The college basketball world in general and the Big East conference in specific was shaken with an earthquake of a news report from The Athletic’s Shams Charania: Villanova head coach Jay Wright is retiring. That was confirmed by Villanova and Wright a little later on in the evening, along with the news that former Wright assistant coach and current Fordham head coach Kyle Neptune would be taking the reins of the Wildcats going forward.
There’s no way around this: This is a major loss for college basketball, as Wright had been a head coach in Division 1 since 1994, when he took the top job at Hofstra following stints as an assistant at Drexel, Villanova, and UNLV.