Oh yea, today also happens to be Villanova’s national championship parade.

This one doesn’t seem to have the same buzz as the 2016 parade, at least on TV. It’s sort of like when you see your favorite band for the first time, and then you’re lucky enough to see them come around two years later, playing mostly the same setlist. You still go and you still have a great time, but the second time seeing Nightrain live isn’t the same as the first.

But one thing that is the same is Jay Wright’s approach, which is nothing but class.

He used his speech at City Hall to talk about everybody but himself, and tactfully explained what I’ve been bitching out all week – that this is a Philadelphia team.

Wright:

“We’re all a part of the Nova nation today, man, Thank you for coming out. You know, we do this so much in Philadelphia now that I thought you guys would get tired of parades. But no way. You showed up strong, I hope you all can get a picture of what this looks like from up here, the whole Nova nation in Philadelphia. We’re so proud to be a part of this. On behalf of the entire Nova nation in Philadelphia, especially our team, I want to thank Mayor Kenney, City Council, all of our Philadelphia police and the fire department for putting on an incredible parade. Thank you very much guys, we love you for it.

We have had a great run here and we do it all together. Can you give a warm Nova nation welcome to our entire coaching staff? I want to bring them up here (Wright waves them up to the stage and introduces them).

We are so proud to represent the Big Five, the Big East, and most importantly, the great city of Philadelphia and Philadelphia basketball, which has the greatest tradition in our country. Everywhere we go, when we play in the national tournament, all of the Big Five schools would root for each other. I was afraid to say this during the tournament, but Penn coach Steve Donahue helped us out with the scouting of Kansas. I didn’t want to say it when we were in the tournament, but there’s a tight bond in the Big 5 and we all stick together. We’re proud to represent the Big Five in Philadelphia, and we all know that there are people out here from everywhere in the Big Five, that are part of Nova nation today. And we saw, thank you very much, thanks for supporting the Villanova Wildcats. We’re gonna bring up the guys and I want you to show them love. They take great pride in being a part of you. Before we do that, I personally want to thank you; we played all of our home games at the Wells Fargo Center this year. This is truly a Philly team and we thank everybody at the Wells Fargo Center. We thank the entire city of Philadelphia for coming out and making the Wells Fargo Center a great home for us this year, and home of the national champions.”

I can’t man.

I just can’t dislike the guy.