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Jay Wright, Johnnie Bryant candidates for Knicks head coach job?
When it comes to available coaches, longtime Villanova coach Jay Wright — who has long expressed a reluctance to make the leap to the NBA — and Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Johnnie Bryant quickly emerged as presumed likely candidates … emphasis on presumed. Wright is obviously close with the Knicks' former Villanova trio of Brunson, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges but, again, has repeatedly said that he does not have NBA coaching aspirations.
What’s it like seeing guys like Donte DiVincenzo, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, and Jalen Brunson become the faces of Villanova in the NBA, and how does it feel to see them representing the program and building the brand on the biggest stage? Eric Dixon: For me, it’s great for the brand. The best part is seeing those guys come back. I’ve had a pretty good relationship with Mikal and JB. It’s nice to see them succeed. They come back, they’re part of the brotherhood, and you want to see your brothers do well. Seeing them have success is a big boost for the brand and the program.
The short-lived full "Nova Knicks" group may not be playing together at Madison Square Garden, but the quartet will be on basketball fans' screens together in March -- as actors. For a few short months in the 2024 NBA offseason, the New York Knicks' roster featured no fewer than four players who had previously played together with the Villanova Wildcats -- Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges and Donte DiVincenzo. Each of them spent their college careers on the Main Line, with all four members of the quartet overlapping on the Wildcats' 2016-17 squad. The Knicks' trade for Karl-Anthony Towns in October sent DiVincenzo to the Minnesota Timberwolves, seemingly breaking up the group for good -- a reality a new AT&T commercial for March Madness is poking fun at.
To get the sophomore to practice the way he played in games, Villanova and former Knicks teammate Ryan Arcidiacono told The Athletic that coaches would have to intentionally push Hart’s buttons. Wildcats assistant coach Ashley Howard said the staff “would have to talk trash” to Hart in order to get him engaged. Former Villanova head coach Jay Wright would challenge him separately in ways that “you can’t say in an interview.” Bridges started his college career on the scout team and would be matched up against Hart. He ended up being the target of Hart’s aggressive energy directed toward the coaches. “Josh use to terrorize Mikal early on,” Howard told The Athletic. “Mikal wasn’t physically where he eventually got, and Josh is Josh.”
Bridges said durability was instilled by his mother and Villanova coach Jay Wright, but there were some dicey moments along the way. “One where I was in Phoenix, where I hyperextended my knee,” Bridges explained. “We were going to San Antonio, I was real nervous. It was painful. … Then when I was in Brooklyn, I did something to my wrist. I thought I broke my hand. I couldn’t sleep at night. It was bad. And then when I woke up, it was just my wrist.”
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Bridges' Brooklyn exit came with controversy. Reports said the 28-year-old informed the Nets that he wanted to be traded to the Knicks — where he would join Villanova teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart — and was willing to play hardball to force his way there. However, Bridges denied the claims in the weeks following the deal. He told ClutchPoints on Sunday that he only had one regret from his time in Brooklyn. “The only thing I can say about that is I wish we had more wins. That's pretty much it,” Bridges said. “I control what I can control. But there's a lot of my guys over there. I'm still close with a lot of those people, even in the front office. They're great people, so [I'm] never mad about it with them.”
Kyle Lowry is on the cusp of another milestone. The 76ers point guard needs two points to tie and three to pass Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Paul Arizin as Villanova’s all-time leading NBA scorer. Lowry has 16,264 points heading into Monday’s 10:15 p.m. game against the Phoenix Suns at the Footprint Center.
New York Knicks superstar point guard Jalen Brunson is a Villanova legend. Was there a chance that Brunson would have transferred after his freshman season with the Wildcats? Rick Brunson, Jalen’s father and a former NBA player and current Knicks assistant coach, joined his son in an appearance on the “Come and Talk 2 Me” podcast with former NBA player, head coach and broadcaster Mark Jackson. There, the elder Brunson spoke about how disappointed he was during Brunson’s freshman season at Villanova. “One thing Jay Wright was good at, he would talk to you and talk you off the ledge because I thought I saw more, and Jay was great, he handled it great,” Rick Brunson said. “But I was like man this ain’t gonna work, and to Jalen’s credit man, Jalen was like you got to relax man, I got this.”
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Jay Wright rules out coaching again
Jay Wright, the former Villanova coach who retired in 2022, reiterated in an interview with The Post that he has no interest in returning to coaching at the age of 62. He’s loving life as a CBS college basketball analyst. “No,” Wright said, when asked if he has any interest in coaching again. “It’s humbling that someone would even mention you or think about you. I’ve been around so long, all the guys who are making the decisions, I know those guys. I wasn’t talking to [Lakers general manager] Rob Pelinka at the end of that. There were no conversations. “
Although he believes his former Villanova coach is capable of jumping to the NBA, Jalen Brunson isn’t sure Jay Wright would actually enjoy the job. “It would be different,” Brunson told Wright on his podcast, ‘Roommates Show.’ “It would be totally different. I feel like in college, you’re teaching young men how to be players and how to be young men. At least that’s what we did at ‘Nova. I feel like in the league you’re just playing chess. You’re putting pieces in to see what’s going to work and what may not work. And so, it would’ve been a little different. I think you could do it, for sure. I just don’t know if you would want to do it.”
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