GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The promise of his finest threads has been made. It's NCAA Tournament time, and that means Jay Wright, always nattily attired, is going to bust out the best his considerable closet has got to offer. Maybe a double-breasted number. Perhaps a matching tie and pocket handkerchief. Both silk of course. You know, something Tony Soprano would nod approvingly at.
Wright's big on making good impressions, and Thursday on CBS, against the most storied program in college basketball, he and his Hofstra Pride (26-4) get a chance to impress upon the nation that you don't win 18 games in a row by accident.
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| Jay Wright has his players -- and the nation -- paying attention. (AP) | |
"This is an incredible opportunity for our program and our university," Wright said of the first round matchup against UCLA.
For Wright too. A 39-year-old former Rollie Massimino assistant, Wright has become the hottest coaching prospect in the East, thanks to the resurrection he performed at Hofstra, now in its second consecutive NCAA Tournament. The next time the Big East coaching market shifts, Wright is going to get a job. The open position at Massachusetts is all but his for the asking.
And in the ultimate sign of respect for Wright's abilities, he is so popular in New York that unless circumstances dictate otherwise, he almost assuredly will be the next head coach at St. John's. This despite the fact he is originally from Philadelphia.
That's what winning big at a place unaccustomed to winning at all does for you. When Wright took the job at the Long Island school, its perception in Metro New York was rock bottom. Hofstra's RPI was 295 out of 301. Few kids even knew they had a team.
"Until they started recruiting me," said senior forward Norman Richardson, who grew up in nearby Brooklyn, "I didn't even know they were in Division I."
The summer Wright took the job, back in 1994, Eastern Basketball magazine, a heavily read monthly in the region, did a story on all the New York Metro teams and didn't even include Hofstra.
"I was like, wow, this is how far we have to go," said Wright. "And we probably deserved not to be mentioned."
Which is where the clothes came in. And the perfect hairdo. And the classy persona Wright displayed. New York is about a lot of things, and superficial stuff like fashion is one of them. You dress for your next job in the city, and even though his salary and budget at Hofstra wasn't much, he shopped the part. And everything began changing.
"Coach Wright came to my home to speak to me and my family, and I just felt comfortable," said Richardson, who is averaging 16.8 points per game this season. "You could tell that the program was going to be going up from just talking to him. You knew this was an upstart program."
Seven years later, the Pride are on their third consecutive 20-victory season, this year's amazing 26-4, including 18 in a row. The four losses were all close, meaning Hofstra is just 14 points from perfect. Sure, most of those victories came against America East competition, but near perfect is still near perfect. And there were wins over St. John's and Rutgers, too.
In a crowded Metro market dominated by the professional teams, Wright still fights for any kind of attention. Attendance at Hofstra remains modest -- 2,985 per game this year in the new 5,100-seat Hofstra Arena. The coach can still go just about anywhere without getting noticed. Thursday he talked about how he is often mistaken for his friend, and first-round opponent, Steve Lavin.
"People come up to me and say 'Coach Lavin, Coach Lavin, can I have your autograph?'" Wright said with a laugh. "Sometimes I'll have to sign his name just to get rid of the guys. I tell them I am not Steve, and they won't take my word for it. That never happens to Steve."
That might change, however. Wright's days of anonymity are numbered. This is the year he truly impressed the national basketball community, because while he returned six seniors from a NCAA Tournament team, he lost star guard Speedy Claxton to the first round of the NBA Draft.
But instead of taking a step back, Hofstra stepped up. And the deal isn't done. Wright and his team think they never got comfortable at the NCAA Tournament last March, losing in the opening round to Oklahoma State up in Buffalo.
"They didn't feel like they belonged," said Wright. "Last year it was like we walked into a party we weren't invited to and were looking for someone we knew."
This year is supposed to be different. Some of the veteran players lectured their freshman teammates during shoot-around for spending too much time staring up at the 21,000 empty seats in Greensboro Coliseum and checking out the rows of media seating.
"They told them if you want to look around, get a seat," Wright said, pleased with his crew's focus.
A victory Thursday against UCLA would be invaluable to the program, the final feather in a cap full of accomplishments. Wright knows Hofstra will never be New York's Team, but being close isn't bad either. Beat UCLA, and you are on the back pages of the tabloids, leading the 6 o'clock newscasts, getting some touches on Mike and the Mad Dog. And so with his program's best opportunity for exposure at hand, he'll bust out one of his top New York designs Thursday.
"He's one of the best dressed coaches in the country," said senior Jason Hernandez. "You know he'll be looking good tomorrow."
As long as people notice, even if fashion is his shtick, Wright's happy.
"I don't think kids grow up dreaming of playing for Hofstra," said Wright, who has three excellent City products committed for next season. "I think they grow up dreaming of playing for St. John's. But they know Hofstra is an option. When we go and recruit now, kids know who we are."
That's a big step for a program that has completely redone its image. Thursday it will be reinforced by the hot prodigy of the East, smartly dressed, coaching every dribble on a team very capable of taking down the mighty, mighty Bruins.
"Beating UCLA," said Wright, "it would be huge. No doubt about that."
