‘He was himself’: Jay Wright shines in his CBS debut at a familiar place

The doors had just opened to the public before tipoff at the Finneran Pavilion. Tom McCarthy and Steve Lappas got to their seats, part of the CBS Sports Network team for Wednesday’s Villanova-Penn game.

The third member of the broadcast team, making his debut, was trying to get to his own halfcourt spot but ran into a bit of trouble.

“He’s not going to make those last 20 feet,” a photographer said to McCarthy. A line of well-wishers had appeared in Jay Wright’s path.

» READ MORE: Villanova beats Penn as Cam Whitmore stars

It was a little reminder that within those particular walls, Wright will always be a rock star. When’s the last time you heard a PA announcer announce a broadcaster and the whole place rises to its feet?

They had a room for Wright, McCarthy said, a place to prepare in peace Wednesday night. The funny part, Wright said later, it was hard to find that quiet room. He knew spots in back hallways at Villanova’s arena. Tried one room — nope, Kyle Neptune, Wright’s Villanova successor, was in there, couldn’t use that. He tried another room — nope, all the ‘Nova assistants were there.

A Villanova staffer led Wright to a room across the way.

“I didn’t know that room existed,” Wright said. “The medical guy for the game was in there.”

They shared space until closer to game time, when Wright’s new career got off and running.

“He was himself,” McCarthy said later, making clear this was high praise. “He was Jay Wright. He wasn’t trying to be somebody else.”

McCarthy credited Lappas, Wright’s Villanova’s predecessor, for understanding how to make the three-person team work. McCarthy would call the action. Lappas would add a point, throwing a “Jay” into the sentence, to make it clear the new guy should add something. Something like: “I think, Jay, they’re both trying to find themselves defensively.”

”That’s a matchup, Villanova switches, Penn knows it,” Wright said, adding later after Lappas pointed out that Villanova had been outshot on threes so far this season, “Villanova has not been creating turnovers and getting stops defensively, and getting easy threes in transition. Teams can take away your threes in the halfcourt. We’re seeing these [Villanova first-half] threes come off of turnovers from Penn.”

“We had a lot of fun,” Lappas said later. “He didn’t need anybody taking care of him … He was leaning on me a little before, because it was his first time. I said, ‘It’s kind of like you’re watching tape with your assistants, and you’re just talking about what’s going on.’ That’s kind of how we did it.”

After an early rebound bounded over the head of Villanova star freshman Cam Whitmore, Penn junior forward Max Martz grabbing it, you might have thought bad luck for ‘Nova, a simple long rebound, since Whitmore had a body on Martz.

“That’s what happens when you play a freshman,” Wright said on the air. “Whitmore is a superstar. There’s a box[-out] right there, but the tougher, more experienced player outrebounds him.”

Lappas continued the point, that Martz had pinched Whitmore inside.

“Martz is a veteran,” Lappas said. “He just buried him under the rim.”

Telling it like it was sort of set up what was to come … a Whitmore performance that made it so clear why the powerful 6-foot-7 forward is projected as a high NBA lottery pick. Penn coach Steve Donahue mentioned Big 5 legends Ken Durrett and Howard Porter when asked for a Whitmore comparison. “He’s not going to be here very long, guys,” Donahue said at his postgame press conference.

The announcers said Whitmore’s name a whole lot, as he piled on 21 points and six rebounds in 24 minutes, the key ingredient in Villanova’s 70-59 Big 5 victory.

The signature play … all the announcers and everyone else in the building was going OOOOOOH after Whitmore drove, missed, then went up over a Quakers defender for a follow-up slam.

“Forget about body control on the first move,” McCarthy said. “How ‘bout the second one?”

“If you can do that, you don’t have to go to practice,” Wright quipped, referencing how Whitmore was playing just his second game after missing seven weeks of practice after a thumb injury.

“Are you kidding me — that was off two feet,” Lappas said. “He had no running start …”

“This was reminding me of Josh Hart,” Wright said of the move. “This is what he would do, go strong left, switch to the right hand.”

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The replay showed the play, then the slam.

“Now Josh Hart would say he could do that,” Wright added. “I’m not sure. He could do a lot. I’m not sure about that.”

Lappas added that Tim Thomas, his own one-and-done Villanova star, could do that.

“Cam Whitmore with a great skip pass across the floor,” Wright had said about an earlier play. “For a freshman, that’s an outstanding play.”

The announcers had been at Penn’s practice the day before.

“I understand what they did against us, but I would never know how to teach it,” Wright said of watching Donahue’s game plan being implemented. “So to be at that practice, and watch him break it down, it was fascinating.”

Strong TV analysis obviously requires objective insight. Lappas picked that up long ago. The rookie didn’t sound like he was going to be ripping anyone, but was ready to say what he saw.

“He’s got to finish that,” Lappas said after Penn’s 6-9 center Nick Spinoso missed inside over ‘Nova guard Caleb Daniels. “He had a bit of a mismatch. Caleb Daniels is a physical kid, but he’s only 6-5.”

“You know, about that play, Spinoso got in there and tried to get to his right hand,” Wright said. “Caleb Daniels didn’t let him. He’s not as good going to his right hand.”

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When it was over, the production team converged with fist bumps for the announcers, a bunch of good jobs for the rookie. “Really good,” McCarthy said. By the time Wright got up, Villanova’s media conference had begun over in the press room. Not his gig anymore.

Wright thanked his partners for taking care of him. More well-wishers got to Wright, including his wife and Villanova’s president. Wright started to move away from the center-court table, then stopped and turned back.

“Hey Lapp, are we allowed to leave?”