By PJ Guippone | Temple University

A decade in college basketball is basically a couple generations in the real world. To sustain talent and success for that long, a coach needs to continually reload talent every year to fill up the spots of guys graduating or leaving for the draft. Think of the teams that you can’t remember being bad. Since the John Calipari era began in Lexington in 2009, Kentucky has never been outside of the top 3 in recruiting classes. Duke has only been out of the top 15 once since 2007 and hasn’t been out of the top 5 since 2010. Recruiting is extremely important, but getting blue-chip guys isn’t the only way to reload your program. Some coaches are ok with getting 3 and 4 star guys, getting them acclimated to the program, growing as time goes on, with new veterans always ready to take a leadership role.

Jay Wright of Villanova is one of those coaches. The ten-year period starts in 2006-2007, which followed a year when Villanova was Big East Co-Champion thanks to NBA-level talent of Randy Foye, Allen Ray, and Kyle Lowry. With all three of them gone to the Association, Jay had to begin to reload. This wasn’t a recruiting class that would show up high on any national rankings, they were twentieth on 247sports team composite rankings, but it was a class that was a foundation for the future. In four-star guard Scottie Reynolds, Jay Wright found his point guard. Then, he began to build around the six-foot guard. The following class was comprised of guards Corey Stokes and Corey Fischer, a five-star and a four-star. After securing a twelve seed in the tournament, Villanova upset Clemson and beat Siena before eventually losing to the one seed and Final Four Participant Kansas Jayhawks.

With NBA-level talent in Dante Cunningham entering his senior season, Scottie becoming a Junior, and the good 2007 recruiting class another year older, Villanova was ready to take the jump they needed to catapult their program. With only one freshman on the roster, Villanova marched to a thirty-win season and a Final Four performance following a top-ten regular season ranking. Scottie Reynolds, the four-star recruit, sunk the shot over 1-seed Pitt that would send this team to its first Final Four since the legendary 1985 National Champions. Nova was all the way back.

Following the Final Four appearance, Jay Wright was able to reel in his highest rated recruiting class ever, coming in at number five on the 247sports Composite. With Scottie Reynolds in his final season and three five-star players, Dominic Cheek, Mouphtaou Yarou and Maalik Wayns, committing to be Wildcats for the following year, the Wildcats seemed poised to make another deep tournament run. Unfortunately, this would be the first year of struggle that would plague the Villanova program for the next five years. Following a disappointing end to a season where they were ranked as high as two, the Cats lost in the first round of the Big East Tournament, and then in the second round of the national tournament by tenth-seeded American University.

Maybe learning a lesson, Jay Wright returned to the recruiting he knew: three and four-star guys that he could work with and turn into nationally recognized collegiate players. The class of 2010 was comprised of two guys that would prove to be foundation guys in James Bell and JayVaughn Pinkston, both four-star players. Starting the year with high expectations, this team had another tough end to the season, resulting in a nine seed and a round of 64 exit. After losing the two Coreys of the 2009 class to graduation, the offense was left in Maalik Wayns’ hands, which ultimately led to only the second losing season in Jay Wright’s tenure at Villanova. Looking beyond that abysmal record, though, is the class of 2011. With JayVaughn Pinkston getting on the court after a redshirt season and barely-recruited Darrun Hilliard entered the backcourt. In the next year, the additions of two more four-star guys in Daniel Ochefu and Ryan Arcidiacono would prove to be the near completion of Jay Wright’s brilliant rebuild process.

The next three seasons brought heartbreak in the tournament with a first-round exit in 2013, a second-round loss to eventual national champion Uconn Huskies in 2014, and a second-round loss to NC State in 2015 after securing the team’s first ever one seed in the tournament. Behind all of that, Jay was still building for that one shining moment. In the class of 2013, he reeled in four-star players Kris Jenkins and Josh Hart, and in 2014, two more four-star guys in Phil Booth and Mikal Bridges. Finally, in 2015, the last piece was five-star guard from Chicago Jalen Brunson.

Some of those names might seem familiar after the Wildcats finally broke the curse and made it past the round of 32 in the 2016 tournament. Thanks to these guys that didn’t get looks from the Kentuckys and Dukes of the world, Nova was led to a national championship for the first time in 31 years. In that tournament, Ryan Arcidiacono was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, Daniel Ochefu completed his decent from no-name to one of the best big men in college basketball, Phil Booth had a career high with 20 points in the biggest game of his career against the best team in the country, and Kris Jenkins hit one of the biggest shots in the history of the NCAA Tournament. Jay Wright manufactures greatness better than almost any coach in college basketball. He looks for talent, heart, and kids that will give him everything on the court. He doesn’t recruit NBA talent or superstars, and he still wins, with no real sign of changing his mentality or slowing down in any way.