In what would be a shocking decision that would reverberate around college sports, longtime Villanova men’s basketball coach Jay Wright is seriously considering retiring after 21 years of leading the Wildcats, sources told CBS Sports on Wednesday.
Wright called an impromptu meeting with his team on Wednesday night, where he’s expected to share with his team that he will be retiring.
The 60-year-old Hall of Fame coach began seriously mulling retirement throughout this past season, a source said, moving closer to his decision in March. In recent weeks, Villanova power brokers had discussions to see if he would change his mind. Fresh off his fourth Final Four appearance, Wright is deciding to walk away from the grind of college basketball. Privately, Wright has shared frustrations with some of the significant changes with the way the sport operates.
He’s also gone through some understandable burnout with the grind of the job, one source said.
Villanova has been one of the premier programs in the sport, ascending to elite status under Wright in the past decade. The Wildcats won the national title in 2016 and 2018, in addition to making Final Four appearances in 2009 and 2022. Wright carries a 642-282 record, with 520 of those wins and 197 of those losses at Villanova since 2001. He began his head-coaching career in 1994, when he was hired at Hofstra.
His Villanova program has lorded over the Big East since that league reformed nearly a decade ago. Villanova has finished atop the regular season standings in the Big East in seven of the past nine seasons. It’s won five Big East Tournament titles in that span. The team received a top-three seed in the NCAA Tournament nine times since 2009.
