On his expectations

“I knew we could struggle. I didn’t think we’d start 1-5,” Wright said. “I thought maybe, 2-4, 3-3, at worst. Then I thought maybe we could click. But you know it’s possible in this league.”

On team composition

“It’s like the NBA, you’ve got to have star power,” Wright said. “When you have those star guys, it makes it easier for all the other guys. When you don’t have those star players, it’s more pressure on the glue guys. They don’t look as good.”

“Mouph and Cheek,” Wright said, “are not where we thought they’d be.”

On Dominic Cheek

 “I knew at the end of last year, when we had a good sit-down talk and he said he wanted to be part of this, I knew he’d be fine,” Wright said. “I knew we were starting his junior year from way behind. That’s why I knew there was this possibility we wouldn’t be as good this year. If he would have been a big-time player in his freshman, sophomore year, now we’re going into his junior year, we’d be fine. He’s just now starting to feel comfortable in his role now.

“He was never a problem, he was just kind of like doing his thing. Now he’s talking to everybody, he knows the scouting report, he’s talking on the floor. He’s got the confidence of his teammates, his coaching staff. But it’s midway through his junior year. That’s OK for him. He can still have a great career. But it’s why we’re struggling.”

On where Nova is heading

 “I like this group,” Wright said. “I do think we’re getting better. It’s slow, but we’ve got to find a way to enjoy this process. It might not be fun to watch guys, sorry, but we’ve got to go through it.”

Then, things took off. He took the Wildcats on a seven season run of 21- to 30-win seasons, NCAA bids and postseason runs. It made his reputation as a superstar.

The last two seasons of that run were two of just three in that span where the Wildcats didn’t make it to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament, and they collapsed late in both seasons. This season has started off with a whimper and has shown only a precious few signs of hope moving forward.

How unusual is it for a coach and a program to take a dip like that?

Mike Kryzewski hasn’t missed a trip to the NCAA tournament since 1996, but that is perhaps a unique situation. The standards are a bit different for an elite program headed by an elite coach who tends to get his pick of the best recruits in the country. When Coach K failed to get past the first weekend in 2007 and 2008, it was a let-down. Getting blown off the floor by Villanova in the 2009 Sweet Sixteen was another low-point for a team that is annually expected to be among not just the top 25, but the top 5 or 10 in the nation.

UConn has missed the NCAA tournament seven times since Jim Calhoun took over in 1986. He followed up a 2009 Final Four with a trip to the NIT in 2010. In 2007 his Huskies didn’t make it to any post-season tournament and only managed a first-round exit in 2008.

Jim Boeheim won a National Championship in 2003 and then didn’t get past the first round in either 2005 or 2006. It took a Big East tournament run fueled by Gerry McNamara willpower to even make it to the 2006 tournament. In 2007 and 2008, Syracuse appeared in the NIT rather than the NCAA tournament.

Nobody looked to fire Boeheim in 2008. Nobody even questioned his undying devotion to the 2-3 Zone. They accepted the coach for what he was and eventually he got the program back on it’s feet among the elite.

Almost every head coach of an elite college basketball program has had seasons where his team didn’t quite click. Seasons where the execution was off, things went wrong, or bad decisions caused them to fail to live up to expectations. Sometimes they even string a few of them together.

This isn’t a defense of Jay Wright. The last two seasons ended with his team playing its worst basketball rather than its best. This season, meanwhile, is just a terrible mess for a team that is stocked with highly-rated recruits. There have rarely been teams in the Jay Wright era with so many 4- or 5-star talents.

What this is, is a reminder that the calls for Jay Wright’s head are perhaps premature. Villanova isn’t Duke, Kansas, or UNC. Villanova’s last run of seven consecutive NCAA tournament bids was under Rollie Massimino from 1980 until 1986, who followed that run with three NIT bids in six years. Even Jack Kraft, who won about 72% of his games at Nova, or Alexander Severance never quite had an elite run like that.

2010 and 2011 were ugly for the Wildcats, but they were still 25 and 21-win seasons, respectively. Both ended well enough to warrant a tournament bid. If Jim Boeheim could replace his run from 2006 through 2008 with what Villanova did the past two years and this season, there is a good chance he would take it.

The sky is not falling and Jay Wright’s seat is not hot. He has time and a recruiting class or two to get his program back on top. A coach that took a scrappy underdog team filled with unheralded recruits to a Final Four has earned a little bit of slack. Even if you impute those successes on his assistants, remember that the head coach hires his staff — he is CEO of the program.

Does Jay Wright make decisions that frustrate fans? Absolutely, but without Wright’s 7-year run, would Villanova fans even be in a position to expect a bid to the NCAA tournament in any given year?

While it is fair to be disappointed, it is shortsighted to be looking at head coaching resumes so soon. Jay Wright isn’t finished yet.

Email from Jay Wright…

For the fourth consecutive year, we are organizing a program to bring inner-city youth to our exhibition game free of charge. They cheer our players from the stands and,after the game, get to meet them on the court for a special autograph session. This program has grown in each of its first three years and cumulatively has provided tickets to nearly 10,000 individuals. The participating organizations are very appreciative and this exposure to our program helps create a connection between the youth of Greater Philadelphia and Villanova University.

This season, our exhibition game vs. New York Tech will take place on Tuesday, November 8 at 7 p.m. at the WellsFargo Center. Tickets are normally $25 for the public, but for this special event, we are able to purchase the tickets at a rate of just$5 each. Our goal is to raise enough funds to fill the Wells FargoCenter with enthusiastic young fans from throughout Greater Philadelphia.

We truly hope that you will consider being a partof this special community outreach effort. If you have interest inmaking a monetary donation toward sponsoring tickets, please visitthis secure website: https://secure.touchnet.com/C21740_ustores/web/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=91&SINGLESTORE=true

Any questions that you may have about this initiative can be directed to Steve Pinone at (610)519-5526. Also, if you are involved in a charity or children’s group in the Greater Philadelphia region and would like information on how to obtain complimentary tickets for them, please contact Chrissy Quisenberry at (610) 519-8882.

Thank you for your generous and ongoing support of Villanova Basketball and all of our initiatives. I hope to see you at a game this season!

