NCAAM teams
Jeff Borzello, ESPN Staff Writer 5y

Can Villanova keep winning ahead of schedule?

Men's College Basketball, Villanova Wildcats

VILLANOVA, Pa. -- If Jay Wright is tired of all the handshakes and photos over the past three years, it doesn't show. Wright works his way through the employees and guests of a local corporate sponsor who spent an October morning on campus, watching practice and then having lunch with the players.

The Villanova head coach stops to say hi to one table before attempting to get food, but instead goes to another table, and another. Listening to stories, signing autographs, posing for pictures. No buffet just yet.

About an hour later, the lunch is nearing its end and many of the guests have already left. But Wright takes the microphone and says a few words to the remaining visitors. He mentions a team trip later that day to New York City for an alumni dinner, and a couple of upcoming events.

And then he makes a request to the small gathering, a group used to veteran teams filled with upperclassmen who have already spent two or three years on the Main Line.

"I ask for a little patience," Wright says.


Wright has never been in this position before.

It's not just the fact Villanova is coming off two national championships in three years, it's not the Wildcats having four early entries into the NBA draft, and it's not the school producing three first-round picks with a fourth who won the Wooden Award.

The newest experience for Wright? He has never had to truly rebuild.

"It's really different," Wright said last month. "We haven't had a young team like this, since Randy Foye and Allan Ray and those guys were freshmen. So we haven't done this. We try to avoid that. A lot of schools are good at that, bringing in young guys. But we try to avoid this."

On paper, Villanova had planned well for this season. The Wildcats were one of the front-runners for a national championship last season, but they knew juniors Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges were going to graduate after the season and leave for the NBA draft. Donte DiVincenzo and Omari Spellman, who were secondary options for most of the campaign, would become the next Villanova stars. Combined with an incoming top-15 recruiting class, the Wildcats would be title contenders once again.

And then the NCAA tournament started.

As the Wildcats' run last March progressed, it was clear we might not have to wait until 2018-19 for DiVincenzo and Spellman to become stars. DiVincenzo earned Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors, scoring 31 points in the national championship game against Michigan. Spellman had 18 points and eight rebounds -- including four 3-pointers -- against Sagaba Konate and West Virginia in the Sweet 16, then went for 15 points and 13 rebounds in the Final Four against Kansas.

Wright still expected both to return -- until DiVincenzo and Spellman attended the NBA draft combine in Chicago. DiVincenzo tested out with the highest vertical leap and Spellman impressed early. Suddenly, NBA people were calling Wright and telling him DiVincenzo should shut it down (he chose to keep playing instead).

"At that point, there was nothing we could do," Wright said.

DiVincenzo and Spellman were gone. Brunson and Bridges were gone. All four would be drafted in the first 33 picks in June's NBA draft.

"If those two came back this year, we had a plan," Wright said of DiVincenzo and Spellman. "And then those two would leave, and the guys coming up behind them, they would be ready. And now for the first time in a while, we've got a lot of question marks."

Villanova is commended within the industry for the way it builds its roster and balances its classes. The Wildcats rarely use all 13 allotted scholarships to limit potential attrition resulting from lack of playing time as freshmen or sophomores. They redshirt freshmen more than most power programs. As a result, they generally aren't caught with an unbalanced roster in terms of classes.

That's what makes this season so unique. Villanova has returning seniors Phil Booth and Eric Paschall, but Wright also went out and took his first graduate transfer, former Albany guard Joe Cremo. There's only one junior, as well as a four-man freshman class that will be counted on immediately this season.

"It's just different because of how new the team is now, with the young players we've got. Five new players, four freshmen and the one transfer," Booth said. "Last year, we had a lot of guys coming back. We only lost Josh [Hart], Kris [Jenkins] and Darryl [Reynolds], but we had a lot of guys that started, played a lot of minutes. That's not the case this year. It's a different feel."

Aside from Paschall and Booth, the most experienced returnee is Collin Gillespie, who averaged 4.3 points last season. Only Gillespie and sophomore Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree averaged double-figure minutes. There's no clear-cut breakout star ready to step up like Bridges and DiVincenzo last year, or Hart earlier.

Jahvon Quinerly, a five-star point guard, is the most highly touted freshman of the group. Quinerly has been impressive in fall practices, and there have been flashes from the other newcomers and inexperienced returnees. But no one is sure how the rotation will shake out.

"It's very new," Paschall said. "We're used to have a junior, senior class -- then sophomore that's learning. But now we have to rely on these dudes more. But we're all up for the challenge."


Villanova is at something of a crossroads in its program.

Do the Wildcats rise into the echelon of nouveau riche blue bloods? UConn wasn't a historically elite program, but when Jim Calhoun led the Huskies to three titles in 12 years, they entered the conversation. Villanova's recent run puts it in that same type of discussion.

Over the past five years, Villanova can make the case it's been the most successful program in college basketball.

