I Bleed Blue and White

Jay Wright took some time to talk to KYW-1060’s Ed Benkin about his participation in the Coaches vs. Cancer fundraiser, as well as his thoughts on the NCAA Tournament.

…I agree with Wright that the crowd can turn on a favorite fast in the NCAA Tourney, but playing at home, I think there will be more than enough Wildcat fans to offset that phenomena…

Jay Wright talked to WFAN’s Mike Francesa, who did the radio color for Villanova’s win over Marquette after the game was over. The interview can be heard here.

In the interview, Wright talks about Marquette’s hot 3-point shooting at the end, Corey Stokes‘ big game, Dante Cunningham’s big defensive play at the end, and the “New York kids” stepping up yesterday.

Francesa says the officiating bordered on “the absurd” in the last 6 minutes, especially the traveling call on Stokes. Personally, I thought it was ridiculous (for both teams) for the full 40 minutes.

Towards the end of the interview, they discuss Louisville’s explosiveness and how ‘Nova will approach them.

…It’s sometimes hard for me hearing Francesa’s non-stop Yankees commentary, but I love how he adores Villanova…you can tell he was really into this game yesterday…thanks to Brian for the link…

Jay Wright just came on as a guest for Mike Francesa’s show on WFAN 660. You can go to the WFAN website and listen for free. I’ll provide updates as they happen.

• Jay talking about how good Marquette looked today. Villanova practiced at 11:30 today and got back to watch Marquette and he was impressed.
• They talked about Mike Tranghese and how he has been great leading the conference and how he supports the 16-team tournament. Jay believes the double-bye helps protect the top teams for the NCAA Tournament.
• Francesa talked about how he used to broadcast Hofstra-Deleware games when Jay Wright and Mike Brey coached against each other. “Those were some big games!”
• Francesa is asking how Wright approaches the Big East Tournament as he prepares for next week. Wright believes it changes from team to team. He believes Villanova has good depth this year so he doesn’t worry about wearing them out this week. He says the 05-06 team had no depth and was vunerable to getting banged up, so he wasn’t upset about losing in the BET that year.
• Francesa comparing Jay Wright’s offense to New York Knicks Coach Mike D’Antoni, and wants to know if Wright prefers a certain pace. Wright says that he doesn’t have the ability to dictate pace against other good teams, but Jay Wright loves to play high-tempo and in the open court, citing their 2nd game against Marquette.
• Francesa loves how Villanova has the ability to spread it out and leave Dante Cunningham alone down low, says he has great moves and the ability to dominate. Wright says Dante has been amazing this year, and when his guards are making shots they are very difficult to stop because the other team can’t double Dante.
• Jay believes the 3-point line change has helped Villanova.
• Francesa asking about the upper echelon teams. Wright says Louisville is the best defensive team in the league. Says UConn is learning to play without Jerome Dyson and they are dangerous. Pittsburgh is “dominant” with DeJuan Blair. Syracuse has so much talent, and can really score. Wright says he wouldn’t be surprised if Louisville, UConn and Pitt all made the Final Four.
• Francesa asking about Dominic James and his absence. Wright says they need to focus on stopping Matthews and McNeal. Says Lazar Hayward is very underrated and will step up.
• Jay Wright is taking off to meet the team and start talking about Marquette. Jay says the team enjoyed the rest, but is itching to get on the hardwood and play.

It’s easy to see that Mike Francesa loves Jay Wright and Villanova. He was very nice and supportive of everything Wright said.

Now I’m really pumped for tomorrow. Good God! I might have trouble sleeping tonight.

BizZ a.k.a. The Prince of New Jersey has a song called “Nova Nation” out right now, which as you can probably guess, is about our beloved Wildcats. Brandon is also the brother of Corey Stokes, hence the Villanova connection.

I think it’s great, and should become a staple at our home games.

I had the audio embedded here, but it would just continuously play whenever the page loaded, which I quickly learned would be very annoying for everyone. So instead, now you can listen to the audio via it’s original location.

This afternoon our beloved Coach Jay Wright gave a few minutes of his time to the legendary Mike Francesa of Sports Radio 660 WFAN-New York. Wright talked about how well Villanova is playing right now, the incoming recruiting class, the play of UConn, North Carolina and Duke, and the success of the small Catholic schools (or the “Ma and Pa” schools as Francesa called them).

Wright was also able to fend off Francesa’s repeated attempts to get him to talk about leaving Villanova for the NBA. It was actually kind of weird to listen to Francesa repeatedly try and get Wright to say he had his eye on the league.

You can listen to the interview HERE.

…I grew up on Mike and the Mad Dog, so I respect the hell out of Francesca, although his tirades get tiresome from time to time…I also feel like his show has suffered since the split…but anyways I know that Mike loves Jay and he loves Villanova so this is good pub…although he oddly ended the show with “Wright is doing a great job at Hofstra”…

…Thanks to Brian, a.k.a. “Pops” for the link…