Villanova

Jay Wright is RETIRING?! (updated)

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Apr 20th, 2022 · 7:57 PM EDT

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Well holy shit!

This just happened:

Jay Wright is likely retiring as head coach of Villanova soon, sources said, and that means a succession plan is in order for the university. https://t.co/o3fJHrUMEy

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 20, 2022

Villanova coach Jay Wright has called a team meeting to inform the players that he will be retiring, sources told @Stadium.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) April 20, 2022

Somebody may have to go perform a wellness check on The Maestro. Not sure if he’s in Pennsylvania or New Jersey right now, so we’ll split it up. I’ll go to his place in PA and you guys swing by Ocean City. Do not leave him alone for any period of time until the dust settles.

Speaking of dust settling, apparently there is already a succession plan in place:

Fordham University coach Kyle Neptune is expected to be the choice to succeed two-time NCAA champion Jay Wright as the new head coach of Villanova, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 20, 2022

I’ve got a ton of thoughts about this. First of all, had no idea Jay Wright was 60 years old. He looks like he’s 42. And he just up and retired in the offseason? No Coach K farewell tour? That’s low key pretty cool. No fanfare necessary, just walking away on top. Woj says that Jay Wright is NOT interested in coaching in the NBA, which is fascinating, because immediately the reaction to this was that he was going to line up something in the pro game, and that would certainly make sense, because there’s nothing else for him to do in the college game. He won two titles and took another team that wasn’t as good to the Final Four. The only thing remaining at Villanova was to continue building on that legacy.

RE: Neptune, he was a Jay Wright assistant from 2013 to 2021 and coached Fordham to a 16-16 record this season. He’s apparently peacing out after one year. See ya! In this case, Neptune is Ronnie Wood swapping Rod Stewart for The Rolling Stones.

We’ll do a longer, more proper Wright farewell tomorrow or Friday, but I’ll just say this –

Wright is a really good dude and total class act. He did amazing things with that program and earned a lot of respect along the way. All of those Nova kids were easy to cheer for, assuming you were a neutral. The national titles were sick. The parades were cool. I am totally sideswiped by this news and can’t wait to see what Wright does next. Will he pull a Tom Brady?

EDIT –

Here’s the note from Wright himself:

pic.twitter.com/XT7HPRxE5n

— Jay Wright (@CoachJayWright) April 21, 2022