"I'm very uncomfortable with that. I don't think of us as a dynasty," Wright said. "I want our program to be consistent about our core values. Competing for Big East championships, competing for national championships, but guys graduating, guys being part of the student body. All our guys live on campus, they live in the dorms. I want to keep that balance. I want to keep that going."

While the likes of Duke and Kentucky have relied heavily on the one-and-done model to cycle in elite talent every year, and North Carolina and Kansas have mixed five-star prospects with veterans to stay near the top of the rankings, Villanova has done things its own way. But now that Wright has two national titles in three years and will have to start a new cycle by replacing four top-35 draft picks, the Wildcats are starting to swing more consistently for big-time talents.

Quinerly was a five-star prospect, a McDonald's All-American in the 2018 class who was once committed to Arizona. Villanova has a top-five recruiting class nationally heading into the early signing period for the 2019 class, beating out Duke for five-star shooting guard Bryan Antoine and overtaking Kansas for top-40 big man Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.

Antoine said Villanova's pitch was a little different than his other finalists, a group that included Duke, Kansas and Kentucky.

"All the other schools talked about players in the past being one-and-done and being drafted and having a lot of drafted players, but [Villanova] was only focused on me and my future," Antoine said. "To me, it didn't matter that much how many players the school got into the NBA, or anything like that. ... They aren't really focused on one-and-done, but more focused on making you the best person and player you can be, and that's also one that kind of got to me in a good way."

Villanova is treading carefully, though. The Wildcats have entered this phase before, after reaching the Sweet 16 in four of five years -- including a Final Four appearance in 2009. They reeled in five-star guards Corey Fisher and Corey Stokes in 2007 and then landed the No. 3-ranked recruiting class in 2009.

By 2012, Villanova finished 13-19 overall and 5-13 in the Big East. Wright has spoken in the past about how he was sloppy on the recruiting trail following the Final Four trip, doing less background research on highly ranked players and not fully describing the expectations and culture of the program to prospective recruits.

Wright is determined not to find himself in that situation again. Using Quinerly as an example, Wright explained how Villanova recruited Quinerly heavily before he committed to Arizona and knew everyone around him, from his parents to his high school coach. More important, Quinerly knew everything about the Villanova program. So when Quinerly decommitted from Arizona and reopened his recruitment, he called Villanova and said he wanted to play for the Wildcats.

"Being much more detailed in our intel," Wright said of how he and his staff continue to find players to fit his preferred mold. "Finding everything out about the kid, everyone around him. His expectations. So when he gets here, who's going to be talking to him? So if he does have some success, who's going to be the person pushing him in what direction? If he has some difficulties, who's going to be the one that suggests transferring -- or is there going to be that person? Going out of our way to explain to our recruits what our program is all about."

Like the true blue bloods of the sport, one thing Villanova can bank on is continuity. It doesn't have to worry about whether Wright is leaving for another job, either in the NBA or in college. He was briefly linked to the New York Knicks vacancy last spring, and that's always going to be a rumor for the 56-year-old Wright.

He admitted the NBA intrigues him but has no interest in leaving Villanova for anything else -- especially at the college level.

"If Villanova shut down, I would not want to coach another college basketball team," Wright said. "I realize how unique this place is. Before we won championships, I always said I think this is the best place to coach college basketball in the country. I coach in front of 20,000 people, compete for Big East championships, national championships. I can go out to dinner in the spring in Philly and not get bothered. It's a great lifestyle. And the same thing on this campus. We have great respect for academics, as much as the basketball. They always want to keep that balance. They don't want you to be too big, they don't want you to. ... I just love it."


So what's next for Wright and Villanova?

After playing all of its home games last season at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Villanova has reopened its on-campus Finneran Pavilion. The 16-month, $65 million renovation includes the floor from the 2016 Final Four in one of the club areas (they're still figuring out how to display the 2018 Final Four floor), national championship trophies on the concourse and a number of other historic references -- in addition to a remodeled court and seating area.

Talk to enough staffers and people around the program, though, and you'll find one potential issue: Because it's still a relatively small building, it can get a little crowded for the three national championship banners.

Wright chuckles at the notion.

"How about that?"

The Pavilion renovation is just one step, though. According to Wright, athletic director Mark Jackson -- who came to Villanova from USC four years ago -- is steadily putting the pieces in place for a smooth transition whenever Wright decides to depart the Main Line, including improved salaries for both head coach and staff, the upgraded practice facility and on-campus arena, as well as the fundraising and infrastructure around the program.

Wright points to the previous coaching changes -- Jack Kraft to Rollie Massimino, Massimino to Steve Lappas, Lappas to Wright -- and how there was a dip in performance immediately following the transition.

Jackson and the athletic department want to avoid a repeat of those issues in the future.

"They're building a program that is sustainable at a high level, regardless of the coach," Wright said.

It's pointed out to Wright that while he might not want to admit it -- "it still feels like regular old Villanova" -- the plan moving forward sounds an awful lot like a blue-blood program.

He paused.

"I think that's what can make us one. We're not there yet," Wright said.

Of course, it always goes back to one thing.

"And we'd still like to do it the Villanova way."

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