There's no place like Philly for Villanova's Wright.(Jay Wright)(Brief Article)

He grew up in the Philadelphia area, went to Big Five games as a kid and built the foundation of his career as an assistant coach for the last several Villanova teams coached by Rollie Massimino. Jay Wright calls Philly "the best college basketball town in the world." But he didn't bother to dream he'd one day be coaching there.

Wright once thought Massimino, his mentor, would coach Villanova forever. Then he figured his friend, Steve Lappas, would hold tightly onto the job. "We had really committed ourselves to not ever coming back to Philadelphia," Wright says. "I never said that was my `dream job,' because I really had discounted it."

In fact, after seven seasons at Hofstra, Wright appeared headed for Rutgers until the Villanova administration acted quickly to assess his interest in returning home. So here he is, in a rare position for a new coach. Most are charged with cleaning up a mess or carrying on success that allowed the previous coach to advance his careen Wright is charged with fixing something that wasn't broken but didn't really work.

"It was different from game to game," says 6-10 senior Brooks Sales. "One day it was defense, and then it was rebounding. Then we'd have good defense and couldn't make a shot."

The situation was so nebulous even Lappas' departure wasn't exactly a firing. He suddenly resigned in late March, then a few days later accepted the job at Massachusetts. So 18-13 doesn't get you dismissed from Villanova, but it might get you demoted.

The Wildcats' most recent season was typical of the program since their ancestors claimed that most unlikely of national championships in 1985. Villanova's average season since: 19-13. They have been good but never truly great.

During the past four years, Villanova was 34-34 in Big East Conference games. Exactly mediocre.