Jay Wright

Jay Wright built up an almost unreplicable legacy during 21 seasons as the head coach at Villanova. He grew up in Churchville, Pennsylvania in the 1960’s and played college basketball at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. After graduating from college in 1984, Wright immediately obtained an assistant coaching position at the University of Rochester, a Division III team which he worked with for three seasons. Moving on to a Division I team at Drexel University in 1986, Wright continued to serve as an assistant coach at several other universities throughout the next decade, including Villanova and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Ultimately grasping his first head coaching position at Hofstra University in 1994, Wright gave everything he had to his team for seven consecutive seasons. He returned back to Villanova in 2001 and went on to make 16 NCAA Tournament appearances. Wright's team made the Final Four four times and won national championships in 2016 and 2018. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021 and retired the following year.