00:00 I'm Robin Lumber, joined now by former Villanova coach Jay Wright, who has partnered with Great
00:04 Clips on a March Madness rights and wrongs sweepstake.
00:09 Somebody's going to get a trip to the 2025 men's or women's Final Four as a result of
00:14 this and definitely want to get into that, coach.
00:16 Now when you're talking about the right approach going into March Madness, what would be your
00:20 advice for, you know, let's say your former team Villanova, who is close to the bubble
00:25 right now?
00:26 Well, for those teams right now, you've got to focus on one game at a time.
00:35 You cannot get caught up in trying to figure out, and everyone around you is saying to
00:41 you if St. John's wins this game and if Seton Hall loses that game, it's coming at you from
00:48 everywhere.
00:49 And it's a cool thing, right?
00:50 Because that's what makes everyone love March Madness.
00:52 Because March Madness isn't just the NCAA tournament, it's this time, it's the time
00:58 of year when teams are preparing to try to get to the tournament, right?
01:02 So you've got to stay focused on your next game.
01:05 It's easy to say, Robin, but it's really hard to do.
01:10 You mentioned St. John's.
01:11 How would you assess the job that Rick Pitino has done there?
01:15 There's been a lot of headlines around that, obviously.
01:18 Amazing job.
01:20 You know, I come from the era before, Transfer Portal was just getting going when I started.
01:26 And we really benefited from having guys in our program three and four years.
01:33 Probably no one benefited more than we did because we had guys that stayed.
01:36 We didn't bring in many transfers, hardly any.
01:39 And we didn't lose any guys.
01:42 To see Rick bring all these guys in, in one year, none of them having been together, and
01:50 hardly any of them even have been at St. John's, and put this team together, have them playing
01:54 at the level they are, it's why he's a Hall of Fame coach.
01:58 It's why he's one of the greatest of all time.
02:00 It's impressive.
02:01 Whether they make the tournament or not, it's really impressive.
02:06 Speaking of impressive, we were talking before we started, and you said it's an honor whenever
02:09 your former players call you coach, but you've got a lot of former players in a high-profile
02:14 situation in New York right now.
02:16 Obviously a bunch of former Villanova players on the Knicks, Mikael Bridges on the Nets.
02:21 When you look back historically, where do you think that Villanova team should rank
02:26 in the annals of history?
02:29 It's really funny because I think about this when I think about this UConn team right now.
02:36 Jalen Brunson and Mikael Bridges and Josh Hart, they were on the '16 team, and they
02:45 argue, but Ryan Archidiakono and Daniel Chaffee O'Connor were the leaders on that team.
02:52 But those guys were also on the '18 National Championship team, and they argue with each
02:57 other who's the better team.
02:59 When I'm saying like, "Yo, you were on both teams.
03:03 How could you do that?"
03:05 But Jalen Brunson, the younger guys will say the '18 team was better because they weren't
03:11 the leaders on that team.
03:13 And it's pretty cool to have, you got Kyle Lowry now playing for the '76ers too, which
03:18 it keeps everybody close.
03:20 He'll argue that his Final Eight team was better than them.
03:22 They just happened to run into Florida.
03:23 So they all have an ego about their own teams.
03:27 Brooklyn Nets are looking for a coach this summer.
03:30 I saw you say you're done with coaching, but did you or have you ever thought about what
03:36 it would have been like in the NBA?
03:39 I definitely did.
03:40 There were a couple times during my career, and probably the time I came closest to, when
03:48 Ed Stefanski, who was a good friend of mine, is now with the Pistons as an advisor, but
03:54 he was the president and general manager of the '76ers.
03:58 He's my neighbor, friend.
04:00 And we had just come off, I think, a Sweet 16 or Final Eight run.
04:03 I was thinking at the time, "Have we done everything we can do at Villanova?
04:08 Is it someone else's turn?"
04:10 So I did think about it.
04:12 And then there were other times when friends...
04:15 So that was the closest, but there were other times towards the end where friends would
04:21 call that were general managers or presidents.
04:26 And I would think about it for a little bit, but I was always thinking, "If I go to the
04:30 NBA, I'm probably going to get fired.
04:33 So if I got fired, what would I want to do?
04:34 Well, I'd probably want to come back and coach Villanova."
04:37 But you can't do that.
04:38 Once you give it up, you can't come back and take it back.
04:41 So I never really wanted to leave Villanova.
04:45 Now the Great Clips campaign is men's or women's Final Four, and obviously, Kaitlin Clark has
04:51 put the women in another stratosphere, in a sense.
04:54 I saw some of the games are outrating the men's games.
04:59 What would you say, how would you describe her impact on the sport?
05:04 I think in any sport, when you recognize a special talent, and then that special talent
05:13 has some charisma and a connection, it takes it to another level.
05:20 You think of Michael Jordan and LeBron James.
05:25 I grew up watching Pete Maravich, and as great a player as he was, he had the floppy hair
05:31 and the floppy...
05:32 He had a look, he had a thing about him.
05:33 And I think Kaitlin's got that game.
05:36 I think she's got that connection with the fans.
05:39 She's got some juice to her game.
05:41 She's not just a scorer.
05:43 She's a great passer.
05:45 She's a winner.
05:46 She hits clutch shots.
05:48 I think she's really kind of mesmerized basketball people.
05:53 I've heard more men that I know don't watch men's college basketball, because they don't
06:00 even ask me about it.
06:02 But they'll ask me about Kaitlin Clark, and they watched her game when she broke the record.
06:07 So I think it's great for basketball in general, obviously great for women's basketball.
06:12 Tell us, Coach, about what you're doing with the rights and wrongs sweepstakes, along with
06:16 great clips.
06:17 Well, it's pretty cool, because number one, I got a good haircut.
06:21 I hope it looks good.
06:22 I like it.
06:23 I get great haircuts from great clips.
06:25 But what we're doing is we're trying to educate people that, hey, there's a right and wrong
06:29 way to prepare for the tournament.
06:31 The first thing you got to do is you got to get cleaned up.
06:34 You got to get a great haircut at great clips, and you got to be fresh starting the tournament.
06:40 And then second thing you got to do is you got to enter the great clip sweepstakes.
06:44 Just go to your mobile app, and you can sign up right there to win two free tickets to
06:50 next year's Final Four, all expenses paid.
06:53 You can go to the men's or the women's tournament, your choice, whichever you want.
06:57 So that's the right way.
06:58 But don't do anything stupid like, you know, get upset when your team gets beat, cut your
07:03 bangs, you know, or have your friend shave your head or something at halftime thinking
07:07 you're not going to miss the game.
07:09 Don't do anything dumb like that.
07:11 Do the right thing, get cleaned up, get a good cut, sign up for the great clip sweepstakes
07:17 so you can go to next year's Final Four.
07:19 That's the right way.
07:20 So we've had fun doing that.
07:21 No doubt.
07:22 Coach, appreciate the time.
07:24 Thank you.
07:24 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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