Villanova coach Jay Wright is one of the best in the business when it comes to taking and answering questions from the media.
And the man in charge of finding a way to knock out top-seeded Kansas on Saturday night was at it again on Friday, filling the room with thoughtful answers and interesting anecdotes.
Many of them had to do with his team or this specific match-up, but others focused more on philosophy and the bigger picture of the game of basketball.
One such story that illustrated that second aspect to perfection was born out of Villanova’s upset victory of second-ranked Kansas in the Bahamas early in the 2013-14 season.
Villanova defeated a young Kansas team that featured freshmen Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid and a handful of players on this year’s team on a late shot by then-sophomore guard Ryan Arcidiacono.
The three-pointer was Arcidiacono’s only make of that game, but was far from the only thing Wright remembered about the contest.
Here is that story, in Wright’s words…
> “The other really unique thing about
> that game, I think I told Bill this,
> Wiggins had played, I don’t know,
> maybe one or two games before that,
> and we were pressing him a little bit.
> He had five turnovers. I think he was
> sick that day too.
>
> We, in the scouting report, pumped him
> up to our guys, how good he was. In
> the game, he had like five turnovers,
> didn’t play that well. I said to our
> guys, I said, All right, watch this
> team. I said, You think they turned
> the ball over and we just beat them?
> You don’t think they’re that good?
> This is why players need coaching.
> Wiggins had five turnovers. I
> guarantee you by the end of this
> season, this kid will be one of the
> top picks in the draft. The kid,
> Embiid, got in foul trouble in that
> game. I said, When he gets coached by
> Bill Self for a year, I guarantee you
> this kid is going to be a great player
> by the end of the year and this team
> will be a great team. They didn’t look
> good then, guys were sick.
>
> When teams win a game, they think
> they’re better. Then they watched
> them. At the end of the year, I said,
> You see that team now? Is that the
> same team that played us? They’re all
> like, No. I said, That’s why players
> need coaching. You need to be coached.
>
> It was helpful for our guys, who heard
> a lot about Embiid and Wiggins, to
> say, well, those one-and-done guys are
> getting coached. I better listen and
> be coached. It really helped our team.”