Jay Wright is retiring from coaching after leading Villanova to two national titles

Jay Wright, who won two national championships at Villanova, guided the Wildcats to four Final Four appearances — including one earlier this month — and is arguably the greatest coach in Philadelphia college basketball history, is retiring from coaching.

Wright, 60, held a team meeting at 8 p.m. Wednesday, according to one source, to inform his players of the decision. The source added that Wright’s decision had been several weeks in the making. The Athletic was the first to report that Wright was likely to retire.

Kyle Neptune, the head coach at Fordham University and formerly a video coordinator and assistant coach under Wright, will succeed him as head coach. Wright will assume a new role at the university as a special assistant to Father Peter Donohue, its president.

In 21 seasons at Villanova, Wright compiled a 520-197 record, winning eight Big East regular-season championships and five conference tournament titles. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last September.

At 9:17 p.m., Wright released a statement on behalf of himself and his wife, Patty, through his Twitter account: “Over the past 21 seasons, I have had the opportunity to live out a professional dream as the head coach at Villanova. Patty and I have been blessed to work with incredible, gifted young men who allowed us to coach them and brought us unmatched joy. We cannot overstate our gratitude to the players, coaches, and administrators who have been with us on this path. It has been an honor and privilege to work at Villanova, especially under Father Peter and [athletic director] Mark Jackson.

“Now, though, it’s time for us to enter a new era of Villanova basketball. After 35 years in coaching, I am proud and excited to hand over the reins to Villanova’s next coach. I am excited to remain a part of Villanova and look forward to working with Father Peter, Mark, and the rest of the leadership team. Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat.”

His decision shocked the college basketball community and came just 18 days after his team’s 81-65 loss to Kansas at the Superdome in New Orleans in the semifinals of this year’s NCAA Tournament. That Final Four berth was Villanova’s first since 2018, when the Wildcats won the second of their two national titles during Wright’s tenure. The first was in 2016.

Neptune, 37, a Brooklyn native and Lehigh University alumnus, went 16-16 in his only season as Fordham’s head coach after spending eight years on Wright’s staff as an assistant coach. He had also worked under Philly native Joe Mihalich for three years at Niagara.

“When looking for a successor, we wanted a candidate who could navigate the changing landscape of collegiate athletics and keep Villanova in a position of strength now and in the future,” Jackson said in a statement. “After meeting with several exceptional candidates, we found all those attributes and more in Kyle Neptune. Kyle quickly stood out for his basketball knowledge, recruiting savvy and natural ability to connect with student-athletes and coaches.”

Hired to replace Steve Lappas in 2001 after seven years as Hofstra’s head coach, Wright, who grew up in Churchville, guided Villanova to a 24-8 record and a berth in the Sweet 16 in 2004-05 — a make-or-break season for him in the wake of three mediocre years and rumblings from alumni and boosters that he might be fired. The following year, the Wildcats went 28-5, won their first Big East regular-season championship under Wright, and advanced to the Elite Eight. Wright’s status and security were further solidified in 2009, when they reached the Final Four for the first time since winning the national championship under Rollie Massimino in 1985.

Villanova’s 2016 and 2018 national-title teams, though, were the crown jewels of Wright’s tenure: the former coming on Kris Jenkins’ buzzer-beating three-pointer against North Carolina at NRG Stadium in Houston, the latter the capstone of one of the most dominant NCAA Tournament runs of all time. The 2018 Wildcats won each of their six Tournament games by at least 12 points, beating Michigan, 79-63, at the Alamodome in San Antonio for the championship.

The day before his team’s loss to Kansas, Wright had been asked, given that Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski already had announced that this season would be his last in coaching, whether he had given any thought to retiring.

“It’s got to be mind-blowing,” he said. “I would be lying if I tell you I don’t. You think about it after each year. You think about where your life is, what are you going to do. It’s difficult to think about. And honestly, if you’re [Krzyzewski] and you’ve done it for that long, and you’ve been that successful and it’s so much a part of your life, and you think about the longer you do it the more relationships you have, and those relationships are meaningful to you … that’s probably something that’s got to be really difficult to deal with.

“I think about it because there’s going to have to be a time when it’s time for the next coach of Villanova. There’s going to have to be that time. You have to pick that time.”

It turns out that he already had.