Jay Wright, Geno Auriemma: NBA Head Coach Speculation Ramping Up
Jay Wright and Geno Auriemma are being mentioned as NBA head coach candidates. Should either leave the college game to become an NBA head coach.
Jay Wright and Geno Auriemma are being mentioned as NBA head coach candidates. Should either leave the college game for the NBA.
Villanova’s men’s basketball team and UConn’s women’s basketball both won national titles this past season. Each victory was historic, though for different reasons.
For Villanova, the title was the culmination of head coach Jay Wright’s redemption march. One of the game’s brightest minds, Wright had been plagued with the stigma of “can’t win the big game.” Prior to this year, he had a string of early flame-outs in the NCAA Tournament and the oft-cynical press corps wondered if the cool-headed Wright had the mettle to cut down the nets. So much for the critics.
The Wildcats fielded the best-coached team in March Madness. They systematically deconstructed every opponent by taking away teams’ best players – Perry Ellis, Buddy Hield, Brice Johnson, et al. Kris Jenkins cut out the hearts of every Carolina Blue blood on Tobacco Road, and permanently removed the monkey from his head coach’s back.
On the women’s side, Geno Auriemma added to his mantle of titles. UConn’s title was its 11th under Auriemma, its 10th in the past 15 years. Moreover, the Huskies won their fourth consecutive tittle. UConn’s graduating seniors ended their careers with a record of 151-5 (four of those losses coming as freshman) and four championships.
With both Auriemma and Wright coming off titles, the wheels of speculation have spun forward to whether either (both?) would ever coach in the NBA. There are already rumblings about Wright leaving a burgeoning powerhouse in Philly, where he’ll likely have a statue made of himself, for the moribund Phoenix Suns, a poorly-run club that has masqueraded as an NBA franchise for the past half-decade.
So whom would you take to coach your favorite NBA team? A guy who’s coached young men, is at the peak of his career and is only 54? Or the coach of the best modern dynasty in sports – college and professional? Either, both, neither? Let’s take a look at the tale of the tape for the resumes of these two NBA candidates d’jour.
