Jay Wright retires as Villanova men’s basketball coach, Fordham’s Kyle Neptune expected to replace him

Update: Jay Wright tweeted the following statement, announcing his retirement after a tremendous run at Villanova. The Wildcats were a national powerhouse consistently under Wright and won two championships in four Final Four appearances. The program is expected to hire Fordham’s Kyle Neptune, a longtime Villanova assistant under Wright, as the next head coach.

Villanova’s men’s basketball head coach Jay Wright is strongly considering retirement, per Shams Charania. Wright, 60, is rumored to be meeting with his family soon to make his final decision. The expectation, according to sources is that Wright will be deciding to step down, per Jon Rothstein. Fordham’s Kyle Neptune is expected to replace Wright, per Rothstein.

Wright has been at Villanova since 2001. He played college basketball at Bucknell between 1979 and 1983. Once graduating, he turned to coaching and picked up an assistant position at Rochester for two years. Wright then was an assistant coach at Drexel, Villanova and UNLV between 1986 and 1994.

Wright got his first head coaching gig at Hofstra and was there for seven seasons between 1994 and 2001. In total, he went 122-85 at Hofstra and helped lead them to the first round of the NCAA Tournament in both 2000 and 2001.

Wright then left for Villanova where he has spent 21 seasons as the head coach. He has a 520-197 record at Villanova including 16 NCAA Tournament appearances with the team. Villanova won the National Championship in both 2016 and 2018. The former, against North Carolina, remains one of the wildest finishes in a college basketball championship in history.