HOUSTON — Jay Wright knows all about the pathetic state of the Philadelphia 76ers and so wherever he goes in the City of Brotherly Love, he gets the same message from fans.
“It’s a pro town,” the Villanova coach said here ahead of Saturday’s Final Four game against Oklahoma. “So because of the recent last couple years, they’ve been saying it all year, everybody’s been putting pressure on us saying, Hey, you guys are Philly’s hope.”
The Sixers have been rebuilding for forever it seems like and haven’t won an NBA title since 1983.
The Eagles have never won a Super Bowl and are coming off a 7-9 season.
The Phillies finished dead last in the NL East last season.
The Flyers are fighting to make the NHL playoffs.
Even Rocky Balboa’s fighting career is over.
That leaves Villanova, which is making its first Final Four appearance since 2009 and won its only title in 1985..
“In ’09 when we came here, when we came to the Final Four, you could feel the city got behind us,” Wright said.
Philadelphia has the “Big 5,” but Villanova has been the city’s best college team — heck, best team of any kind — in recent years. They’re just lacking a championship.
“Philly is a unique city,” Wright said. “There’s six Division I basketball schools. It’s not like being in a state where you have two state schools. We’re all on top of each other. There’s a lot of mixed breeding. It’s an intense college basketball town. It’s hard for everybody to get behind one of the schools.”
Charles Barkley, a longtime Sixer, says he’s rooting for Villanova and joked that the Wildcats would be favored over the Sixers.
“I was talking to my bookies in Vegas and Villanova’s like a 2-point favorite over the Sixers so….” Barkley said.
“I really root for Villanova, I think you guys know my daughter went there,” Barkley added. “I’ve been great friends with Jay Wright for a long time, Rollie Massimino, Ed Pinckney, Dwayne McClain, all those guys. I’ve been friends with them forever and I always root for Villanova.”
Back in Philly, Wright said he knows the whole city is behind them.
“We really never felt the pressure,” he said. “We can definitely feel it now. There’s buildings in Philadelphia that have the lights going across the top, Nova Final Four. It’s pretty cool. We would love to do it. We would love to do it for Philly.
“We’d love to bring a championship home to Philly. We have to get past Oklahoma first. We can’t even talk about that yet.”
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