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NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FINAL FOURMarch 26, 2018Jay WrightSan Antonio, Texas Q. We talked earlier how you joined Coach Self as the only coach to have four straight 30-win seasons. Can you talk about how you've established that, and, two, does that also kind of indicate just how darned hard it is to win one of these championships? JAY WRIGHT: Yeah, yes to both. You've got to have good players. I think the similarity of Bill's teams over that four-year period, our teams, we've just been -- we consistently had very good players. It's a part of guys staying healthy, guys staying in the program, good recruiting, getting lucky in recruiting over a period of time. You know, I think to your second question -- and I was listening to Bill, and I know some of those teams he's had that didn't make it -- that you could argue if you matched them up man-to-man, they might be better teams than the one he has now. Same thing with us. I think some of our teams that have been to the Final Four might not have been as good as some of our other teams, but it's just what happens that season, how they're playing together, what the breaks are, what the match-ups are, and you realize that when you're in it. If you get there, you realize more how hard it is. When you don't get there, you think it's hard. But when you get there, you actually realize it's even harder than you thought. Q. I was talking to Porter and asked him who he might reach out to to get a little advice on what it's like to be in a Final Four. Without giving away state secrets, if a coach like Porter, a new coach to this event, were to come to you and say, what's different, what little tip can you give me to get me through this week, what would you tell him? JAY WRIGHT: Well, first, I think he's smart in doing that, and the first year I went, I did the same thing. There's a lot. Man, where do you start? First, it's understanding the enormity of it, that when you get there, it's going to blow you away. And I would even give more advice now in that when we went in '09, it blew us away, right, so I knew to expect that. But when we went in '16, the difference in seven years, what they had done to the Final Four and all of the trappings and the murals on the side of buildings of your players, everything had grown so much, I was shocked. Still shocked, even though we had been there before. Just so understand, don't feel like you're not worth it when you get there and you're blown away. It happens to everybody. And just try to concentrate on the basketball part of it. Q. Since you have some history with him -- he's one of the guys who's been around a while and failed to get past the Elite 8 and has had a fan base, a very rabid fan base get on him a little bit -- what is your perspective of sort of what he's been through, especially the last three or four years when he's had so many good players. He talked about how hard it is to get to where you are right now. Can you sort of explain to people how hard it really is to get past that second weekend? JAY WRIGHT: Well, you know, it is interesting. I was listening to Bill, and I'm sure anyone that looks at Bill Self says, well, I don't feel sorry for that guy. He's one of the greatest coaches, he wins all the time. But I get it. Like only coaches can understand that, where what's most impressive about what he's done is consistently -- and I don't know what the number, I think it's 14 or 15 regular season league championships. That's the mark of a great coach. What you do in the tournament is not really a mark of your, I don't think, of your talent as a coach, but it's match-ups. It's who's healthy. You know, it's a break here or there. It's a call by a referee. So in coaching, we understand that you don't have as much control of that tournament. You have control of your regular season a little bit more. But you are going to be evaluated on what you do in the tournament. So we all have to accept that. And I think Bill accepts it. And I think that's part of why he was excited to get to the Final Four. He just knows that, hey, it's going to -- and that's what makes his fan base happy. It's what makes our fan base happy, how far you advance in the tournament. It's one of the challenges in being a college basketball coach. Q. I was just wondering just your initial thoughts on this match-up between Devonte' Graham and Jalen Brunson. It's obviously two big-time players that have had big-time years and kind of adds a little subplot to this game. Just your initial thoughts on those two guys and the similarities and differences maybe? JAY WRIGHT: Well, it's amazing to me how these things play out. We all talk about the match-ups in the tournament. You never know what it's going to be. But to go from Collin Sexton to Evans to now Devonte' Graham, it's like, you couldn't have -- you really couldn't have picked -- I haven't had time to think about this, but I don't think you could have gradually gone up a step at that position with any other three guards, maybe the three best guards in the country, with Jalen, and I think taking a little step up on each one. So now we're getting to the Final Four, and we're going to play arguably the best. And Jalen, I think, has been smart about not getting into that confrontation individually, and it's hard to do because a lot of people talk about it. If I was a fan, I would love to see this. As a coach, I hope we don't get into that at all, and I don't think Jalen will. It'll be Villanova versus Kansas. Q. Porter Moser was referencing -- I don't know if you remember this, but he was talking about a dinner with Rollie, an Italian dinner he put together when he was an assistant under Tony Barone at Texas A&M and you were under Rollie. Do you remember crossing paths with Porter at that time or over the years? JAY WRIGHT: Wow, I did not until now. I do. Wow. Q. It's coming back to you? JAY WRIGHT: Incredible. Yeah, that's incredible. You know what's funny, I mean, I know Porter, and we've crossed paths just coaching, but not a lot. But I kept thinking, you know, I know him from somewhere else. I wasn't thinking of him as Tony Barone's -- that's where I first met him. I hadn't thought about that, man. That's amazing. Q. Well, the other part I wanted to ask you about was just why over the years -- beyond the basketball part maybe and what you've built at Villanova, but some of the personal things, being from the Philly area, raising a family there, how much of a factor were some of those things in staying at Villanova over the years? JAY WRIGHT: Oh, a huge factor. All of us in coaching, that have coaching jobs, we all know that we're blessed. We're lucky to