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Offseason Outlook Q&A: Jay Wright

06/13/2016, 9:45am EDT
By Josh Verlin

Villanova head coach Jay Wright (above) led the Wildcats to their second national championship in 2016. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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For the latest installment of our offseason Coaches Q&A series, we spoke on the phone with Villanova head coach Jay Wright about his whirlwind last two months and looking ahead to being the defending national champions.

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The rest of our Q&As: Steve Donahue | Fran Dunphy | John Giannini | Phil Martelli

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Josh Verlin, CoBL: So, what has it been like being Jay Wright the last two months?

Jay Wright: It’s definitely been a whirlwind, I’ll tell you that. But all good. Just great experiences with our team, great honors, been to the White House, City Hall, state capitol. It’s just been incredible, just very happy for our team and for our university. We’ve had a unique experience that a lot of places we’ve gone, we’ve gone with our President, our Provost, our top administrators which, we never get to do that, the team and those people traveling together, it’s been a great experience.

CoBL: Does it still seem surreal that it’s all happened, or is it real at this point?

JW: It’s definitely still surreal. We never judge ourselves based on what we did the year before, whether it was a good year or a bad year. When we had early tournament exits, we weren’t walking around here down in the dumps or anything, we were always excited about the next year, and fired up and positive. So it’s kind of uncomfortable for us to be walking around, and we’re working on getting ready for next year and everybody’s still treating us like national champions and referring to the national championship. It is, it’s surreal. You don’t think of yourself as a national champion when you’re in it. Maybe for our seniors, they do, because they’re not here, but all of us, we’re trying to get ready for next year.

CoBL: Well, apologies for feeding into that--

JW: No, no, I get it, for everybody.

CoBL: So let’s move forward. Josh Hart returns to the team for his senior year instead of going to the NBA Draft -- where were you when you found out he was returning, and what was your reaction when you find out that news?

JW: I know exactly where. I was literally walking on Central Park South with my wife Patti and we were at the Wingfoot Awards in New York City. It was the day before you make your decision. A couple days before he had told me he probably was going to come back, so when I got that call I was at home and that kind of made me feel good. But I was literally walking with Patty on Central Park South on my cell phone when he said ‘I’m definitely doing it, how do we do this?’ And I gave Patty a high-five, I smiled, but it was funny, as I said to Patty, can you believe this, I’ve got all these people walking past me, just walking past some guy on his cell phone, they don’t realize he’s getting the best news ever. It’s like getting a top recruit.

CoBL: Having him back, how does it change if at all your expectations for what next year could potentially be? You know you could be good without him, but to have him back means what?

JW: I realize it’s going to affect outside expectations, I realize that. We’re really not concerned about that. But on the inside, it just brings us a tremendous level of leadership and maturity and having a guy of his stature, not as much his talent -- we have some good talented guys coming back -- but the maturity and the leadership is what is invaluable. To have him around the practice, talking to Dylan Painter and Eric Paschall and Jalen [Brunson] and Mikal [Bridges] and Donte Divincenzo, all the young guys is just invaluable. There’s no way, we might have been able to replace his numbers, but we couldn’t have replaced his presence.”

CoBL: I know when it comes to recruiting you guys have found your sweet spot, but having been out during the April live periods and talking to recruits the last few months, has there been any change for you -- whether it’s the process, the kids that you might be able to look at, the reception that you’ve been getting in the recruiting world?

JW: There’s been a difference in -- I don’t want to say reception, I think everybody’s receptive, nobody says ‘no, I’m not interested.’ But it still comes down to us to get the kids that fit our culture, Villanova culture, so that remains the same. But I think our pool just becomes bigger. We’ve still got to get the right guys.

CoBL: Speaking of kids you’re bringing in, you’ve got the two big men coming in, Dylan Painter and Omari Spellman. When do they get to campus?

JW: Dylan is here now, Omari gets here July 1st or 2nd for the second summer session.

CoBL: Individually, what do you want to see each one work on over the rest of the offseason to prepare for their first season?

JW: We never have any expectations of freshmen because we want to see them get in here and work with us and see what areas we have to really concentrate on with them. So Dylan has been here for a little while and we’re just really impressed with his work ethic, his attitude, his basketball IQ, we’re really impressed. He’s just got to get comfortable with the speed of the game at this level, but having worked with him, we’re really impressed. And Omari, as I said, will come in July 1, so then when we get him on (campus), that’s the beauty of being able to work with these guys in the summer, I think it helps the freshmen the most, because you can get on the floor with them, go through their mistakes in the summer, go through their struggles in the summer, identify their weaknesses in the summer so when you come back in the fall, hopefully you’ve got some of that cleared up and you can coach them better in the fall.

CoBL: You know you’re going to need some help inside with Daniel (Ochefu) graduating, and even with Darryl Reynolds there, someone’s got to step up and fill in some minutes. I’ve seen Omari on the AAU circuit, is it safe to say he’s the most offensively skilled big man you’ve ever had coming in? Where do you see his biggest strengths?

JW: Yeah, I agree, I think he’s as skilled as any big guy we’ve ever had here. And I think that’s his strength, his offensive skill level, offensive IQ, and when he gets here we’ll have to see how he deals with the speed, we’ll have to see his conditioning, we’ll have to see how coachable he is -- we assume it’s going to be good but you don’t know until you get on the floor with the guys.

CoBL: One player that I feel like has been forgotten about a little bit is Eric Paschall, who had a tremendous freshman season at Fordham and was sitting quietly on the bench for you guys last year. Do you feel like he’s been something of a forgotten presence and what can he bring to the squad?

JW: I don’t think he’s forgotten around here because everybody talks about him around here, but I think he can bring a level of athleticism to our team that we probably haven’t had. Tremendous ability to score the ball, great rebounding (ability) and also just a level of energy, too, I think he can be really good on the offensive glass, running the floor and be a real energy guy for us.

CoBL: To wrap things up, when you look at your team and the five months ahead, six months ahead until the season, what do you see as the big focal point or focal points up until November?

JW: I think leadership and chemistry. Daniel Ochefu and Ryan Arcidiacono were really talented players, first, that’s clear, but they bring so many other things to the table. We don’t talk about their talent but they were really talented players. But their leadership and chemistry they created was just off the charts. We’ve got to replace that.


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