Enthusiastically,

Jay Wright
Head Basketball Coach

Jay Wright was asked repeatedly about conference issues and whether the Big East basketball brand would suffer as a result of losing Pitt and Syracuse. Jay Wright would not admit that the losses hurt the league.

“As long as we have the seven basketball-only members, we are going to be a pretty good basketball league,” Wright said. “We need the football schools, we need good football schools because that is what good conferences have.”

Wright believes that the basketball-only schools, all located in large media markets, are key to basketball success for everyone in the league. The best recruits, he said, come from New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and the DC area, and that by playing in those areas, schools like Houston or SMU (reported Big East targets) can get some of those top recruits and benefit from being in the Big East.

“The reason Big East basketball is so successful is that the players on a lot of those teams, no matter where they are, whether they are Louisville, South Florida, are coming from, Boston, New York, Philly, Jersey, DC, Baltimore. That’s where those players are coming from,” he noted. “The tournament is held in the Garden, when those schools come to play in Philly or New York, the families of those players come. The core of the conference is the Northeast because of where the players come from, where the media is.”

“Even if you bring in some of those other football schools, they’re just going to get connected to the Northeast.”

Regarding Villanova’s future, he said, ”I don’t care where we go as long as we’re in a conference that is northeast-centric and it’s a strong basketball conference with good football. It’s important for us to be with good football.”

When asked if Villanova was blocking Temple from joining the Big East, Jay Wright responded, “I feel bad. I’ve talked to Fran Dunphy about this . . . I feel bad that the Media is being given information that is wrong, and its schools in the Big East posturing for position, and that’s just the position we’re in right now.”

“There is a lot of politicking going on and it’s because we’re in a very difficult situation. I understand it. I don’t like it.”

Wright later went on to suggest that other schools used Villanova as an excuse to shift focus away from Temple toward other schools, presumably SMU and Houston. He felt that Villanova and Vince Nicastro in particular, were unfairly portrayed by the media in all of the Temple drama.

Jay Wright understands that expansion and college athletics is about football though. Good football is important to supporting a strong basketball conference, but for the Wildcats, it goes deeper than that.

“The bottom line is that Villanova wants to be in the Big East for football. Bottom line. We’ve said it. We’ve worked with the Big East on it. We understand the situation in the Big East right now. We don’t like that we’re not in right now, but we have to be loyal members and let the football schools do what’s best. They know what’s best.”

Villanova football and Temple’s conference affiliation seem to be tied together too.

“Temple has nothing to do with that. Everything to do with Temple is great, just put Villanova in for football. That’s all. If they’re going to put Temple in? Great,” Wright said.

“You’ve got to put Villanova in for football. We’re thirty year members. Bottom line. We have great respect for Temple, we know all the positives that would come if they came, just put Villanova in for football. Period.”

Villanova has to do whatever it takes to protect its own position according to Wright. The ‘Cats aren’t concerned with anything but positioning themselves for the future and holding the Big East together.

“If we’re in for football, we have no problem with anything. Once we’re in for football, whatever is best for the conference, but we have to protect Villanova, and we can’t get involved with any other school.

“We can’t even help the other basketball schools right now. That’s what everyone else is doing in our league, and when that settles down and everyone’s committed, then I think we can look around and think, ‘what do we do with other schools.’”

The power is in the hands of the football schools though.

“Right now we need to let the football schools do what’s best for football. We are lobbying that we’re best for football.”

“This has been going on for a couple of years for Villanova. The school is ready, everybody is ramped up, we’ve worked our butts off to get football.”

Wright didn’t express any concern with having Temple’s basketball team in the conference, so long as Villanova football has a seat at the table.

“We’re not worried about any other school. Getting football in the Big East helps Villanova basketball, that’s what we need to concentrate on. What happens after that, we’re fine with whatever the Big East says.”

Can Villanova football succeed in the Big East? Wright thinks it can.

“Everyone who has come in for football has benefitted. Connecticut was not even in. They came in for football and look where they are? Who knew anything about Louisville football before they came in, now look where they are? Rutgers has had football forever, but once Big East football got started — now everybody knows about Rutgers,” the coach postulated. “It’s all east coast markets.

“So when you come in this conference, you’re going to benefit in football, and that’s what we need to do, but we have to get this stabilized first.”

Realignment has taken its toll on Jay Wright and the other basketball coaches in the Big East, who have more work to do off the court. Media responsibilities, working with the Athletic directors, and talking boosters off a ledge, take up a lot more time now than they used to.

“It forced us coaches to be more disciplined. We coaches are forced to be more disciplined about it. We deal with it in the morning and then have to forget about it and get on with practice. It has surprised me that nobody in recruiting has asked about it.” Wright noted. “I think the Big East brand is so strong basketball-wise, I think kids don’t even think anything will happen to Big East basketball. So, it hasn’t affected us yet, but we’ll see.”

“The NCAA likes to hide behind, ‘it’s all nicey-nice collegial,’ but we all know it’s big business. Now that’s out there. So now lets see how it works when it’s out there.”

As for Syracuse and Pittsburgh, Wright doesn’t have a moral objection to playing non-conference games against those schools. He did say that playing four games in the Big Five makes scheduling a bit tight and that the openings on his schedule would dictate whether Villanova would be able to add the departing rivals in the future.

“I always like when they come to the Wells Fargo Center and it’s packed,” Wright said. “I like that. We benefit from that. You have to value your opponents, you have to give some credence to the people you play against, they bring value.”

Wright quickly gained followers on the popular social media site, reaching 1,600 or so in his first three hours online.*

Why would Wright join Twitter? Having a presence on the site will allow him to build a presence in the online marketplace. Wright is clearly interested in expanding his personal “brand,” as evidenced by his appearances on television as an analyst during the NCAA tournament (after Villanova was eliminated). Twitter serves as another avenue to expand that brand.

Additionally, Twitter is extremely popular with the teenage players that he and his staff regularly recruit. Other coaches that Wright is friends with or who have coached under him, such as Patrick Chambers, have been using the site and likely singing its praises to him.

Twitter allows him to build a presence that those players can follow and see. Pete Carroll famously used his Twitter account at USC to tweet pictures of himself with various celebrity fans and boosters of that program to publicly portray the “glamorous” USC lifestyle for all recruits to see.

