Tennessee basketball: Remembering Vols’ interest in Jay Wright in 2001

Doug Dickey never seemed to get it right when it came to hiring the right Tennessee basketball coach. However, it doesn’t mean he didn’t always target the right people. Back in 2001, he did just that and could have struck gold had another school not come calling.

Jay Wright had just taken the Hofstra Flying Dutchmen to back to back NCAA Tournaments by winning the America East regular season and tournament championship both years. According to a 2016 article by Mike Strange of the Knoxville News Sentinel, the Vols were interested in hiring him to replace Green.

However, Wright, who was from just outside of Philadelphia, ended up with the Villanova Wildcats, who had just moved on from Steve Lappas after nine years. Two decades and two national championships later, Wright announced his retirement on Twitter Wednesday night.

Looking back, Wright would have been the only option at the time to save Tennessee basketball from the outside criticism it was receiving. Green had taken the Vols to four straight 20-win seasons and four straight NCAA Tournaments.

Those were the only four NCAA Tournament appearances for UT from 1990 to 2005, In 1999-2000, Green had led them to a then-school record 26 wins, their second Sweet 16 in school history and a share of the SEC regular season championship.

Simply put, nobody understood why Green was gone. People on Rocky Top did, though. Kevin O’Neil, who was at UT before Green, left him with a stack of talent, most notably Tony Harris. Green then lucked out with two of the best players in state history, Vincent Yarbrough and Ron Slay, deciding to stay home in 1998 and 1999.

Despite all that talent, his teams lost to lower seeds every year in the Big Dance and dramatically underachieved in 2001, going from No. 4 in the nation to a first-round exit in March. He took shots at Vol fans and was a PR fiasco, so all of this forced Tennessee basketball to move on.

Outside of Wright, the lesser-known guys on the list at the time were then-Winthrop Eagles Gregg Marshall, who obviously became a big star with the Wichita State Shockers, and then-Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles head coach Jeff Lebo, who joined the Auburn Tigers in 2004. Rick Pitino and Tim Floyd were the big names on the list.

Pitino picked the Louisville Cardinals and obviously would’ve left UT scandal-ridden anyway. Floyd left the USC Trojans scandal-ridden. Marshall resigned from Wichita State after allegations of verbal and physical abuse. Lebo was a failure when he went to Auburn.

As a result, Wright was the only real option for the Vols who would have worked out since Lady Vols legend Pat Summitt wasn’t interested. However, they had no chance of landing him. The Rutgers Scarlet Knights also pursued him, but with Villanova open, he was going one place.

Because of that, Tennessee basketball landed Buzz Peterson, who had just won the NIT with the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Since Tulsa reached the Elite Eight the year before under Bill Self, it was a questionable hire to any rational outsider given what Green had accomplished.

Peterson’s local connections as a product of Asheville, N.C., his experience playing for Dean Smith with the North Carolina Tar Heels and his ties to Michael Jordan, who was his roommate and teammate at UNC, all outweighed his credentials. It showed.

After four years on Rocky Top, Peterson could only muster two NIT appearances, never winning an NIT game and never having them spend one week in the top 25. He was then fired, and 20 years later, the decision to move from Green to Peterson looks even more baffling.

However, when you consider the coaches Tennessee basketball was initially targeting at the time, it made sense. Wright would have easily been the best choice, and it’s nobody’s fault he didn’t work out. The Vols have since had success with Bruce Pearl, Cuonzo Martin and now Rick Barnes. Wright had his own success, becoming a legend.