Jay Wright Quotes That Can Make You Think and Motivate

Jay Wright made a surprise decision in April of 2022 to take a step away from his head coaching role at Villanova. The Hall of Fame coach has been at Villanova since 2001 and before that, he coached at Hofstra. With four trips to the Final Four, including in 2022, and two national championships, Jay Wright has been one of the best coaches of the 21st century. As a result of this, Villanova has been the class of the Big East under Wright.

College basketball and Villanova will have to move on from Jay Wright. At the same time, his influence and legacy will exist forever. Here is a look at a few of his greatest quotes that give insight into his approach to the game and life.

10 Best Quotes From Jay Wright

1. “After a tournament loss, you are a first responder more than a coach.”
2. “When we had some tough times a couple of years ago, we were all concerned about the program. I never, ever worried about my job. We all worried about the program.”
3. “When we got back to Philadelphia and we talked about it, we just said, we got a second chance here — we got a second chance in life, forget about basketball. It just made every guy grow up — I think every guy became a little more mature, a little more focused on what’s important in life, and I think it had a cumulative effect on our team.”
4. “We really enjoy as a team the time that we spend together, just coaches, players hanging out. We always get that on the road. There is an enjoyment to being on the road for us and that’s what Minneapolis will be like. We think we’re even tighter on the road. We’re going to really take advantage and enjoy that.”
5. “My family’s here. I’m from here. It just doesn’t get any better.”
6. “One of the areas the NBA has affected college basketball is the big guys. If they’re very skilled as young guys, they take them early. The guys who are able to benefit from maturing four years in college are the guards.”
7. “Most people are bigger than us, so they start that way and see how that goes. A lot of teams at some point have gone to their version of ‘small’ against us. We’ve seen both.”
8. “Getting on the bus, police officers know everybody. People walking down the street know all the players’ names. It is fun, but it is a challenge.”
9. “Now that we’ve got a good thing going here, I’m happier that it worked out that way. Everyone feels they earned it. You kind of know who your friends are. There was plenty of time for people to show whether they were loyal to the program or not.”
10. “I don’t think we understand how hard people are going to come at us. These guys have never gone through a season like this, ranked early, getting so much attention. Everyone else wants to make their name off you. You can’t imagine how hard people come at you.”

Inspirational Quotes From Wright

• “I think we beat them on a good night. They’re great. They deserve to be No. 1. They answered everything we did, we answered what they did and that’s what made a great game between two outstanding teams.”
• “His unselfishness is not an act. It’s almost like he cherishes it.”
• “The fact is, none of us controls what happens to us in life — but we do control our response to those circumstances.”
• “You’re not a failure if you don’t reach your dreams… you’re only a failure if you don’t commit yourself to your dreams.”

Leadership Quotes From Jay Wright

• “We ran into a team that played better basketball today. We’re going to suck up this hurt tonight, but I want to make sure my guys feel great about themselves.”
• “One of the things you can’t hide is how a player is going to play in the most stressful conditions when the big lights are on. You throw them into the fire, you see how they respond.”
• “I was really proud that we were able to complete 40 minutes. We struggled, but we finished it off and we just kept playing. That’s a sign of a really good team.”
• “If we have seniors like this and I’m yelling and screaming at halftime, we’re in a lot of trouble. They’ve got to take responsibility and they did.”

Funny Quotes From Wright

• “There are some positives to this. It is creating problems for the other team, too. So we have hung with it. It gets us by. I am not making any videos on it, I will tell you that.”
• “Old school, split the house… It was cool.”
• “It actually looked a lot worse than it was. It’s much, much better than they initially anticipated.”
• “I wouldn’t have known that if they didn’t bring it up on the screen.”

Team Attitude Quotes From Jay Wright

• “What we’ll take from that is to regain a little bit of hunger and an understanding that we can get beat anytime by anybody.”
• “We hear it all the time, so you think about it because everybody talks about it around here. We spend all our time with each other talking about, ‘Forget about it.’ It’s such a mythical thing and everybody talks about it.”
• “We’re a defensive team. We take pride in that. And we just couldn’t stop them… I’ve never had that feeling, where you just couldn’t stop somebody.”
• “I don’t ever think I used the word grind about a season and I found myself using it at the end of this one. There was never a time to relax and that’s a positive for a great league. We never had to get our guys ready. I’d rather have it that way when every game was a big game.

Success Quotes From Wright

• “But we finished it off, and that’s a sign of a really good team.”
• “We’re right where we wanted to be right now. Honestly, I didn’t think it would take this long. God had other plans. We had some struggles.”
• “I don’t know what to expect, except that these are champions coming back to prove themselves. I know it’s going to be everything they’ve got.”