It is also an NCAA-approved method for coaches to contact players — private direct messages on the site are allowed as if they were emails. This is key because direct messages work similarly to text messaging when used from a mobile phone, but are not banned by the NCAA like texts are.

Coaches like Jay Wright are essentially forced to tweet, just to keep up with other coaches who are using the newer technologies and formats to recruit. Even Joe Paterno, who has been coaching since 1950, has taken to using Skype to contact recruits.

Will Wright’s embrace of social media change his position regarding the players’ use of those sites during the season? In all likelihood it will not. Jay Wright’s use of Twitter will be carefully controlled and planned — he has people for that. The players, however, don’t have a carefully-crafted social media strategy.

The ban was instituted last season after players found their Twitter and Facebook statuses being reported in the media and online, and analyzed by fans. Wright and his staff felt that the potential for a tweet posted in an emotional post-game moment or some other player comments to be misinterpreted was too great and potentially detrimental to the program. None of that will change because the head coach signed up for an account.

So expect that once October 15th rolls around the Villanova twitter contingent will dwindle again until some time in March or April.

—————————————-

*It took me about three years to get to 1,150 followers on Twitter, so two-hours is a pretty impressive pace.

VUhoops.com has reached out to Jay Wright for comment on the issues discussed in this post and will update here with any response.

Should we take it seriously this time?

Unlike Kentucky, however, a move to College Park, Maryland would perhaps be an easier one for Jay’s young family. Just a few hours away from friends and family, Maryland offers almost all of the same resources as Villanova, and boasts a program that generates enough revenue to ensure that those resources will never dry up. Meanwhile, Villanova is in a precarious position within an increasingly-unstable Big East conference.

Despite not generating nearly the same profits as Maryland, Villanova has committed more resources to it’s basketball program — spending around a million dollars more per year on the sport. Boosters have also shown a commitment to provide for Jay Wright’s needs, most recently ponying up the cash to build him a brand new practice facility.

Analysts and Villanovans rightfully took this speculation seriously.

Not that there was anything to it. As of midday, Jeff Barker of the Baltimore Sun was reporting that Maryland officials have not reached out to Jay Wright. Sources close to Jay Wright’s management told VUhoops that they hadn’t heard anything about the Maryland situation as of this morning.

Jay Wright has not expressed any interest in the Maryland job so far, and while it is always possible for things to change, indications so far are that the coach intends to stay on the Main Line for now. Then again, if Maryland significantly ups it’s basketball budget and coach’s salary, things might get interesting.

(UPDATE 5/7): It looks like Sean Miller of Arizona will be taking the Maryland job.

(UPDATE 5/8): Jeff Goodman now states that Miller will be staying in Arizona.

Jaime Dixon and Jay Wright both have suffered notable disappointments at their respective schools recently, but is either a serious candidate to take over a program that has NCAA sanctions looming?

Jay Wright has had numerous opportunities to leave Villanova over the years. Most offering significant increases in pay and programs that were far healthier than the one at Tennessee.

An established coach will be unlikely to want to go to Knoxville and deal with the difficulties and sanctions left behind by Pearl — certainly not in the middle of a successful stretch of their career, and likely not while they have impressive recruiting classes lined up at their current school.

That’s not to say that Jay Wright will never leave Villanova, or that Jaime Dixon cannot be coaxed away from Pittsburgh. However, to leave either of those jobs and the success they have had their to take over at Tennessee would seem illogical.

Of course, money plays a part in all of this, and Tennessee could plan to offer their next coach an obscene amount of money — but that strategy doesn’t always work. Last offseason we saw Oregon try to throw money at Tom Izzo to leave Michigan State to no avail, and DePaul (somewhat more successfully) attempted to buy themselves a big-name coach. Oregon’s efforts were largely a failure, while DePaul had more than a few swing-and-miss attempts before landing Oliver Purnell.

Among the red flags that would keep a wise coach away from Tennessee:

There’s the specter of looming potential sanctions from the NCAA violations under Pearl’s watch. There’s the fact that athletic director Mike Hamilton’s job appears to be on shaky ground. And there’s the fact that Pearl’s success at Tennessee was more an outlier than the norm, raising questions as to whether his successor will be able to cope with the raised expectations.

All that the Vols appear to be accomplishing with this leak is to raise fan expectations to unrealistic levels.

Here’s the full transcript from Thursday’s Villanova Conference with the Press. Jay Wright, Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes, and Antonio Pena were present and available for questions.

THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by Villanova student-athletes Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes and Antonio Pena. Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Can you go through the experience of being in the Final Four a couple of years ago and playing on that level and just kind of having that to draw from, how much does that help or does it help at all at this point when you are kind of going through this again now?

ANTONIO PENA: It helps a lot. In that situation, we had leaders like Dante and Scotty and Dwayne Anderson and those guys. This time we get a chance to lead and show the underclassmen how to get it done.

COREY STOKES: It does help a lot. We had great leaders before us to teach us what it takes to get there and we’re talking to young guys and teaching them the same thing.

COREY FISHER: Yeah, it helps a lot us being there, seeing the guys lead and now us getting a chance, like Antonio said, leading.

For us being there, being under a lot of pressure and playing one of the biggest stages of college basketball and just telling the guys we’ve been there, just what it takes doing all the little things that count on and off the court.

Q. Corey Fisher, the expectations this year don’t seem to be as great at least from the outside world as they were last year in the Final Four. How do you view all that, and how do you plan to go about proving everybody wrong?

COREY FISHER: We can’t control none of that, what nobody is saying on the outside.

But like I said, we played good all year. We struggled down the end with losing a couple of games, but we feel we worked hard. And we had great practices coming out here and before this, and I think we’re ready.

We’re not going to talk. We’re just going to prove ourselves, and that’s starting with me, Antonio and Stokes and the coaching staff. And we know how good we are and that’s really all that matters is knowing how good we are.

Q. For all three of you, Jay over the years, has the way he’s coached been the same as your freshman year or does it change from year to year? How would you go about describing that?

ANTONIO PENA: It stays the same. He’s going to push the seniors, and he’s going to get the best out of them until they’re out of here. Every day is going to be a day where you have to learn. Every day is going to be a day where you have to teach other people.

But he stays the same whether you’re a freshman or sophomore, junior, you are going to get the same thing out of him every day.

