Perhaps no one understands the pain of coming up short in the NCAA Tournament more than a coach who has led one of his teams to college basketball’s season-concluding main event.
Villanova coach Jay Wright, a national champion in 2016, sure seemed sympathetic to his counterpart at Kansas, Bill Self, in regards to the Jayhawks’ Elite Eight losses of Marches past — one of which came to Wright’s Wildcats en route to their title just two years ago.
KU’s overtime triumph over Duke in the Midwest regional final marked Self’s third victory in eight visits to Elite Eight as the head coach at Kansas.
In the past, some fans and observers criticized KU’s coach for not taking the Jayhawks to the Final Four on a more regular basis. Self, who guided Kansas to a national championship in 2008, admitted going home a weekend earlier than expected each of the previous two years made the program’s first Elite Eight win since 2012 an emotional one.
Wright, whose Wildcats will face Self’s Jayhawks in the national semifinals Saturday, in San Antonio, could relate.
“Well, you know, it is interesting. I was listening to Bill,” Wright said, during a media teleconference on Monday, “and I’m sure anyone that looks at Bill Self says, ‘Well, I don’t feel sorry for that guy. He’s one of the greatest coaches, he wins all the time.’ But I get it.”
Although he has Villanova in the Final Four for the second time in three seasons, Wright first took the program to the sport’s biggest stage in 2009. Early-round exits followed in three of the next four seasons, and Villanova missed the tournament in 2012. The Wildcats lost their first NCAA Tournament game in 2013, then only reached the Round of 32 in both 2014 and 2015. The same second-round fate awaited Villanova in 2017.
None of those defeats, nor those Self’s Jayhawks experienced through the years, Wright said, define them. Villanova’s coach said Self’s 14 consecutive Big 12 titles also show his greatness.
“What you do in the tournament is not really a mark of your, I don’t think, of your talent as a coach. It’s match-ups. It’s who’s healthy. You know, it’s a break here or there. It’s a call by a referee,” Wright said. “So in coaching, we understand that you don’t have as much control of that tournament. You have control of your regular season a little bit more.”
Right or wrong, even a coach with a national title on his résumé will find himself evaluated on his most recent March result.
“So we all have to accept that. And I think Bill accepts it. And I think that’s part of why he was excited to get to the Final Four,” Wright said. “He just knows that, hey, it’s going to — and that’s what makes his fan base happy. It’s what makes our fan base happy, how far you advance in the tournament. It’s one of the challenges in being a college basketball coach.”
