Jay Wright feels like a proud father watching Villanova stars tear up NBA playoffs

John Fanta

College Basketball Broadcaster and Reporter

Jay Wright found himself whistling practice dead more often than usual from 2015 to 2017. While he was leading Villanova towards a national championship in 2016, stopping his team’s sessions at the Davis Center on the university’s campus became both a regular and unexpected occurrence for the eventual Hall of Famer.

For a pair of teams that went a combined 67-9 — that had the likes of Ryan Arcidiacono (2015-16), Mikal Bridges, Donte DiVincenzo, Kris Jenkins, Eric Paschall, Omari Spellman (2016-17), Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson — those stoppages kept happening because of the same two players:

Hart and Brunson.

“I do know that the two guys in practice that could take a drill too far, in a good way, where I had to say, ‘Yo everybody, chill out,’ was those two guys,” Wright told FOX Sports when describing the Knicks and former Villanova teammates, who have helped lead New York to its first Eastern Conference semifinals appearance in a decade.

“They were two different people, but their competitiveness was their bond. Every once in a while, they would go over the edge, but it was a good thing. Because when you’re on the road and things got crazy, it was always good to have that nastiness those two have.”

A year removed from retiring from the sidelines, the series between New York and Miami has hit different for the Hall of Famer because he’s watching eras of his coaching career perform at the highest level.

For starters, he doesn’t have a rooting interest because he has another very important player to his career in a Heat uniform, 37-year-old Kyle Lowry. The 2006 first round pick was at Villanova for two seasons, getting recognized as an All-Big East player in each campaign while charging the Wildcats to back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances and an Elite Eight in 2006, the first for Wright in his coaching career.

“Kyle was the most competitive, highest level basketball IQ player that I’ve ever coached,” Wright said. “He was not necessarily the most talented, but the most competitive and the smartest. At Villanova, Randy Foye, Allan Ray, Curtis Sumpter and Jason Fraser started the culture, but Kyle really ignited it. He took it to another level. When Ryan (Arcidiacono) and Jalen (Brunson) came in, they took it to the championship level.”

When Hart and Brunson were at Villanova during the summer, they would play against Lowry, who would come back to get workouts in and is from Philadelphia. On Sunday afternoon, Wright took the most enjoyment in watching the three players compete in a moment when the game was all but out of reach for New York, with Miami up 107-99 and less than 20 seconds on the clock.

“It was so funny to watch the end of the game and see Jalen and Josh trap Kyle,” Wright said. “Those two guys were still playing until the last second of the game, and he split the trap perfectly, stepped through it, got fouled and went to the line. The competitive level of all three of them until the last second was a joy to watch. It does make me proud.”

Then, on Tuesday, Brunson led the Knicks to a series-tying win over the Heat with 30 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field. Hart contributed 14 points, including a pair of big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.

Brunson signed a four-year, $104 million deal with the Knicks last summer after his time with the Dallas Mavericks featured ups and downs then dissipated. Wright isn’t surprised that Brunson is now running things in New York; he’s only surprised at the fact that the opportunity arose.

“Him leading a team and being effective as he is, is not a surprise at all,” Wright said of the 2018 National Player of the Year and champion. “What is a surprise is that in the NBA, you have to be given the opportunity to take on this role. In Dallas, Jalen knew that wasn’t his role and he was smart enough as a basketball player to know that he’s always going to do what he needs to do for his team to win.

“When we recruited him to Villanova, we didn’t promise him anything. He knew Ryan Arcidiacono was our star, and the go-to guy. Jalen just took that and did what he need to do to be successful for our team. When Ryan graduated the next year, Jalen’s role changed and he blossomed, and you could see he was more comfortable with his team. By always being willing to take on the role you’re asked to take on, that made him invaluable and I think that’s what has happened in his NBA career.”

That different maturity level of Brunson goes back to his upbringing and his parents, Rick and Sandra.

Rick played 11 years in the NBA, going on one-year contracts each year of his career before entering the coaching world in 2007, now residing on the Knicks staff as an assistant coach. As much as Wright credits Rick for the way he’s taught his son on the floor, he also remembers something that struck him that Jalen’s mom did in their home for him growing up.

“His mom (Sandra) used to have motivational sayings posted all over his bedroom wall,” Wright said. “When I say all over, it was all four walls in his room, and she would change them throughout the year. So Jalen had the perfect perspective, with the perfect upbringing.”

Wright said unlike any freshman he’s ever had, Brunson would regularly ask his head coach at Villanova to sit down and meet weekly, if not a couple of times per week.

“It was just basketball. There was nothing wrong,” Wright said. “He would jump into how we defended pick-and-roll, and how we convert defensively. He looked at how we transitioned from fast break offense to our half court sets. He would do it more than I would and literally, no exaggeration, it would make me question myself sometimes. It would make me think, ‘Am I doing a good enough job communicating with these guys?’

While Brunson had Wright rethinking his strategies with meetings, it was the exact opposite with Hart. Wright’s the least surprised person at some of the postgame antics of the 2017 Big East Player of the Year.

“When they were in college, I would have killed Josh if he was doing that (eating chicken wings or popcorn after a game) because we were trying to teach Josh to get to Jalen’s mentality level at the time,” Wright said.

“But Josh has gotten there. When you’re a pro you have the ability to turn it off and on. And I know it’s good for Jalen. And Jalen knows he needs it. Jalen’s never going to crack, but it just reminds Jalen to loosen up a little bit. Josh can always turn it on when he needs to turn it on. I look at videos and I see Josh on the sidelines on the bench singing Don’t Stop Believing. He’s singing on the bench, then the second he steps on the floor and he’s the most competitive guy out there.”

Wright has the unique perspective of Feb. 8, the night the Knicks acquired Josh Hart in a four-team trade ahead of the deadline. He was sitting next to Brunson, who was at Villanova’s Finneran Pavilion getting his No. 1 retired at halftime of the Wildcats’ Big East game against DePaul.

Once Brunson found out the news that his college teammate would be joining him in New York, his reaction was pure elation.

“The pure joy and exuberance he had, I was really surprised,” Wright said. “It wasn’t just at the moment, but he just kept saying ‘I can’t believe we got Josh. I can’t believe we got Josh.’ He was so thrilled to have his brother there. I was as interested in that as I was with the deal of the trade. He was genuinely happy that his brother was coming to join him. It was pure joy.”

Wright, who has moved into the broadcasting world in a role with CBS Sports in addition to his fundraising role at Villanova, is enjoying retired life and hopes to get to Game 5 at MSG. Does he think about winning Big East Tournament championship victories with Brunson and Hart when he’s at The Garden?

“You know what’s funny, I really don’t,” Wright said. “I think about this being their time. I felt like that time when we were playing at The Garden, and they were college kids, it was time to groom them.

“This is their time to take it and do it their way, and watching your kids succeed is the best.”

John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him on Twitter @John_Fanta.