Villanova coach Jay Wright to retire at 60: reports

According to various sources, Villanova men’s basketball coach Jay Wright is retiring. Shams Charania of The Athletic was the first to report about the possibility of retirement.

Wright, 60, struggled with the choice privately during the offseason, according to sources familiar with the matter. The Hall of Fame coach eventually decided to retire, a decision that will resonate throughout a sport that already has a lot of coaching turnover.

Wright rose from a Division III assistant to one of the sport’s most renowned figures, known for his creative offensive mind, ability to develop guards, and, until recently, his elegant sideline wardrobe.

Wright won 520 games at Villanova over his 21-year tenure, including four Final Fours, and winning national titles in 2016 and 2018.

Wright, who was once regarded as one of the best coaches in the sport but had yet to win a national championship, eventually did so in 2016 with a buzzer-beating triumph over North Carolina. In the 2018 final game, he led the Wildcats to their second victory in three seasons, dominating Michigan.

Wright was also inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021 after winning a gold medal as an assistant coach under Gregg Popovich in the 2020 Olympic Games.

According to Jon Rothstein of the New York Times, Villanova is poised to replace Wright with Fordham coach Kyle Neptune. Neptune, 37, worked as an assistant coach under Wright for eight years, including during both national titles.

In his debut season as head coach at Fordham, he went 16–16 and tied for the program’s highest league victory total in the last 15 years. Neptune is a Brooklyn native with strong links to the Northeast. He is a skilled recruiter and tactician.

Wright’s departure is the latest in a long line of well-known personalities who have left the industry in recent years. Mike Krzyzewski, the all-time winningest coach in men’s basketball, coached his final season in 2021–22, while Roy Williams, the longstanding North Carolina coach, stepped down after the 2020–21 season and was replaced internally by Hubert Davis.

Last April, Lon Kruger, who won 674 games in his career, also announced his retirement. Many coaches have quietly expressed their expectation that Wright would assist lead the sport through a period of change in leadership without Williams and Krzyzewski at the helm. Wright, on the other hand, will join them on the outside looking in.

With those recent retirements, Bill Self (Kansas) and Rick Pitino (Iona) are the only active men’s coaches with multiple NCAA championships, but Pitino’s second championship was annulled by the NCAA.