COREY STOKES: Antonio Pena said it all. He’s on us every day. Even if we’re doing our best job, he’s just going to stay on us and motivate us because he wants us to be the best player we could be by the time we graduate.

COREY FISHER: They said it all. Just coming from freshman year, it stays the same, but you’re going to make some mistakes coming from high school to playing in the top college basketball league, and when you’re being a senior you’ve got to get it, gotta know everything and gotta help everybody and just being there, just gotta be the coach on the floor, and that’s pretty much what all the coaches teach us, and that’s something you just gain and just gain everybody’s respect.

As you mature through your four years that’s something you’ve got to be when you’re a senior, just helping others, not worrying about yourself, just helping others before you.

Q. Fisher, Coach talked after the Rutgers game, the South Florida game, he talked about your psyche and confidence. How hard is it for you guys to keep up that confidence? Because you all seem like you still have that under the face of some tough losses.

COREY FISHER: We have it. We are playing basketball. You’re going to win some games, you’re going to lose some games. And being — playing in one of the best leagues in the country in the Big East night out, night in, you’re going to go out and compete.

Like I said, we lost some games down the stretch, but our confidence was — everybody, when you’re losing, it’s tough. It’s like if you’re trying to achieve something, you’re not going to stop, you’re going to keep trying to get better, try to get to something you’re trying to achieve. And that’s something me, Antonio and Stokes is trying to do. I think our confidence is high right now. Like I said, we’re going to come out and let our game speak for itself.

Q. Corey Fisher, I know you had a lot of success in high school and in college as well and this year. How important is it for you to close out your college career on a high note and get over this past month and a half?

COREY FISHER: It’s real important. But I’m comfortable in what I’m doing on the court and off the court. And I’ve got two guys right here, seniors, too, just like me, we’re going to go out strong. And we’re just going to show that tomorrow.

And I think my four years have been great, and I know how good I am and my teammates know, and I’m just going to keep playing, continue to play basketball.

Q. Corey, you said your confidence is high right now. I’m wondering why, considering you guys have not played well the last couple of months. And in games like Rutgers, how far guys you have let big leads, lost big leads, what is it about having the big lead that you guys haven’t been able to hold?

COREY FISHER: About the confidence, we’re healthy now. I didn’t complain all year. My knee started bothering me going towards the end of the year. And Stokes got hurt. And Antonio got hurt. We’ve been playing hurt. Making no excuses. And about winning and losing, we played great teams.

Rutgers is a good team. And you can see in the tournament game they played St. John’s. It’s not about records; it’s how you play as a team. Just going down the stretch, we played good and we lost the lead, and we play in one of the best leagues in the country, and you could play any team night out, night in, it’s just who brings it, and that’s in the Big East you gotta bring it night out, night in.

Q. Corey Stokes and Antonio, we talked about the leadership you guys have carried based on what the Final Four guys, Dante and Dwayne, did. The losses from that are big, but what did you learn from that last year when the season ended on a disappointing note?

ANTONIO PENA: You know, we learned to bounce back from it. We learned that the most important thing is staying together, and whether we win or lose, we have to stay together as a team, and there’s going to be times where we have to go through it together. And that’s one thing that this year we hoped to give the sophomores just staying together and being positive at all times.

COREY STOKES: We just have a positive attitude, and we just did a great job after the loss last year. Me, Antonio and Fish, we got together and said we’ll take care of the young guys and lead them and always keep a positive attitude and work just as hard as we can.

Q. Antonio, how important is it for the guys, the inside guys, you and Mouph and Sutton, whoever is playing, that you guys establish yourself and don’t leave it all up to Corey, Corey and Maalik, and the guards tomorrow?

ANTONIO PENA: We played them last year and we didn’t leave it up to them. Our job is to come out there and play as hard as we can every night, whether we’re playing good inside guys or we’re playing a team that’s guard-oriented.

But our job is to come out and play every day for each other. So we’re going to do our best and just play together as a team, basically.

Q. Corey Fisher and Antonio Pena, after losing that game to South Florida in the Garden, what were the next few hours and days like for you? It must have been very disappointing to lose your last game in the Garden.

COREY FISHER: We were down, lost a game, can’t just keep worrying about that game. We came back. We watched some film, and we got better. We continue to play basketball, and that was the positive out of it.

We knew we were going to have games left, whether it was the NCAA Tournament, NIT, whatever it was. We knew we could come back with each other and continue to get better and play basketball.

So we kind of moved on from that, and, like I said, we had a big lead and we lost. And that’s something we gotta do better on. And as we keep continuing to practice, that’s the same situation we worked on in practice.

ANTONIO PENA: Like Fish said, we have a couple of days off, we watched film and we learned from our mistake. And the only thing to do better was to move on, and we have a new season starting now and we just hope to move forward and keep playing hard for each other.

Q. Corey Fisher, what’s your sense of George Mason? Obviously this is a team from a mid-level league. And how much do you know about them, and is there a sense of mystery with a team like this?

COREY FISHER: Kind of didn’t get to — a lot to watch them this year, but just knowing we played them last year in Puerto Rico, they’re undersized, but that’s kind of like us.

Sometimes, in the Big East, playing against bigger guys and we go small guards, with Stokes being 6’6″, can be a big one. Me and Maalik, and I know they’re like us, they like to pressure, get out. The guards get in the lane, kick out, shoot 3s, and they’ve got good post plays.

And I know it’s going to be a good game. We beat them at a buzzer with Isaiah Armwood hitting the shot at the buzzer to win the game, and I know they’ll come out to play and we’ll also do the same thing.

Q. Back to Jay. If a recruit — you were showing a kid around campus, would you describe Jay as an Xs and Os guy first and rah-rah second, or a rah-rah first and Xs and Os second? And has that equation changed at all in the four years?

ANTONIO PENA: What do you mean rah-rah?

Q. Talking about enthusiasm, uses assistants to do the Xs and Os. He’s the high priest, if you will.

ANTONIO PENA: He’s involved in everything. He’s not just leaving it up to his assistants to do anything. Coach Wright, he’s a mentor for me. He’s taught me so much, not only on the court but off the court, just teaching me how to become a man and teaching me the little things about basketball that everybody should learn.

So he is just involved in everything as far as Xs and Os and the rah-rah, as you said.

