Jay Wright

Villanova men's basketball coach Jay Wright is expected to retire after 21 seasons leading the Wildcats, according to multiple reports.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Wright is "fully at peace with the decision," to step away seemingly still in his coaching prime. Mike Krzyzewski's legendary 42-year run at Duke also came to an end in this year's Final Four. Roy Williams, a three-time national champion at North Carolina, retired after the 2020-21 season. Villanova reached four Final Fours under Wright and won the national championship in 2016 and 2018.

Just in: Villanova's Jay Wright — one of college basketball's iconic coaches and a Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer — is seriously contemplating retiring this ...

Wright, 60, took over as the Wildcats head coach in 2001 and helped elevate Villanova's basketball program to one of the best in the country. PHILADELPHIA - Longtime Villanova men's basketball head coach Jay Wright is likely to retire, according to reports. Villanova men's basketball head coach Jay Wright is likely to retire, reports say

One of the top coaches in men's college basketball is retiring. Villanova's Jay Wright is calling it a career at age-60 after leading the Wildcats to the ...

Neptune is a 37-year-old from Brooklyn who was a first-year head coach at Fordham last season. Wright led Villanova to eight Big East regular season titles and five conference tournament titles. Villanova’s season ended to Kansas in the Final Four before the Jayhawks won the national title. Gillespie was the Big East Player of the Year this past season. Wright led Villanova to national championships in 2016 and 2018. Villanova has three top-100 recruits coming in for next season, led by McDonald’s All-American forward Cam Whitmore. It will be fascinating to see if Neptune can retain the incoming talent headed to the program.

Wright went 520-197 over 21 seasons with the Wildcats and led the program to two national championships in 2016 and 2018.

This will be the fourth Final Four for Wright, all since 2009 and three since 2016. This will be the fourth Final Four for Wright, all since 2009 and three since 2016. What we know and which teams could be in play after 49ers' Deebo Samuel requests trade

In a shocking decision that will reverberate around college sports, longtime Villanova men's basketball coach Jay Wright, 60, has decided to retire after 21 ...

Nova has played in the NCAA Tournament in 16 of the last 17 seasons the event was held, only missing the postseason entirely once in 2012. Privately, he has shared frustrations with some of the significant changes with the way the sport operates. He moved closer to his decision in March. In recent weeks, Villanova power brokers had discussions with Wright see if the coach would change his mind.

Villanova head coach Jay Wright is reportedly “likely” stepping down from his job as the Wildcats' head coach.

From 2004 to 2022 the Wildcats missed the NCAA tournament just once (2011-12) under Wright. Neptune began his college coaching career under Wright at Villanova in 2008, spending 2008 to 2010 with Villanova before departing for Niagara for an assistant job. He returned to Villanova in 2013 and coached under Wright as an assistant from 2013 to 2021.

A head coach since 1994, Wright, 60, had a .695 career winning percentage across tenures at Hofstra and Villanova. His 21-season career at Villanova ...

He said at the Final Four that he didn’t pack a single suit for the trip to New Orleans. If Gillespie, a two-time Big East player of the year, goes on to play in the N.B.A. next season, he would become the league’s 10th active former Villanova player. Jay’s one of the giants of our game, he’s a great friend.” “His leadership when the Big East was kind of reformed, I think is the reason why the league is where it’s at today. He’s a great Villanova man. It’s not just being a basketball player but being a Villanova man. “Obviously, he’s been terrific,” Creighton Coach Greg McDermott said in a phone interview. He added of Gillespie: “He’s a Villanova man. Wright, whose appearance and style have earned him comparisons to the actor George Clooney, guided Villanova to four Final Fours and five Big East tournament titles in the past 14 seasons. Krzyzewski is 75 and Williams was 70 when he retired. Kyle Neptune, 37, will succeed Wright at Villanova, the university announced. He has won two Division I national championships in the past seven seasons.

Villanova coach Jay Wright is retiring after 21 seasons with the program. Fordham's Kyle Neptune will take over as head coach.

