NEW YORK, N.Y. – For the sixth time in a tenure that began in 2001, Villanova's Jay Wright has been named BIG EAST Coach of the Year. No other coach has earned the honor as often.
 
Last spring the top four scorers from Villanova's 2018 NCAA National Championship team – a group that included National Player of the Year Jalen Brunson, Julius Erving Award winner Mikal Bridges, NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player Donte DiVincenzo and 2018 BIG EAST Freshman of the Year Omari Spellman – departed Villanova for the National Basketball Association Draft. (The four were selected with the first 33 picks in the 2018 draft last June).
 
The result was an inexperienced unit led by senior linchpins Phil Booth and Eric Paschall. The Wildcats suffered consecutive home court losses to Michigan and Furman in November and then dropped December decisions at Penn and Kansas. Midway through December, their record stood at 8-4, matching the number of losses in both the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.
 
"We were a little younger than we expected to be," stated Wright, "but it all came out of the success those guys had last year. We'll make that trade any time."
 
Yet the Wildcats regrouped, reeling off 11 consecutive victories, including 10 straight to open the BIG EAST regular season. On Saturday Villanova earned the outright BIG EAST regular season championship, completing the regular season (22-9 overall, 13-5 BIG EAST).
 
"It's always an honor for our staff to be recognized by the BIG EAST," stated Wright. "We have such great respect for the other coaches and programs in this league. Steve Wojciechowski (Marquette) and Kevin Willard (Seton Hall) were both at the press conference and I'm glad I got to acknowledge the great jobs they did this year. There were any number of good choices.
 
"I'm proud of our leaders, Phil and Eric, and all of our younger guys for how they competed. This is a tribute to our young coaching staff – Kyle Neptune, George Halcovage, Mike Nardi and Dwayne Anderson – for all of its work. We've lost two great assistants in the past two years (Baker Dunleavy and Ashley Howard) and for us to be in this position is reflection of all of the teaching they have done."
 
Wright first earned the BIG EAST Coach of the Year award in 2006 after leading the Wildcats to a share of the conference regular season crown with Connecticut. He again won the award in 2009 in what would become the school's first 30 win season and its first visit to the NCAA Final Four in 24 years.
 
This is the fourth time Wright has earned the award in the six seasons since the BIG EAST began its current incarnation as a 10-school, basketball focused alliance. Wright also was honored in 2014, 2015 and shared the honor in 2016 with Seton Hall's Kevin Willard.
 
Wright became this program's all-time winningest coach just more than a year ago with a quarterfinal victory over Marquette at the 2018 BIG EAST Tournament, surpassing Alexander Severance (413 wins). Presently, the 1983 Bucknell graduate has a 444-174 record in 18 seasons at the helm of the Wildcats.
 
Villanova begins play in the 2019 BIG EAST Tournament presented by Jeep at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, when it meets the winner of Wednesday night's game between No. 8 Providence and No. 9 Butler.
 
The BIG EAST also announced that Markus Howard of Marquette is its 2019 Player of the Year and Georgetown's James Akingo its Freshman of the Year. Mike Nzei of Seton Hall is this year's recipient of the Scholar-Athlete Award and the Media Award went to the late Jim O'Connell of the Associated Press.