Q. Corey Fisher, before you had said that you knew you were going to play another game after the USF loss, whether it was the NIT or NCAA. Did the NIT ever enter your mind during that?

COREY FISHER: No, not at all. I was confident. My teammates was confident. The body of work that we did earlier in the season and throughout the season, like I said, we play one of the best leagues in the country. We went nine and nine. For a lot of people that’s not good. But playing in one of the best leagues, you can be satisfied with that, and we try to achieve for better.

But just knowing we have basketball left, and just the body of our work and the style of play we played, we knew we had a chance, a good chance, and we were real positive with making the NCAA Tournament.

Q. Corey and Antonio, you both said you got better after that loss in the ensuing days. How? What got better?

COREY FISHER: Number one, health. Just getting more time, getting in the cold tub and stretching and just everybody getting healthy.

Me and Stokes, Antonio and other guys playing through injuries, that was number one. Number two, just clearing our minds, just getting back to being ourselves. And staying as a family and not listening to nothing on the outside, and just getting a few days off just to practice and work on situations like that. Like having the lead in practice and things going against you and not playing when things are going bad. That’s something we worked on and I think we got better and it’s going to help us in tomorrow’s game.

Q. Fisher, you said a lot over the last few weeks, you made references to kind of blocking out what people say and not really being concerned. Do you think there’s people out there that kind of don’t look at what you guys have done in a fair way, and maybe have been unfair the way they’ve evaluated this team?

COREY FISHER: Yeah, you’re always going to get that. If we would have won them games, everything would have been different. They would have been talking about going into this tournament as we we’re hearing being the underdog. Being the underdog is good, but we don’t consider ourselves being the underdog. We know how good we are. We struggled late. If we would have won them games, then you might hear from somebody else, Villanova can win this, can win that.

But you can’t get into that. You can’t control that. And that’s — everybody has their own decision. Like I said, we’re going to continue to play basketball.

THE MODERATOR: We want to thank our Villanova student-athletes. Up next is head coach Jay Wright. Coach, a brief opening statement.

COACH WRIGHT: We’re very happy to be in the tournament, very happy to be in Cleveland, and just had a good practice over at Cleveland State. And ran into Buzz Williams and it was really nice to see him and not have to be thinking about playing them. I can tell all the Big East guys are a lot more relaxed, we’re not playing against each other.

But it’s funny I saw Buzz and George Mason. That’s kind of like a Marquette team, a really tough team to guard and very, very well coached and really tough, really mentally and physically tough. So we know we have a really tough game tomorrow and we’re looking forward to it.

Q. Jay, your team has been to a Final Four and last year had the disappointment of going out in the second round. What lessons do you think that the seniors will carry over from the Final Four team and from the disappointment of last year?

COACH WRIGHT: I think that they realize how fragile all of this is and how to appreciate every moment. The senior class, in their first year, went to a Sweet 16, and it was kind of a satisfying Sweet 16. Then they went to a Final Four, and I think last year they kind of felt like it just happens. You come to Villanova and it just happens.

And I think last year they learned it doesn’t just happen. It’s very, very fragile. And I do think this team is coming into this tournament and it’s because of our seniors with a great appreciation for being here and a respect for the process of preparing all the things we’re doing here today. It’s very business-like attitude this morning.

I really like that, and I’ve liked that about this team all year.

Q. Corey Fisher was talking about that the team is still really confident. During the time off you had between the Big East tournament and now, is that something you really had to work on with them was getting the confidence high, or were they there already?

COACH WRIGHT: I think those seniors have remained confident. But it is something that as a staff we have addressed, definitely. We had a lot of time. Time does heal wounds. The further you get away from the regular season and the more you’re engaged in this tournament, it seems that everyone’s mindset is about being in the tournament again.

George Mason, what a great game it’s going to be. How fortunate we are to be here. So there’s just a lot more positives now, a lot more confidence going into this game than there was a week and a half ago.

Q. Jay, you had mentioned before that kind of the feeling last year was this just happens at Villanova; you come to Villanova and you go to the Sweet 16. How much of an adjustment has this been for you to not — to not be so, I guess, bulletproof anymore?

COACH WRIGHT: You mean the season? Yeah. You know, I think we all get better at what we do based on our experiences. There was a confidence level, as a staff, that we all had in what we do.

We had had some success for a number of years here. I think I’ve learned and our staff has learned a great perspective about a long-term approach to your program.

You look at any successful programs, they’ve had great runs, and then what is — what defines a bad run.

I was reading there the New York Post yesterday and there was an article about St. John’s and what a great year they had and how they’ve been restored to prominence. I just happened to read that the record was 21-11. And it was the same as ours. In Philly 21-11 and Villanova is a horrible season. But that’s okay. I’m just learning. We’re all learning about. We’re all learning that that’s part of what you have to deal with.

And that’s what I’m most proud about this team. There’s a lot of things on the court, defense, rebounding, shot selection, I’m not happy about in the past. But I’m really proud of how these guys have handled expectations, how they’ve handled this run here, and I think they’ve put us — because they’ve handled it so well, they put us into a position to really enjoy this tournament and really be confident going into it.

Q. Jay, I’m guessing as a basketball lifer, as a coach, that you’re very conversant with the history of the tournament and how teams like George Mason have written their names into the book. Do you think your players are as conscious of how dangerous a team George Mason is and what their history is, or do you think it’s just another opponent to them?

COACH WRIGHT: I think usually players’ memories go back about three or four years. I think that’s about the extent of what they know about teams and the tournament.

I asked them a question today that they didn’t know. I can’t think of it. It shocked everybody. Oh. I asked them today in a meeting this morning if they knew what WFAN was in New York. None of them knew, not even the New York guys. So what the kids think of is unique.

But I think our guys played these guys last year and what they know about these guys is a respect. We were down 13 in that game. They know that. And they remember that. And we hit a pretty lucky shot to take a lead and at the end we had an unbelievable defensive position.

So their respect is simple. This team last year kicked us pretty good. We were lucky to win, and I think that’s what their perspective is.

Q. Jay, I take it you don’t feel 21-11 is a horrible season. Do you feel you’ve greatly underachieved this season? And because of that, how do you view the guys on this team?

