Jay Wright Describes His Thoughts During Villanova’s 2016 Title Run

Former Villanova Men’s Basketball head coach Jay Wright returned to the Finneran Pavilion on Wednesday, Sept. 17 to help the Wildcats’ basketball teams kick off their 2025-26 seasons. He also appeared alongside Jalen Brunson, who won National Championships with Villanova in 2016 and 2018, and Josh Hart, a member of the 2016 team, in a live taping of their podcast, the “Roommates Show.”

During the appearance, the trio discussed the 2016 championship run, with Wright revealing his thought process during that magical spring. Heading into that postseason the Wildcats had endured consecutive second round upsets despite entering the tournament field as a No. 1 or No. 2 seed. Although he noted that losing to Seton Hall in the Big East Championship game served as a turning point for his team, giving them a humbling reality check, Wright said he felt intense pressure heading into the Round of 32, worried the trend would repeat itself.

“I could admit now, I was nervous as hell before that game,” Wright said, asking Hart and Brunson if they’d felt a similar level of apprehension.

“I think once we did that, we were like ‘okay, we kind of got that monkey off our back,'” Hart added. The Wildcats responded to the challenge with gusto, holding as much as a 34 point lead over No. 7 seed Iowa early in the second half.

Becoming Champions

Curse broken or not, the Wildcats still faced rough seas during their championship run, blowing a ten point lead with less than five minutes to play in the title game when North Carolina guard Marcus Paige nailed an off-balance three-point shot.

To hear Jay Wright tell it, “everything was going wrong for us, and when we were coming out of the timeout before Marcus Paige hit the three, the double-clutch three, the only thing we had to do was not give up a three. We could’ve fouled, we could’ve given up a two, we could’ve gotten a stop: the only thing you can’t do is give up a three, and we gave up a three. So we were ready to totally choke.”

Wright said that what happened next in the Wildcats’ timeout huddle made more of an impact on him than the eventual championship win, courtesy of a three-point buzzer beater from Kris Jenkins.

“You guys were coming off the court saying “attitude, attitude,” and the guys were coming off the bench and they were saying “attitude, attitude,” which was our code word for you can’t control what happened in the past, the only thing you can control is your attitude coming out of this huddle, to have a positive attitude. So I was just so proud that you guys were all doing it. I was like whether we win this game or lose, you guys will have that for life. And that’s really what I was thinking. You guys are good for life,” Wright said. “That’s why I didn’t react when we won the game. That’s just God’s will man, hitting that shot. You guys came out of that huddle with a clear mind and a great attitude. I was so impressed.”