Notes and quotes from Jay Wright's Tuesday media availability.
On the growth of the seniors during their time at Villanova...
“I think Dhamir has grown as a man the most. He’s become such a mature, intelligent thinker. Very strong-willed and very passionate about his beliefs and his views. He’s been a leader for our team in the Black Lives Matter movement. Jermaine has probably improved the most as a player. He’s come so far from his freshman year, his basketball IQ has gone through the roof and he’s really become an intelligent, tough basketball player. And then Collin has probably developed into one of the great leaders we’ve had. I’ve watched him grow in terms of maturity and leadership. Obviously as a player he’s improved, but I’m really impressed with how much he’s improved as a leader to be one of our best ever.”
On the journey of that senior group...
“It’s been a rough trip. It started off like a Disney movie. They came in and everything was easy and they were playing with great players and you win a national championship, they probably thought wow this is gonna be easy. And then they got smacked in the face. The next year we lost more guys than we thought we were going to, we got blown out by Michigan, and lost to Furman. So they’ve probably had the highest highs and the lowest lows. And now the last two seasons with the pandemic. It’s the beauty of college though. I think they’ve grown so much as men. They’re gonna take great life lessons from here. They’re gonna be really successful husbands, fathers, businessmen, leaders in their community. I’m really proud of those three, and Kevin Hoehn, our fourth.”
On the importance of the seniors in helping to navigate a unique season...
“Our three seniors have been vital in helping us get through this. There’s so many off the court decisions…our bubbles, our travel, our roommates, our testing. Having three seniors like that that are able to guide everybody through it, keep a great attitude, set the tone on how to be here now when they show up for practice every day, I’m really proud of those guys and really impressed with the kind of men they’ve grown into.”
On the importance of the seniors heading into postseason play...
“They’re really the only two that have played in postseason play. Our juniors didn’t get much playing time and obviously our sophomores didn’t get to play in the tournament last year so we’ve only got two guys that have played. So they’re gonna be really valuable to us.”
On the "inverted offense" and Villanova's use of guards in the post...
“Ryan Arcidiacono brought it to the program. Ryan started doing it and then we incorporated it. Jalen learned from Ryan, and then you have to go against those guys every day so Collin having to go against Jalen and Phil he picked up on it and he has impressed us with how efficient he’s become in the post.”
“It is valuable to have that guy be able to score in there and when he gets fouled make free throws and also make good decisions passing out of there. Any good big guys that can do that are valuable but if you get a guard it’s even better.”
On potentially winning a Big East championship...
“It’s something that we purposely don’t talk about, it’s something that we try to stay away from until the end of the season. We always sit down at the end of the year and we look at what were our accomplishments, what were our failures, what were the lessons learned and then where do we all go from here. I think at the end of this year everything that we’ve been through, life lessons are gonna be unbelievable. If we were fortunate enough to win a Big East championship I think that would be something we would take great pride in.”
On the growth of the seniors during their time at Villanova...
“I think Dhamir has grown as a man the most. He’s become such a mature, intelligent thinker. Very strong-willed and very passionate about his beliefs and his views. He’s been a leader for our team in the Black Lives Matter movement. Jermaine has probably improved the most as a player. He’s come so far from his freshman year, his basketball IQ has gone through the roof and he’s really become an intelligent, tough basketball player. And then Collin has probably developed into one of the great leaders we’ve had. I’ve watched him grow in terms of maturity and leadership. Obviously as a player he’s improved, but I’m really impressed with how much he’s improved as a leader to be one of our best ever.”
On the journey of that senior group...
“It’s been a rough trip. It started off like a Disney movie. They came in and everything was easy and they were playing with great players and you win a national championship, they probably thought wow this is gonna be easy. And then they got smacked in the face. The next year we lost more guys than we thought we were going to, we got blown out by Michigan, and lost to Furman. So they’ve probably had the highest highs and the lowest lows. And now the last two seasons with the pandemic. It’s the beauty of college though. I think they’ve grown so much as men. They’re gonna take great life lessons from here. They’re gonna be really successful husbands, fathers, businessmen, leaders in their community. I’m really proud of those three, and Kevin Hoehn, our fourth.”
On the importance of the seniors in helping to navigate a unique season...
“Our three seniors have been vital in helping us get through this. There’s so many off the court decisions…our bubbles, our travel, our roommates, our testing. Having three seniors like that that are able to guide everybody through it, keep a great attitude, set the tone on how to be here now when they show up for practice every day, I’m really proud of those guys and really impressed with the kind of men they’ve grown into.”
On the importance of the seniors heading into postseason play...
“They’re really the only two that have played in postseason play. Our juniors didn’t get much playing time and obviously our sophomores didn’t get to play in the tournament last year so we’ve only got two guys that have played. So they’re gonna be really valuable to us.”
On the "inverted offense" and Villanova's use of guards in the post...
“Ryan Arcidiacono brought it to the program. Ryan started doing it and then we incorporated it. Jalen learned from Ryan, and then you have to go against those guys every day so Collin having to go against Jalen and Phil he picked up on it and he has impressed us with how efficient he’s become in the post.”
“It is valuable to have that guy be able to score in there and when he gets fouled make free throws and also make good decisions passing out of there. Any good big guys that can do that are valuable but if you get a guard it’s even better.”
On potentially winning a Big East championship...
“It’s something that we purposely don’t talk about, it’s something that we try to stay away from until the end of the season. We always sit down at the end of the year and we look at what were our accomplishments, what were our failures, what were the lessons learned and then where do we all go from here. I think at the end of this year everything that we’ve been through, life lessons are gonna be unbelievable. If we were fortunate enough to win a Big East championship I think that would be something we would take great pride in.”