mentioned a couple times now you're reminded of your past trips here to Boston. I was hoping you could maybe go down memory lane a bit and talk about what it was like to come to the old Garden and be a part of games there. JAY WRIGHT: When I was an assistant at Villanova, every game we played here, we played at the Garden. So I never played a game -- I don't know. Towards the end, they had new Conte Forum. But as an assistant, I couldn't wait to get on the court and take a shot where Bob Cousy and John Havlicek had played. I'd ride in there just like totally uncool. I just wanted to get in there and take a shot. I always stayed down here at Copley Plaza, and Coach Mass had a Chinese restaurant we went to down here, the same place every time. So win or lose, we knew we were playing at the Garden, go to a Chinese restaurant. They would stay open late for us. Back then you'd stay overnight. You'd fly back the next day. So it was always a great trip up here. We had a lot of Villanovans up here. We always had a big alumni reception after the game. Just great memories of this as a great basketball team, great Big East town, and great battles with Dana Barros back then, just some great battles with -- then at Conte Forum, when Al Skinner was there, some great teams, also. So we've had some battles with BC. Q. Jay, every coach, I think, looks early in the season for kind of defining moments, and I think at halftime against Tennessee in the Bahamas might have been one of those for you. Wondered what you guys might have learned -- or what you learned about the team that second half and early on in the season, from that point on. JAY WRIGHT: That was a really significant game for us in that it was our first game against a high-level, athletic opponent, physical, athletic opponent, much like West Virginia. But it was the first time that group had faced them, and we got in foul trouble early. We were playing tough, but we got in foul trouble. Bridges, Brunson were in foul trouble. We were down 13 at halftime. It was early in the season. I was calm at halftime. I just knew it was going to be a good experience for us. But Bridges and Brunson took over after I left the locker room and got everyone together and said, "We got this. We're going to battle back." And those two, defensively and on the glass, really took over the second half, and we came back and won pretty handily. It really set the tone for who the leaders were, how physical we could be, how tough we could be. Now, we didn't stay consistent throughout the year, but it did set the tone for the first time. Q. Coach Huggins kind of gave you credit for coming up with some of the best ideas he ever stole. JAY WRIGHT: I can't share with you any ideas I got from Hugs because they're all off the court, and I can't talk about them. Q. Jay, I've got two questions: First is when you look at the upsets that have happened, does a game like Virginia-UMBC, give you a teaching moment for your kids? Like they know it can happen any game, but here's proof of that. Especially for your seniors, what have you seen from the experience of two years ago? How does that help you in a tournament, especially the deeper you're going? JAY WRIGHT: First, the Virginia game was so impactful. We happened to be in a hotel room in Pittsburgh where we could all watch it. So you watch it together, we didn't even have to talk about it. It was so impactful that you didn't have to say it. We had been in that game so many times, and I had talked about it so many times, saying this is going to happen. You've got to respect these guys. It wasn't a matter of fear like, don't let it happen to us. It's just you just have to respect these teams because we -- I believe it was '05, we played Monmouth. We were 1-16; we almost got beat. We played American one year. We almost got beat. Mount St. Mary's gave us a tough one. So after that game, we didn't have to say anything. And your second question was about our -- we don't have any seniors, but I know you're talking about Jalen Brunson and Bridges and Booth. The further you advance in this tournament, the more the unique the experience is. For instance, when you get to a Final Four, there's no way you can explain to somebody before you get there what it's going to be like. The first time we went, I called a number of coaches that I respected. They gave me a lot of great info, and still I felt like I wasn't prepared enough the first time. These guys have seen it all. So I really think they're valuable to our younger guys, just in how they talk about every step, how they conduct themselves every step of the way because they're living what we're telling them. Q. So the Big East yesterday came out with a recommendation that there should be a two-and-none rule. Did you see this? JAY WRIGHT: Yes. Q. Instead of the one-and-done. What are your thoughts on this? We asked Jalen and Mikal about it. Do you think it's a good idea? Do you think there should be no age limit? What do you think? JAY WRIGHT: Val (Ackerman) talked to all the coaches about that stuff and the athletic directors, and in general, we're all in agreement with that paper she produced. We are all in agreement. There's little different areas. In the postseason, I would go into it more in depth. But I just think there should be a relationship with the NCAA and the NBA because the whole issue is an NBA issue. These players should be allowed to come out of high school and go right to the NBA if they're good enough, and if they're good enough to be potential NBA players, they shouldn't have to go to college if they don't want to. They should be given an opportunity in the G League to earn the amount of money that they're worth and not have to go to college. One of the problems -- not all the problems -- in college is some players are being forced to go, and coaches are being forced to coach guys that don't want to be in college, and that's on the NBA. It's not on the NCAA. The NBA should provide an opportunity for them to go to the G League and be developed in the G League if they don't want to be educated and go to college. So we're putting kids in a tough spot. We're putting college coaches in a tough spot. Now, college coaches and the NCAA have to take our responsibility for a lot of other things, but that's one of the areas I think is important. Q. Have you ever had the problem of coaching a kid who didn't want to be in college? JAY WRIGHT: Yes. Q. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about your philosophy recruiting-wise. I don't believe you've had any one-and-dones with Villanova, and you've gone after guys like Kidd-Gilchrist and missed. You've become a developmental program and it's worked out. I wonder if it was ever a conscious decision or if it's evolved that way? JAY WRIGHT: You know, it's evolved, and we get asked about this so much. I would love to have one of those one-and-done guys. Some of them, I can't name them because of recruiting rules, but there's local guys we don't get. Michael Gilchrist was one that was coming down to us or Kentucky. I really thought he would have been great at Villanova. It's more the individual person. He's a good kid, good student. He loved Villanova. John just did a better job at the end. But there's certain guys that just don't fit our culture. So it's kind of -- and it's the beauty of college athletics. There's a lot of different ways to do it. You can go to an Ivy League school and still make the NBA. You can go for one year and make the NBA and come back and get your degree. It's just our culture is such that we want someone that wants to be in college, and if they're good enough to leave in one year -- Kyle Lowry was good enough in two years. If they're good enough to be a first-round pick in one year, great and go, and let's work out a way for you to come back and finish your degree and remain a part of the Villanova community. That's our philosophy. I don't want it out there that I'm against one-and-dones. I don't want it out there that I don't want them. I want them. We try. Certain ones, we really try. We just lost a local one that's a great kid, and he's going to be very successful, and he picked a great school, but we wanted him. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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