COACH WRIGHT: I think you and I have talked about this. We never put a goal on where we want to be at the end of the season in terms of Final Fours, Big East championships. We always look at a season as a journey and we want to be the best team — I’m saying this to you for the 80th time, but we want to be the best we can at the end of the year given the circumstances, injuries, tough breaks, tough calls. That’s what a season is, is how you endure that. So going into the season if you would have asked me if we would have been better than 21-11, I would have said yes, I would have thought we would have been.

Having gone through what we have, the best I can do is evaluate how our guys have handled it. I think basketball-wise we could have done some better things. We could have been a better defensive team. I think we could have executed better offensively. But given everything we’ve been through, our schedule in the Big East, everything, I am extremely proud of these three seniors. The fact that everybody has stuck together and we’re in an NCAA Tournament right now and they’re fired up about playing and our team is confident in what we do, that’s what I’m excited about them. And that’s going to be their legacy in my mind.

Q. Jay, earlier you used your staff a couple times in a row, and there’s a page in your media guide, as you know, of your staff, except they’re somewhere else. So as a coach, how does that work? Do you guys have a meeting to decide how you’re going to approach these guys psychologically, and how has it worked for you over the term of these three seniors in terms of how you’ve coached this team? Has it altered at all? If not, how does it work?

COACH WRIGHT: We definitely — it’s very important that we all have the same mindset within the program. So we meet as a staff and I talk to the staff about what we want to — what’s the psyche of the team, because they have really good relationships with the guys. We even talk with the captains with the staff about what’s the psyche of the team.

And then we go into a team meeting and we all come to a consensus of where are we. We constantly evaluate perspective, where are we, what’s the reality. After the South Florida game, here’s the reality. We had a 16-point lead. We blew a 16-point lead. We didn’t have Mouph. We did everything right down the stretch. We missed a couple of free throws but then we made a bad play. That’s the reality. Where do we go from here? And then we address. We always talk about attitude, what’s our attitude going forward. And that’s constant after every game. It was after we got chosen for the NCAA Tournament. The same thing: Where are we?

The season’s over. We got a 9 seed. You know, we talked about it a few years ago, we were the last team in, which if we would have been this year we couldn’t have argued. But we went to a Sweet 16 that year. So this is where we are. What’s our attitude going forward. Everybody is healthy, we’re having good practices, we’re fired up, let’s go. New season.

Q. Are you more or less hands-on, the staff over the years?

COACH WRIGHT: That’s a good question. It changes each year based on the experience of the staff. Couple of years ago we had a lot of first-year guys. Pat Chambers got a job and Brett Gunning got a job, Eddie Pinckney got a job. This staff now, we’ve got a good core right now. They’ve got a good feel.

So a little bit less hands-on than maybe last year. But I’m usually very hands-on.

Q. Is there some level of achievement in terms of Eights, 16s and maybe even Final Fours, multiple Final Fours, that the Big East needs to justify the 11?

COACH WRIGHT: I love that topic. I don’t think how many Final Fours you get to how many final Eights determine how strong the conference is.

I think it’s very easy to evaluate. 11 teams throughout the course of the regular season were worthy of being the top 68 teams. I think that’s clear.

How the teams perform will, in the end, show if the league was top heavy or not. Did you have dominant teams? And I think that’s what’s great about the tournament. I think it really does show that. I don’t think how you perform in the tournament warrants discussion of whether you were worthy or not.

I think it’s really clear. I think the NCAA does a great job. They’re very transparent. They show you what the criteria is. And I think this year, more than any, I think they did a great — with 68 teams, this is my personal opinion, it’s a perfect number this year. I think it was pretty clear — I thought it was very clear.

In ’09, if you remember Connecticut, Villanova went to the Final Four. I think West Virginia, Louisville and Pitt were in the final Eights that year. I think that showed you had really dominant teams. We played Pitt to get in. Pitt was just as good as us.

We had dominant teams. And I think it will show.

Q. Corey Fisher was talking about a tougher time being the Final Four year when you lost six or seven in a row, he couldn’t remember what it was. Have you seen them use that experience as they’ve gone through? And how has in particular Corey maybe learned from it and matured from it and used it this time?

COACH WRIGHT: The Final Four team lost five in a row when they were juniors, and that’s what Corey was referring to. And Corey was a freshman that year. It was in the middle of the season. It was a little bit more disastrous than this year’s, believe it or not, because it was the beginning of the year and it looked like we were never going to come out of that.

And so I know Corey, the two Coreys and Antonio, have referred to that a lot with this team. And I think that’s given them confidence that, hey, we’ve done this before and we’ve come out of this before. And it’s definitely given them confidence.

One of the things I want to say about Corey Fisher, I think if Corey Fisher was at Villanova at the same time that Mike Nardi was at Villanova with Randy Foye or after Randy Foye and there wasn’t that line of Foye, Nardi, Lowery and Reynolds, he’s kind of at the end where everybody expects him to be better than all of them. I think he’s as good as any of them, but he’s at the end of the line and everybody expects him to be John Wall. And I’m just incredibly impressed at how he’s handled all this. There was an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer that was I thought pretty tough on a college kid.

But he’s handled it great. And that’s part of being a Villanova guard. It was a well-written article. I don’t have any problem with it. But it was tough on a college kid. He’s handled it great. And I’m just amazed at how he has handled the expectations, the pressure, some disappointment and injury, and I’m really proud of him for that.

Do I think he could have had a better senior year numbers-wise, yes, but he’s still our leading scorer, leading assist guy. Great leader for our team, and he’s battled through tendonitis. And I’m just proud as hell of him. As I said, it’s part of his legacy here at Villanova is that he’s really grown up as a man with a lot of pressure on him.

Q. When Fish was up here earlier, he said in the aftermath of losing to South Florida that they knew there was something else after that, whether it was here, and he also mentioned the other three-letter tournament. Did you ever bring it up to them, hey, this is a possibility, or did you ignore it, just bring it to the forefront? How did you address it?

COREY FISHER: We never talk about the NCAA Tournament during the season ever. And I don’t follow it. We have good people around us, Mike Sheridan, and our people, Bob. I know in the end they’re going to tell me where we are, so I don’t even follow it. So we never talked about it.

After we lost, we had a meeting the next day. And I said to them, Guys, whether we’re in the NIT, NCAA, it’s out of our hands right now. So what we can do is rest up, get healthy and get better in this next week, wherever we’re playing and be excited about playing.

