PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- It's a shame the COVID-19 pandemic prevented 6,500 Villanova fans from seeing Jay Wright's latest accomplishment. In an empty Finneran Pavilion, which Wright called "bizarre," his seventh-ranked Wildcats outlasted Butler in their home opener 85-66 — notching his 600th career coaching victory.
According to the Associated Press, Wright is the 39th Division 1 coach to hit this milestone — currently with a record of 600-268, with 478 of those victories coming at 'Nova. The rest of them were during his time at Hofstra.
"I really feel like I'm lucky to be the coach at Villanova. I look back at the history. Everybody that's been here has won," Wright said with a laugh. "I have a great job."
Wright is accurate. All but one of Villanova's eight head coaches in history have a winning record (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanova_Wildcats_men%27s_basketball), including himself. But Wright also won two National Championships and built this program into a yearly contender.
"Being the coach at Villanova, you're going to win a lot of games. Everything here is set. You get great players. Assistant coaches want to work here … That's really what I think about: how lucky I am, how blessed I am to coach here."
And as if his humble reaction didn't say enough, Wright admitted he didn't even realize he was one victory away.
"(Villanova President Rev. Peter Donohue) came up to me after the game. He said, 'I was watching the game at home on TV and they said it was your 600th, so I thought I should get down there.'"
Wright speculated with a smile that Donohue, who he says lives on campus, might've walked over to The Pavilion to see the milestone.
"He was bundled up … I saw him right when I came off the court. He might've walked, and it would be a long walk."
Wright joked that Donohue was the lone fan in the building — a reminder of the times we currently live in.
Maybe if the place was packed, it wouldn't have seemed like something that came out of nowhere to Wright.
"I just found out from a few of our grad assistants and I was confused because I thought somebody would've mentioned it and we would've celebrated him a little bit in the locker room, but nobody said anything," senior guard Collin Gillespie, who scored 18 points on the night, said. "That just speaks to who Coach Wright is."
Fellow senior Jermaine Samuels confirmed there was no postgame celebration. They were just focused on the next opponent.
"Doesn't surprise me at all," Samuels said. "That's just the way we do things at Villanova and that's just where we keep our focus at."
Over recent years, Villanova players have often talked about "being dialed-in." It's safe to say Wright was just that on a night he joined a small club of coaching greats.
