I can’t imagine why people hate the Philly media. CAN’T IMAGINE!

Here’s Mike Sielski, on assignment in Houston, where Villanova will be the first major sports program in and around Philly to be one game away from a major championship since 2008, and he leans on something that literally could’ve been written after bascially every season for the past 10 years or so: Jay Wright to the NBA?

“I’m probably not ready for that,” Wright said Sunday. “I’m really not trying to think about that right now.”

That has been Wright’s stock defense throughout the NCAA tournament to any inquiry that didn’t deal with Villanova’s next opponent. All he can see is the six inches in front of his face, and truth be told, his team has played with that same single-mindedness, winning its five games by an average margin of more than 24 points. If the Wildcats sustain such excellence Monday night against the Tar Heels, if Wright ends up hoisting that championship trophy and answering Jim Nantz’s banal questions, it will be natural for him in the days to follow to ask himself what worlds he has left to conquer in college basketball.

It’s been well-documented that Jay has rebuffed other college coaching offers. He reiterated again at a press conference today that his approach might not work at bigger schools, where any recruit without a fast food joint before his name is considered a bench player. But he has never completely shunned the idea of being an NBA coach. He’s always admitted that, at some point, it would be something he’d consider if given the opportunity. Yet, a few years ago, when the Sixers contacted him, he explained his resistance by saying that if he failed in the NBA, he’d want to coach Villanova. So why leave?

As a Nova fan, I’ve fully resigned myself to the notion that Jay might someday test the waters. But writing this article, today of all days, is laughably convenient, near-clickbait for a topic that basically no one else is talking about, BECAUSE VILLANOVA IS PLAYING FOR A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TOMORROW. It’s akin to writing a column about the Game 7 starter of the World Series signing elsewhere after the season, the day before Game 7.

It’s also rooted in conjecture more than any sort of fact. There have been no offers. And quite honestly, I think the decision to leave might be harder after winning a National Championship. Fall short a few times, and you begin to bang your head on the wall, thinking, “This is all I can do at Villanova.” Win one? Well, now we return a good chunk of the team and add a five-star center next year. Maybe do it again. Maybe build a Duke-like program on the Main Line. Long-term earnings potential is greater there than a four-year stint as an NBA failure. There’s also a possibility that Jay, one of the highest paid coaches in the country already, could use his flirtations with the NBA as a bargaining chip, especially considering his worth to Villanova, which will, um, increase if they win tomorrow.

Now I’m mad at myself, of course. Because less than 24 hours before Villanova plays in its first National Championship since 1985, I’m writing about whether Jay Wright will leave or not – something that has been a topic virtually every year since 2006 in Villanova circles – rather than THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME AGAINST NORTH CAROLINA. Fuck. This is why we can’t have nice things.

Side note: Sielski will hide by some great journalistic veil on Twitter, playing the card of an impartial observer as if he’s covering a nuclear summit or something, when all he did was troll out the hackiest of sports columns guaranteed to generate buzz and outrage. Clicks, too.