With the recent retirement of Mike Krzyzewski, Wright was one of just three active coaches to have won multiple national titles. To him that is the most significant mark he could leave. "Coach Wright's true legacy will not be his championships," said Dunleavy, now the head coach at Quinnipiac University. "His legacy is the set of values he has instilled in his coaches and players. The news of Wright's retirement sent shock waves through the college basketball world, where Wright is among the most respected coaches. I am excited to remain a part of Villanova and look forward to working with Father Peter, Mark and the rest of the leadership team. "After meeting with several exceptional candidates, we found all those attributes and more in Kyle Neptune. Kyle quickly stood out for his basketball knowledge, recruiting savvy and natural ability to connect with student-athletes and coaches." Neptune, 37, had been the head coach at Fordham for one season. Villanova said Wednesday that Wright will begin a new role as special assistant to the university's president. After 35 years in coaching, I am proud and excited to hand over the reins to Villanova's next coach. He listened to overtures but never seriously considered leaving Villanova for any of them. We cannot overstate our gratitude to the players, coaches, and administrators who have been with us on this path. "Over the past 21 seasons, I have had the opportunity to live out a professional dream as the head coach at Villanova," Wright wrote in a statement.

The next season, after Claxton had graduated, Hofstra made the NCAA tournament and played UCLA in Greensboro, North Carolina. I took a busman's holiday and went ...

We all owe Jay Wright a debt of gratitude for what he had done in the game, for the game, and for all of us. I expected that Wright would be the standard-bearer in the game for the next decade, and when I heard the rumblings early on Wednesday, I was floored. At age 60, Wright seems too young, too vibrant and too vital to the fabric of the game to retire. With Wright's retirement from Villanova, we are seeing one of the truly great careers and truly great coaching jobs of all time come to an end. Bill Raftery and I used to keep a list of the coaches we would want to have a drink with after a loss, which was our list of the very best guys in the game. He doubled over laughing, and we had to do it again, the only time we have done multiple takes of a 94 Feet segment due to a screw-up. In his early days at Villanova, it was tough sledding to get the Wildcat program to the highest level, and Wright was sanguine and humbled over the challenge. Name me one person who had a negative word to say about Jay Wright, and I would name you a person who was simply wrong and didn't know Wright or just didn't get it. I could not have more respect or admiration for a coach or a person than I have for Jay Wright, and I promise you that I am not alone in that. He told us that he was making changes in recruiting, and his next group was going to have the grit and toughness that Villanova had let slip, unintentionally. After the 2004 season, Wright was headlining a Villanova alumni event in Charlotte, North Carolina. My friend Mike Gminski and I went to the event to support Jay, and took him to dinner afterward. In 2000, I remember calling then-Delaware head coach Mike Brey and asking him what I might be missing in his league, the America East. Brey said, "You need to check out Hofstra. They have a couple of pros, and their coach is the real deal."

NIL rules and the transfer portal are just two of the latest challenges college basketball coaches have faced.

But the truth is that a larger number of great college basketball coaches are probably going to spend the coming years and decades making enough money in their 40s and 50s so that they can leave it all behind at an earlier age than the previously expected-retirement-age for great college basketball coaches. But even the coaches who agree with those previous four sentences -- and, trust me, not all of them do -- acknowledge that the combination of those things has made their jobs complex and in many ways unappealing. The offseason is unpredictable and, in some ways, even more overwhelming. Needless to say, these men were all paid incredibly well to do their jobs -- but that's kind of the point. But sources have indicated that he, like many of his colleagues, simply reached a point where the job wasn't nearly as fun as it used to be because of all of the things coaches now have to deal with that didn't use to exist. Wright offered no real explanation in his announcement on Twitter -- but he did say he's 'excited to hand over the reigns to Villanova's next coach."

The Wildcats' coach's abrupt retirement shocked many, but it's understandable after a grind of a season to end a brilliant career.

