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D ETROIT | Listening to Jay Wright talk, you’d think he would give anything to coach Mario Chalmers and Sherron Collins.
Wright, the Villanova head coach, has tutored some of the top guards in college basketball the last four years. When he had the chance to watch Kansas’ Chalmers and Collins up close at the 2007 USA Basketball Pan American Games team tryouts last summer, he couldn’t help but get lost in the moment.
“You think, ‘I wonder what they’re like to coach, I wonder if they’re tough to deal with,’ ” Wright said. “Because they’re stars. You see them. You see their talent. But then you get to coach them and you see they’re good kids. Those guys were proud to be there. They were unselfish. They listened to anything you told them to do. I was so impressed.”
Yet … Chalmers and Collins didn’t make the team.
Nine months later, their top-seeded KU team is standing in the way of Wright’s Wildcats tonight in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. How’s that for karma?
Maybe that’s why Wright made sure on Thursday to place the blame elsewhere.
“Let me make this clear,” Wright said. “I didn’t cut them. The committee makes the choices. I would have loved to have them on the team.
“But, I mean, I understood what the committee did. I supported it.”
All week, Chalmers and Collins took the high road in regard to Wright, saying that they are taking nothing personal into tonight’s game. But there’s no doubt that they came back to Lawrence with a renewed purpose. Both players had never been cut from a team before. The night they returned to campus from the tryouts, Chalmers and Collins went to Allen Fieldhouse at 1 a.m. for some early-morning weight training.
“That’s how mad we were that we didn’t make the team,” Collins said.
When the official Pan Am Games team was announced, Chalmers cut out the roster from the newspaper and held on to it for motivation.
“It’s funny people still think me and Sherron hold a grudge against that,” Chalmers said. “It’s over and done with. We’re just ready to play.”
After all, how could anyone hold a grudge against Wright, the friendly East Coaster? Wright has rebuilt Villanova into a March threat thanks to his ability to connect with and recruit guards just like Chalmers and Collins to Philadelphia.
In 2001, Wright took over a Villanova program that had been to the tournament just once in four years. His first full recruiting class included talented guards Randy Foye and Allan Ray, and by Wright’s fourth season in 2004-05, Villanova was back in the tournament. The Wildcats made a run to the Elite Eight, losing to eventual national champion North Carolina by one point.
Now, Wright has handed his team over to the smooth and confident Scottie Reynolds, who averages 16 points a game. So it’s not a stretch to say that Wright knows something about guard play.
In a very indirect way, Wright has made Kansas’ guards better. The snub from the summer forced Chalmers to improve his three-point shot, and his percentage is up from 40 percent last year to 47 percent this year. His work in the weight room has made him one of KU’s most electric dunkers.
For Collins, this year has been more of a grind than anything. He has battled through four different injuries, but when he’s been close to healthy, he’s looked unstoppable.
“Watching tape now,” Wright said, “both of them have improved incredibly. They were both young. We had seniors, a lot of seniors, on that team. But they’ve improved even from the summer.”
So maybe Kansas coach Bill Self should thank his buddy Jay Wright. The Jayhawks will have plenty of chances to show their appreciation tonight.
“I didn’t take it personally,” Collins said. “That’s what everyone is saying, that Mario and I want to get back at coach (Wright) and all that. But we’re just trying to come out and win the game.”
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