Bang.
The single-syllable, dead-solid-pure utterance that capped Jay Wright’s arrival at the summit of college basketball also serves as his departure line. Sudden, breathtaking, startling.
That was the word Wright mouthed on the sideline, with preternatural calm, when Kris Jenkins hit arguably the most dramatic shot in men’s NCAA tournament history to deliver Villanova the 2016 national championship. Having won another title since then and taken his fourth ’Nova team to the Final Four this month, his abrupt exit from the stage arrives with a similar thunderclap. Nobody saw this coming.
Wright won national titles in 2016 and ’18 (pictured).