Joe Juliano’s lead in the Inquirer on November 21, 2001, after rookie coach Jay Wright’s Villanova Wildcats had beaten Grambling read – To Mark Jay Wright’s debut last night as Villanova’s head coach, a group of fans behind the Wildcats’ bench wore sweatshirts that said Villanova Basketball on the front and Dynasty Begins 11-21-01 on the back.
Well, Duke doesn’t have anything to worry about, at least not yet.
With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, we can now say that the sweatshirt-wearers were better prognosticators than Joe Juliano was.
The Wildcats and Blue Devils haven’t squared off since an 11th Ranked Villanova trampled a 6th Ranked Duke in the Sweet Sixteen of the 2009 NCAA Tournament. Aside from that, not to say that Duke basketball hasn’t been formidable in recent years – They won the NCAA title in 2015 followed by a Sweet Sixteen and two Elite Eight appearances in the years that followed – But Villanova has been as formidable, if not more so, winning NCAA titles in 2016 and 2018.
#500 Was A Beaut
After losing to Creighton 79-59 on December 17, and falling to 7-4. the Wildcats bounced got Wright his 498th win, courtesy of Xavier on December 21. Number 499 came at the hands of Seton Hall on New Years Day.
Then on Wednesday (January 5), Wright savored a 54 point swing for number 500, in a 75-41 re-match win against Creighton.