Jay Wright promises Villanova fans ‘a special year’ in NCAA Tournament, with St. Mary’s up first | Bob Ford
The coach likes his team, and likes their chances to compete.
Villanova’s seeding and matchup for the NCAA opening round had just been announced, the big television screens arrayed around the court-level lobby of the Finneran Pavilion were muted, and Jay Wright rose to deliver the theme for this year’s national tournament participation.
Wright has practice at this. The Wildcats are in the tournament field for the 14th time since he became head coach in 2001. Every year, the message is tailored to the team he is taking. A year ago, with a stacked team, a No. 1 seed, and heavy expectations, Wright didn’t say much to add to that load. He promised they would try, and you’d have to say that theme worked out pretty well.
On Sunday evening, as Wright took the microphone and looked over the heads of the players seated before him to talk to the crowd, the message was directed to those fans, but it was meant for the team.
There’s no denying this has been a sometimes difficult season for Villanova as it retooled after a national championship and the loss of its four leading scorers to the NBA. The Wildcats skidded around early, found their stride at the start of the Big East season, stumbled badly near the end of it, then recovered to grind out a championship in the conference tournament.
That win was less than 24 hours old when Wright addressed his audience, and in some ways his NCAA theme might have been easier to form if Villanova had not won the Big East Tournament. It could have been something along the lines of “unfinished business,” or a desire for a better end to the remarkable careers of Phil Booth and Eric Paschall.
But the Big East win was a great accomplishment for a team that is so young and one that lost five of its last eight regular-season games. It was a capstone performance under pressure, and there are teams that would accept it as a fitting coda to the season, the way it would be remembered. Wright didn’t want to give them that easy an out.
If the coach thought that tamping down expectations was the smart play a year ago, Wright chose to ramp them up on Sunday, just to get everyone’s attention, particularly the young men in the semicircle of chairs at his feet.
“This is going to be a special year,” Wright said, his voice rising toward a crescendo. “I promise you.”
Well, for a program that won the national championship twice in the past three tournaments, that’s saying something. But what, exactly, was he saying?
“I just think that where we are right now and what we’ve been through, I know these guys will compete even if we lose,” Wright said. “Whenever we lose, everyone is going to be proud of this team. I feel there’s a special bond with this year’s team. I don’t mean any better or worse than before, but it’s just unique.”
Wright has an assortment of motivational resources available to him as he quickly prepares for Thursday’s opener against St. Mary’s. It will be mentioned that the tournament committee dissed the Wildcats slightly by giving them a No. 6 seed while conference rival Marquette, which lost in the semifinal round in New York, was awarded a No. 5 seed. Wright was already planning to have a film session on Sunday night in which the team would watch not only St. Mary’s upset win over No. 1 seed Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference championship last Tuesday, but also the Gaels’ defeat of Villanova in the second round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament.
“They have no idea, but we’ll show them tonight,” Wright said.
The Wildcats weren’t actually disrespected by the committee. The Big East wasn’t very strong this season and their championship didn’t help as much as four losses to non-tournament teams (Furman, Penn, Georgetown and Xavier) hurt them. As for St. Mary’s, it is one of those plodding teams that Villanova should be able to out-quick easily if shots are falling. A second-round matchup against Purdue might be a different story.
Still, it’s interesting that Wright would throw down the sword and swear this NCAA Tournament would be “special.” That never crossed his mind last year.
“I think the answer I would have gotten would have been, like, ‘You’re damn right. It better be.’” Wright said. “I like the way Villanova fans handled this whole season. I don’t think they’re going in saying, ‘OK, they better win it again.’ I think they’re going to enjoy the ride and that’s a fun way to go through it.”
Having been on such a recent, wonderful ride makes that a little easier, of course, and that goes for the coach, too.
“I would still rather have the one-seed journey. I like that better,” Wright said. “But we’ll enjoy this.”
It must be true. He promised.