March Madness: Jay Wright proud of what Hofstra and coach Speedy Claxton have accomplished

Jay Wright got to spend some time in and around Madison Square Garden for the Big East Tournament this past week. The Hall of Fame coach, who won two national championships at Villanova, now is a special assistant to the president of that university, and he was in town to oversee the Wildcats.

Everywhere he went, though, no one wanted to talk to him about that team and its early exit from the festivities. They wanted to hear about the other school with which he is closely associated, even if it is one he hasn’t worked at for 25 years.

“People are driving by in their cars sticking their heads out the window yelling ‘Hey Coach! Congrats on Hofstra!’ ” Wright told Newsday. “They are coming up to me and congratulating me for Hofstra. And of course I’m loving it.”

Wright was the head coach of the Pride the last time they played in the NCAA Tournament in 2001. They reached the tournament under Wright in 2000, too, when current coach Speedy Claxton was the team’s top player. 

Wright parlayed that success into landing the job at Villanova in the spring of 2001. His career flourished there beyond anyone’s expectations, but even now, his family remains so closely tied to Hofstra that he and his grown children were lighting up a text chain while watching the Pride move through the CAA Tournament last week. And when they won to officially reach the NCAAs, he and his wife, Patricia, embraced and cried for joy.

“We’ve been dying every year, getting to the semis, getting close, but we were all fired up for this one,” Wright said of watching recent Hofstra runs that fell short of the NCAA Tournament. “It was so cool at the end to see Speedy hugging [assistant coach] Mike DePaoli. And then we’re watching afterward and Speedy’s dad, who we’ve known forever, is on the court with him. It was awesome, man. It brought tears to our eyes.”

He wasn’t the only one. All around the country, people who had been part of those celebrated teams at the start of this century were rejoicing over Hofstra’s return to the brackets.

Jay Hernandez, a guard on both of those teams from Bayport and St. Dominic High School, is now an assistant coach for the Brooklyn Nets. On Tuesday night, while Hofstra was vying for its championship, the Nets were losing at home to the Pistons, but Hernandez was able to keep track of his alma mater’s exploits.

“One of the guys on staff told me during the game that Hofstra won and I automatically started talking trash to all of the guys on the bench with me,” Hernandez told Newsday. “What an awesome feeling.”

And as luck would have it, the Nets’ next stop was in Atlanta, where Hernandez was able to meet up with two other former Hofstra players: Norman Richardson, who coaches in a prep school league in the area, and Duane Posey.

“I’m so pumped right now,” Richardson told Newsday. “I can’t tell you how happy I am, how happy the alumni are, the guys I played with, for Speedy and everyone who is a part of this. We all feel like we are going to the tournament with them.”

Claxton is one of the main reasons that bond has lasted for so long. Those teams delivered plenty of memorable moments, twice winning the America East Tournament by beating Delaware on the home court on campus. The frenzy created by those games remains unmatched even to this day, especially given that the move to the Colonial (now Coastal) Athletic Association means having the tournament in Washington, D.C. Back then, though, it was such a big deal that the arena was packed and Mike and the Mad Dog called the game on the radio.

“People were almost as excited about that as they were the fact we were playing for the championship,” Wright recalled with a laugh.

Claxton was the impetus behind that run, even if he already had graduated from Hofstra and gone on to the NBA by the time the Pride made the second of the back-to-back NCAA appearances.

“When he committed to Hofstra, it really set us on our trajectory,” Wright said. “He was such an impactful recruit. Him coming made an immediate impact and it attracted other players. It’s hard to imagine one player having more impact on any one program. Maybe Steph Curry at Davidson.”

It almost didn’t happen. During the spring of his senior year at Christ the King High School in Queens, Claxton, who grew up in Hempstead, had given Hofstra a verbal commitment but had not yet officially signed his letter of intent. Around that same time, St. John’s hired Fran Fraschilla as its new head coach. Fraschilla called Wright and told him he was going to have to see if he could talk Claxton into joining him with the Red Storm. Wright gulped.

“But Speedy stayed loyal to us,” Wright said. “It’s incredible. Think about someone doing that now, being at Hofstra and St. John’s comes in and offers you and then staying at Hofstra?”

Now Claxton is the head coach of the program, and for his former teammates, that makes this even more special.

“It all goes back to Speedy being the coach and having skin in the game, so to speak, with him being a former Hofstra guy who we played with,” Richardson said. “It is different than maybe another coach who didn’t play at Hofstra or was not from Long Island.”

Added Hernandez: “Having Speedy there and us having had the opportunity to play alongside him, we’re all just so proud. We’re so happy for Speedy to get this done. The Hofstra community in general has been wanting this, deserves this, and it’s so great to see them back in The Dance.”

Even in the moments immediately after Hofstra beat Monmouth and was awarded the conference championship trophy last week, Claxton made sure to shout out how special that group of players was.

“I won a championship at every level, high school, collegiate, professional, and my collegiate championship meant the most to me,” Claxton said from the court, addressing his current players in person and his former ones spread out around the country. “I speak to zero of my high school teammates, zero of my professional teammates, but I still speak to a lot of my college teammates.”

And, of course, his coach, who is loving this as much — and maybe more — than he did when he was leading Hofstra.

“The amount of pressure in that one-game NCAA Tournament bid opportunity was greater than any pressure I ever felt,” Wright said of his two conference finals with the Pride. “More even than a national championship game. Because when you get to a national championship game, you know you’ve had a great season and you obviously want to win it, but when you are in a situation where it’s a one-bid league, you know it’s transformational to win that game for your entire program. It’s just so big. It was huge.”

It still is.

“There is something really unique when you are at Hofstra and you get to the tournament and the New York media and the New York fan base gets behind you,” Wright said. “I don’t think you get that  anywhere else in the country and I’m feeling that for Hofstra.”

So yes, he gladly accepted all the kudos and backslaps and congratulations he received last week during his time in Manhattan . . .  even if he had close to nothing to do with any of the accomplishment.

“I mean, it’s all Speedy,” Wright said of this season's team, “but they all just know I still follow the team and take pride in those guys. This is awesome for Hofstra. I love it.”

How Hofstra fared in NCAA Tournament

In 2000, 14th-seeded Hofstra (24-7) lost to third-seeded Oklahoma State, 86-66, in Buffalo in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Claxton and Richardson each had 20 points, Claxton added seven assists and Hernandez had nine points and five assists.

In 2001, 13th-seeded Hofstra (26-5) lost to fourth-seeded UCLA, 61-48, in Greensboro, North Carolina, in the first round. Rick Apodaca scored 16 points, Richardson had 12 and Hernandez added 11 points and six assists.