Wright and his staff had to work hard to find just the right players, then develop them to be just the right teammates. Following the recent trend where giant coaches have departed, Wright will hand off the job to a former assistant. The Wildcats were laudable losers, but Wright looked older and more worn leaving the Superdome floor in New Orleans than he ever had. He could be a sensational TV analyst, possessing a storyteller’s charm and a great coach’s insight. Wright was an assistant coach on the USA Olympic team, an experience that drained everyone even more than the customary international obligation. Perhaps that took a toll on the architect. The NBA called, Kentucky called, many others with more money and more cache than Villanova called. Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski and Wright stepping down within 13 months’ time is a massive brain drain and leadership vacuum in the sport. He never tried to climb the ladder beyond where he was. He’s hardly the first to go out with what appeared to be a long runway of continued success ahead of him—John Wooden, Al McGuire, etc.—but this comes at a vulnerable time for the sport. Let’s be real about the demands of the job as it currently exists, and Wright’s current life station. That was the word Wright mouthed on the sideline, with preternatural calm, when Kris Jenkins hit arguably the most dramatic shot in men’s NCAA tournament history to deliver Villanova the 2016 national championship.

Jay Wright has announced his retirement after 21 seasons as head coach for the Villanova Wildcats. During his tenure, Villanova won two NCAA championships ...

"I am excited to remain a part of Villanova and look forward to working with Father Peter, Mark and the rest of the leadership team. "After 35 years in coaching, I am proud and excited to hand over the reins to a member of our basketball family, Kyle Neptune," Wright continued. We cannot overstate our gratitude to the players, coaches, and administrators who have been with us on this path."

A head coach since 1994, Wright, 60, had a .695 career winning percentage across tenures at Hofstra and Villanova. His 21-season career at Villanova ...

He said at the Final Four that he didn’t pack a single suit for the trip to New Orleans. If Gillespie, a two-time Big East player of the year, goes on to play in the N.B.A. next season, he would become the league’s 10th active former Villanova player. Jay’s one of the giants of our game, he’s a great friend.” “His leadership when the Big East was kind of reformed, I think is the reason why the league is where it’s at today. He’s a great Villanova man. It’s not just being a basketball player but being a Villanova man. “We cannot overstate our gratitude to the players, coaches, and administrators who have been with us on this path.” “Obviously, he’s been terrific,” Creighton Coach Greg McDermott said in a phone interview. Wright, whose appearance and style have earned him comparisons to the actor George Clooney, guided Villanova to four Final Fours and five Big East Conference tournament titles in the past 14 seasons. Krzyzewski is 75 and Williams was 70 when he retired. Kyle Neptune, 37, will succeed Wright at Villanova, the university announced. He has won two Division I national championships in the past seven seasons.

Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright announced his retirement as head coach of the Villanova Men's basketball team. After 21 seasons.

Wright was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in September. In his time at Villanova, he coached the program to a 520-197 record. After 21 seasons, four Final Four appearances and two national championships, the legendary coach is stepping down. Jay Wright is not the only legendary coach to leave the college basketball scene this season, nor is he the only Hall of Fame coach to leave. Wright has also coached many NBA players. He was the Big East Coach of the Year six times and the Naismith Coach of the Year twice in 2006 and 2016.

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.

He also nabbed Will Richardson, the Rams’ first four-star commit in more than a decade. Jay taught us all the true meaning of “Attitude” so, on behalf of everyone associated with Villanova Basketball, we would like to express our overwhelming “Gratitude” for everything he has done for Villanova.” I am excited to remain a part of Villanova and look forward to working with Father Peter, Mark, and the rest of the leadership team. The ‘Cats won eight Big East regular season titles and five Big East Tournament championships under his watch. “Over the last 21 seasons, I have had the opportunity to live out a professional dream as the head coach at Villanova. Patty and I have been blessed to work with incredible, gifted young men who allowed us to coach them and brought us unmatched joy. It has been an honor and a privilege to work at Villanova, especially under Father Peter and Mark Jackson. Now, though, it’s time for us to enter a new era of Villanova Basketball. After 35 years in coaching, I am proud and excited to hand over the reins to Villanova’s next coach.