The good guys finally win one.

[jimk72Participant]

Very refreshing that a school like Villanova, with quality academics similar in size to Lehigh, with a widely respected, classy, and loyal head coach finally wins out over the mega state schools in one of the two mega money sports. Just wish it happened more often.

Now it’s true Jay Wright can afford to be loyal at $2M+/year, but he’s had substantial offers for more at the mega schools, and the pros. And he’s just kept plugging away with the Cats.

Got the urge to post on coach Wright after visiting the Bucknell board and learning that he was a Bison during the ECC days in the early 80’s. Not a star, but no doubt played at Stabler several times.

[lehigh90Participant]

I agree, it is nice to see success from a smaller school and one with solid academics. But, Villanova has a great basketball tradition going back to the late 1930’s. They have, I believe, 5 Final Fours, many Elite 8’s, lost in an NCAA final and now 2 National Championships. Many of their alumni have had successful NBA careers and a few stars. And, they play in one of the premier conferences in the NCAA. Jay has done a great job there (although he was getting some criticism before this season), but he didn’t exactly build this thing from scratch. But, it is always surprising to me, their success, when you see the size of the school and their facilities. The Pavilion is not a great arena (they do play some games in Sixers arena), but they are able to recruit pretty well. They don’t get a lot of 5 star studs, but always get solid talent. Sort of like this year’s team. Probably none will play in the NBA, but they won a title. Jay always recruits well in Philly, NY and DC. He is underpaid at $2.5M when you see his peers. It will be interesting to see if Villanova can hang on to him, when the huge money comes calling. He has had many offers NCAA and NBA in recent years, and stayed, so who knows.

[Bison137Participant]

[quote quote=26339]

Got the urge to post on coach Wright after visiting the Bucknell board and learning that he was a Bison during the ECC days in the early 80’s. Not a star, but no doubt played at Stabler several times.

[/quote]

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Jay played three games at Stabler. He was Bucknell’s leading scorer as a junior – on a weak, rebuilding team – but lost his starting job as a senior as the talent level improved a lot.

BTW, Jay got his first coaching job – at Rochester – because of a recommendation from Pat Flannery. Flannery had overlapped him for one year at Bucknell and also hosted him on his official visit. Then he succeeded Flannery as the #3 assistant at Drexel as Flannery moved on to a new job.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by  Bison137.

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