Jay Wright starts his new CBS gig with a Villanova game: ‘I really believe I’m finished with coaching’

Wright will do college basketball game analysis and studio analysis for CBS Sports and Warner Brothers Discovery Sports.

Fans of former Villanova head coach Jay Wright will still find him on the sidelines of college basketball games but as an analyst for CBS Sports and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports beginning Dec. 7.Read moreCHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

by Mike Jensen

Published Oct. 27, 2022, 11:59 a.m. ET

Jay Wright will be courtside on Dec. 7 at the Finneran Pavilion for the Penn-Villanova game.

No big deal? Well, actually, it is the start of a new career for Wright, his debut working for CBS Sports and Warner Brothers Discovery Sports.

No qualms about starting his new television job with a Villanova game?

“It’s pretty cool,” Wright said this week as his new gig was officially unveiled by the corporate entities on Thursday. “I know I have a lot to learn in this business — I’m so familiar with those two, and it’ll be a great game. So, a great way to start for me.”

Expect to see him on air regularly, as a game analyst and in the studio. An obvious question is about his old profession. What are the odds that Wright sees himself coaching again?

“I don’t see it,” Wright said in a one-on-one interview set up by the television networks. “I really don’t. I really believe that I’m finished with coaching. … The only reason I don’t say never is that everybody tells me, ‘You’re going to want to [coach again],’ and everybody keeps asking.”

So maybe slow your roll, NBA fans or anyone else who envisions Wright standing on a sideline again. Let’s also point out that if anyone thinks Wright can’t be candid about Villanova’s team, they haven’t heard his press conferences. Many people thought this is a natural transition for Wright, from the outside. What about Wright himself?

“I really didn’t,” Wright said. “I didn’t have a plan for retirement. I didn’t know that it was going to hit me like this in the last couple of years, so I wasn’t planning on what I was going to do.”

Wright’s first studio appearance will be Dec. 17, with CBS televising a big tripleheader, Gonzaga vs. Alabama, followed by a Madison Square Garden doubleheader featuring North Carolina vs. Ohio State and UCLA vs. Kentucky.

Once Wright became a free agent, assume that ESPN and Fox and every other entity tried to bring on GQ Jay. You might wonder why Wright chose CBS over Fox, which has a close relationship with Wright because of its Big East deal, which televised Villanova’s regular-season path to NCAA titles in 2016 and 2018.

That might come back to a major reason why Wright retired at age 60. The CBS college basketball studios are in New York. The Fox Sports studios are in Los Angeles.

Let’s also assume the networks who got Wright are a bit excited about it. The formal announcement includes quotes from CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus and Warner Brothers Discovery Sports U.S. president Lenny Daniels, who heads the new corporate entity that owns TBS, TNT and truTV, and as it pertains to Wright, specifically, shares March Madness television rights with CBS.

For Wright, who also is working as a special assistant to Villanova’s president, what’s it like to be out? The good parts, the tough parts? Some of them intertwine a bit. (Not having to deal with a new and ever-changing Name, Image and Likeness landscape must hit his plus column.)

“The tough part is that my whole life was based on basketball season and I never had to make decisions about September or October or November — saying yes to this event or that event?” Wright said.

He’s got more than a couple of friends and they’re all thinking he’s available for lunch.

“Once September hit, I was locked in,” Wright said. “I knew what I was doing every day. Now, having to make decisions — they’re not tough decisions, but having to make decisions all the time about what you’re going to do.”

He’s not complaining. Showing up at Phillies postseason games or banging the drum at a Union game — Wright knows there are perks he can now take advantage of guilt-free.

“That stuff is really fun stuff that I just never could do,” Wright said. “I would have a laptop on my lap watching [college hoops] film, watching a Union game. Or a laptop on my lap, watching practice film, while watching a Phillies game.”

He suggests he’s equally excited about doing game analysis and studio work. He’s been in the studio plenty of times during the NCAA Tournament if Villanova already had been eliminated.

“I enjoy studio, I do,” Wright said. “I like sitting with the guys analyzing the game. You’re watching the game together.”

Game analysis will be a new challenge he said he’s looking forward to tackling.

“I don’t have my exact schedule yet,” Wright said. “I just know that I’m doing that first game. Then it’s about working as hard as I can to be prepared for the NCAA Tournament. … I feel as confident as I ever have that I made a great decision. Especially when I pop in and see [successor] Kyle [Neptune] and the guys, who are doing a great job.”

Just not his job anymore. Wright jokes about joining media types on the dark side.

“I look at this as, it’s a new profession,” Wright said. “I’ve got a lot to learn. I’ll work hard at it. I’ll work to be as good as I can be. I’m excited about learning about this business.”