After the meeting the assistant said to me, Coach, these guys know they’re not in the NIT, so don’t talk to them about it. I said, How do they know? Because I don’t follow it. They read this stuff, they watch, everybody’s saying we’re not close. I don’t do it. So they’re so much more informed. They’re watching ESPN every day. They’re on websites.

So they know, as I said, the NCAA is transparent. They know what the criteria is. Those guys follow it. They knew. So they never really did worry about it at all. I worried about it for a day after USF, and then when I started looking at the criteria, and we started analyzing it, we said, We’re going to be all right. Our resumé is good enough.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

Jay Wright has a new commercial out for ESPN 3D coverage of college basketball.

Thanks to DIME Mag for bringing this to our attention.

Jay Wright attended the Big East Media Day with his three senior captains, Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes and Antonio Pena this year. The foursome had a small crowd of reporters swarming about their table for most of the morning, which was about par for the course for most teams — though Providence was notably lacking in reporter interest.

Of the Villanova contingent, I tried to find answers to the questions you posted in our Preview comments (a task that kept me at the Villanova table for most of the first session). You asked:

What is the status of James Bell’s recovery, and will he play this season?

“James Bell had two surgeries on his tibia, for stress fractures. We’ll probably get him back into practice at the end of November, so if everything is going well with him, we were thinking that maybe in the middle of December we could get him to be 100%, and then we have to make a decision.”

Which player(s) have impressed the most? Improved the most?

“I think these three… the seniors [Fisher, Stokes and Pena], have been impressive as leaders and as veteran Big East players.”

What sort of defense will Villanova be playing this season? Will the Triangle-and-2 return?

“We’ll use it. We’ll use it when we have to. It’s more situational personnel, you know some teams just have the kind of personnel that you can do that. Other teams might have two great players, but the other players are the type of players who will take advantage of you’re focusing on those two.”

“We keep it in our back pocket, but we rarely go into a game and use it without having talked about it in our preparation.”

“We might play some zone this year. I seriously might listen to [the critics]. One of the reasons we haven’t put out a zone is because we were always so small. I always though if you’re that small and you’re in a zone, it’s already easier for people to shoot over you and rebound over you. If you look at the really good zone teams, like Syracuse, what makes them good is their size and length. So, we have a bigger team this year, so we might play some zone.”

Which player will surprise Villanova fans the most this season?

“Maybe JayVaughn Pinkston, just because guys don’t know him. I don’t know about the rest of our guys, if they would surprise people, because they know them.”

What position will JayVaughn Pinkston be playing this season?

“We’ve been pleasantly, pleasantly, surprised with JayVaughn,” who reportedly has great hands. “One of the questions, which still has to be answered, you have to see once you start playing full court five-on-five, can he play — at 6’6″, 260 — on the perimeter. Right now it looks like he can, which will get him more playing time.”

“Yesterday  was our 8th practice in five days. The last practice, he was dead, but he was good up until then, so it goes to show.”

Which players will be in the starting lineup for Villanova?

The senior captains will all start, Fisher, Stokes and Pena. Yarou will likely start as well, Coach Wright said, “I want to [play bigger]. A lot of it depends on Mouph. We don’t have to have Antonio in the post, we did last year because Maurice was too young and Mouph was sick. I think our best team is [Pena] facing the basket, Mouph inside, that’s what we want to do and now we have to see if we’re good enough in the Big East to be effective that way.”

As for the fifth starter he said, “we don’t yet: we know Isaiah Armwood will play a lot and we know Maurice will play a lot, but the starter will be Wayns, Pinkston or Cheek,” at shooting guard.

“We have a chance to play small (Maalik), and we had a chance to play big.”

Is Jay Wright concerned about Lavin’s presence tightening the recruiting market in the Northeast?

“I just think there are enough players in this area for everybody. I really do. Even if the local schools get some of the guys, there are still so many great players in this area. You know, as long as we’re getting the one’s we want, I’m fine. Recruiting the New York area is always the most difficult, because you’ve got great local schools, but everyone else recruits there as well.”

What are Jay Wright’s thoughts on Villanova Football as it regards basketball success?

“Yeah. It is. It is. I think football is important to Villanova University, you know no matter what level they play, in that it separates you from just another small school that plays basketball. You know, we have football weekends, and it’s important and our football games are on TV, and on Saturday when you’re checking the scores, you know, the Villanova score is up. I think it’s important to our entire University.”

Villanova Notes & Quotes:

Quotes:

Corey Fisher

• Asked why he didn’t put his name in the NBA draft, Corey Fisher replied, “I knew I wasn’t ready.” He went on to say that “you only get four years in college, you never get that back and playing with teammates like Stokes and Pena, there’s no reason to leave. The opportunity was there,” but there was, “no need to rush.”
• On whether he can score 105 points on a Big East team: “The 105 game is past me, I’m just getting ready to have a great senior year with Stokes and Pena . . . You’re not going to score that many points in a college game. I know I’m going to hear it a lot, but I’m just getting ready to have a great senior year. I’m not worried about scoring. Whatever Coach needs from me, I’m going to be ready to do.”
• On what he needs to do for the team to succeed: “I think the only think I’ve got to do is be vocal, that’s it. I got guys on my team that are willing to learn and we’ve got young guys that are coming in that are looking up to us, and we have to set the example. We’ve been battling in practice, the season just started and it’s going to be a good year.”
• On who put the most in: “Tone and Stokes, I think, were working real hard. I know Tone worked real hard on getting his shot better, his post moves, and Stokes has been working on his ball handling. That’s kind of what we all do, we take pride in getting better in the offseason. We’re trying to get better as basketball players and graduate.”
• Team’s ceiling: “We don’t know right now. We know we can be good, and we also know that things can change. Nothing’s promised, and we can’t really control it, all we control is going out there and playing hard, so that’s what we’re focused on right now.”