even have those jobs. There's only 300-something of those in the country. But to be able to do it in your hometown at the school that you grew up as a fan of -- I was the first person in my family to go to college, so we weren't connected as an alum to any school, but I just rooted for all the Big 5 schools and Villanova. Then to be able to coach there in your hometown, your wife is an alum, have your kids grow up around this wonderful community, I mean, that's the whole thing. I always say, I think for me, I have the best job in college basketball, for me. It might not be for Porter, it might not be for Bill, but for me it is the best job in college basketball. Q. I want to talk about playing experience and also having older players. You don't have a senior on the roster but you've got a lot of guys that have played a lot, and there's always this talk about the one-and-dones. Most of the great freshmen this season are going to be in San Antonio. To win four games to get to the Final Four, six to win a championship, how valuable is it to have older players? JAY WRIGHT: It's always valuable in these games. And I think the teams -- even the teams, the Duke teams, the Kentucky teams that have won with one-and-done players, they've had great experienced players on those teams, too. They might not have gotten the hype, but they were the players that kind of led those young guys through that experience. I think you see that on all the teams, even -- I remember when Duke won it with all of those young guys. The kid from Philly was a fourth- or fifth-year player. I'm blanking on his name. But he was a 6'8", 6'9", guy, he played most of the championship game and Emeka Okafor did not because he was an experienced player, but then the young guys were able to have great games because they had the older guy out there with them being the glue to the team. Amile Jefferson is the kid I was thinking about. Q. Last off-season there was a poll of coaches around the country, and they named John Beilein at Michigan as the cleanest coach in the country in terms of following the rules. And I'm curious, I know your path crossed with him in the Big East. What is it about him and the way he's sort of come up through the ranks that has gotten him that reputation among his peers? JAY WRIGHT: Well, he's a lifetime head coach, so everywhere he's been, you know, starting back to Le Moyne. I was an assistant at Rochester, he was the head coach at Le Moyne. So when someone is a head coach you kind of know who they are and you watch what they do. So you watch them at Le Moyne, Canisius, Richmond, West Virginia, Michigan -- I hope I didn't forget one of them. But that's where I started watching him, and you saw the same consistency, quality of character, quality of players he recruits, class of his team on the court, off the court. It was the same at every school. So you just -- you know, you watched it. If a guy was an assistant all those years, you wouldn't have known who he was. When you're a head coach all those years, you watch every program he builds and are just impressed with the same character, class, dignity at each school. Q. There's going to be people that will say this is -- your game against Kansas is the de facto championship game just because it's two No. 1 seeds. Just talk about playing them in the semifinal and the challenges that they represent. JAY WRIGHT: Yeah, you know, I'm sure -- the good thing is I think our guys have a good understanding and respect for everybody in this tournament, so I don't think they would even think that this is the National Championship game. Our guys wouldn't think that way. But they are as explosive an offensive team, I think, as we've played all year in terms of always having the ability to be a great team and using their big men. And now they've probably got, in addition to their bigs, the best perimeter team they've ever had. So a little bit -- and still maintaining their defensive toughness and rebounding, which is pretty amazing. We always watched Bill Self's teams to learn how to use big guys, you know, and now he's still got those big guys that are really effective, but the guards are amazing. So it's going to be a very difficult defensive match-up for us. Q. I've asked the other coaches this, what are your feelings about San Antonio as a Final Four site? JAY WRIGHT: Oh, man, you know, I've been in the business a long time, so I always go to the Final Four. And I have my few favorite spots for the Final Four, and one of my top criteria is when you can -- warm weather and when you can walk around to your spots rather than have to drive everywhere. So that always puts San Antonio at the top. Love the River Walk, love the weather, and love the fact you can walk everywhere, and everything is in close proximity. I think it's one of the best spots every year to have the Final Four. Q. The fact that you guys shoot threes well and Kansas shoots threes well, do you think maybe it should just be a game of Horse and then we can go home? What do you think will be the deciding factor between two teams that really like to shoot the three ball? JAY WRIGHT: Yeah, I think -- it's funny, I think both of us really like to shoot the three ball, but both of us really try to be good defensive teams and good rebounding teams. You know, so it's going to be interesting who can stop each other. You know, I think we both think that way. But it's hard to do against these teams. But it's hard to do against us, and it's very hard to do against Kansas. It's interesting to me that I heard Bob Huggins say that we remind them of Kansas. I heard Chris Beard say we remind them of Kansas. That was always -- when I heard that, I always took that as a compliment, and now we've got to play against them, so now I'm not so excited about it. Q. Dylan played a lot of minutes in the two games in Boston, but the thing that impressed me most was he had the ball most of the time trying to escape a very tough defender. How do you think he came out of it stamina-wise and health-wise? JAY WRIGHT: You know, you hear me talk a lot about he's the most mature guy in our program, and part of that is how he takes care of his body, how he prepares himself mentally and physically. There's no one I have more confidence in in terms of being honest with me when he's tired. I took him out at one point in the second half, maybe at the 12:05 mark, and as he's coming out, he said, thanks, I needed it. So he'll be honest with me all the time, and he's been good all through the season. So we'll use that during this week, and we'll use that during games to always keep him fresh. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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