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Jay Wright’s Twitter Feed – More Than Just Hoops

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Jay Wright’s Twitter Feed More Than Just Hoops

On Friday (August 7), the Inquirer ran a story by Mike Jensen about Jay Wright (Do I have to tell you who he is? Fine. He’s Villanova University’s debonair, wildly successful basketball coach). Jensen noted that until recently, Wright’s Twitter Feed (94,700 followers) was almost entirely, as you might expect, about baskeball. 

Basketball still pretty much dominates Wright’s Tweetspace – but as Jensen notes,  “mixed in there, you now see a sprinkling of social commentary. Nothing too radical. You’ll see Wright bringing up the words Black Lives Matter in different contexts. You see public support for his players and other athletes speaking out. You see calls to register to vote.”

 

According to Jensen, this all came about as a result a phone conversation between Wright and former Villanova star, Randy Foye. Wright has coached at Villanova since the 2001-2002 season, and has won two NCAA Championships.

During their call, Jensen wrote, “Foye pointed out that if the names Kyle Lowry or Mikal Bridges or Jalen Brunson were substituted for Ahmaud Arbery or Breonna Taylor or George Floyd — if one of his players had been pulled over and ended up under the knee of a police officer for 8 minutes, 46 seconds — Wright would be very outspoken. 

‘What would the Villanova community be saying then?’ Foye remembers telling his coach. ‘If those three were your three players, you would be irate. You would be nationally passionate.’ “