Corey Stokes

• Corey Stokes on the motivation gained from their early departure from the NCAA Tournament: “It’s been motivating us all summer long and all preseason. We’ve been working hard every day. We’re getting better every day as a team and individually. We just can’t wait for the season to start.”
• On Robert Morris: “We never take any team for granted.”
• On the informal mentoring program: “We lead this team all summer long, we each had players under our wing. I think this is the best productive summer I’ve had at Villanova with the team. We go at each other each day in practice, and sometimes coach has to stop us and tell us not to hurt each other. I think we’re very competitive this year, more than we’ve been in the past. . . . I was in charge of Cheek, Fisher was in charge of Maalik and Antonio was in charge of Mouph. I think we did a great job with them, just telling them when they mess up to keep a positive attitude… and work hard no matter what you do.”
• On whether he’s the best shooter on the team this year: “I guess so, yeah.”
• Goals for the offseason, “My goals were to get in the gym every day and work on my ball handling, work on getting to the basket more, and on leading the team with Antonio and Fisher.”

Antonio Pena

• Antonio Pena: “We don’t go by what other people think. We go by us developing as a team and just being there for each other.”
• On Mouph Yarou’s development: “He’s improved a lot. Sky’s the limit for him. He’s got good hands, he can run, he’s strong, rebounds, he can do everything. He’s going to be a hell of a player.”
• “We’ve got to spread the offense.”
• On his personal goals: “Just being that rock, just doing every little thing that you don’t see on ESPN, the stuff like that. Just doing that stuff to help my team win.”
• On the state of the frontcourt: “We’re gonna be solid, rebound, block shots, just being solid in the paint.”
• On whether the frontcourt can shake off Villanova’s GuardU reputation: “We’re trying to, we left that up to Dante, he kind of shook it off a little bit, we’re trying to finish it up. “

Coach Wright

• Asked what he thought the team needed to do differently this year, Jay Wright answered, ”I think, defend and rebound consistently. We had games where defended and rebounded consistently and we won, we had games where we didn’t defend and rebound and we lost. It came from the other games where we weren’t consistent . . . we weren’t creating the habits where we do it every night. . . . It was just six first year players that didn’t get it.”
• Wright on Yarou: “As a freshman, to miss November, December, January… the important thing is that he could never be — because they didn’t want his sweat to touch anybody — he could never be on the court with us, that really stifled him. It’s really like this is his freshman year all over again.”
• “He actually is a more skilled player than people know. Where he’s got better is his fluidity. He was skilled but mechanical. He’s a bright kid, he plays too intelligently, where we wanted him to play off of instinct, and that’s where he improved.”
• On his senior class: “[The Coreys] were a huge part of our final four run.” They have 77 wins so far, and they have a chance to be the winningest class. Two of the winningest classes have come in the last four or five years.
• On the Big East conference: “It’s going to be the most unpredictable it has been in a long time. Everybody lost great players… You’ve got to vote [in the coaches poll], but I don’t think they are confident votes.”
• On Fisher’s capacity for leadership: “Coming in as a freshman, I think he was probably the least prepared to be a leader, and right now he’s probably the most prepared, because of playing under Scottie and because of looking up to Nardi. He knows history, he knows the game…” (that one was Dana O’Neil’s question).
• On Maalik Wayns: “That’s [Fisher's] understudy, and he take’s responsibility for Maalik, like Scottie took responsibility for him. [Fisher] and Maalik will play together a lot this year, but in practice we have to play them against each other, because there is nobody else who can guard them… sorry Stokesey… he does… Stokes’ the next best at guarding them, but they can guard each other real well. We stopped practice the other day to discuss how them going after each other in practice was making each of them better and us better as a team.”

Notes:

• Coach Wright interrupted the questioning for a moment in order to ask reporters who was pitching for the Phillies tonight. ESPN’s Dana O’Neil then accused him of being a Yankees fan, which he denied.
• The Twitter/Facebook ban was instituted because Fisher, Stokes and Pena were too “popular” online. The program did not like seeing player status messages reported in the media.
• Jay Wright claims that he does not have a Facebook or Twitter account.

Around the Conference:

Pittsburgh

• Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon tried to play-off the fact that his team was named the preseason favorite, saying that it was, “no big deal.”

Connecticut

• Coach Jim Calhoun stated that he thought there was “no overwhelming team” in the Big East this year.
• He also claimed that Kemba Walker will be a top Point Guard, stating: “Kemba is going to be one of the best PGs in the country, I truly believe that.” He reiterated his strong belief in Walker a number of times.

West Virginia

• Bob Huggins met the press in a Jay Wright-esque three-piece suit, complete with a double-breasted vest. His wardrobe choice drew a number of questions and comments, and provoked Jay Wright to stop by on his way to the Television room to point our Huggins’ attire. Huggins later said, “I’m a basketball coach not a model,” when asked about his famous windbreakers.

Syracuse

• Every player and coach in attendance was wearing a suit except for Corey Stokes, who wore a nice blazer and slacks combo and the Syracuse players, who wore their warm-up gear.
• On Scoop Jardine, Jim Boeheim said, “Scoop has gone through the process” and become a very good player since getting to Syracuse.

Georgetown

• John Thompson III is “not yet” planning to restrict his players from using Twitter or Facebook.

Louisville

• Rick Pitino was asked about his team practicing with a 24-second shot clock, which he confirmed, stating that, “we want to play fast, we want to to play faster than we’ve ever played.”
• Coach Pitino on conference expansion/realignment: “I didn’t believe Syracuse would defect, even if they were offered.”
• Pitino also said, “I’m hoping that Villanova will become a football member of the conference,” noting that it would be the best-case scenario for the conference, which would not need to add all-sports members to expand.

Seton Hall

• Talking about new Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard, Louisville coach Rick Pitino stated that he was “cut from the same cloth” as his former assistant, Billy Donovan.
• Kevin Willard mentioned that he was interested in re-opening a European recruiting pipeline at Seton Hall. Nobody followed up with an Enes Kanter question, however.
• Willard also said that he would be focusing on defense this season, he trusts in Jeremy Hazell‘s leadership and believes his team is talented enough to be allowed freedom offensively.
• Hazell said that he pulled his name out of the NBA draft this offseason because he has confidence in Coach Willard.
• A rumor began to circulate that Seton Hall player Herb Pope had signed a contract with a Turkish professional team, Willard denied the rumor stating that Pope had been in practice all week.

Notre Dame

• Mike Brey noted that the challenge for this season is to extend their success from last season’s run while star, Luke Harangody, was injured.

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This post was made possible by the Naughty Volvo S60 campaign. You can see more about the campaign at MyBigEastVolvo.com.