It was a whirlwind summer for Jay Wright. It started with a trip to Japan for the Olympics and a gold medal and ended with enshrinement in the Hall of Fame. While those are experiences Wright is grateful for, they also took him away from his team for an extended period of time. With the Wildcats entering another season with legitimate national championship aspirations, it was fair to wonder if Wright's absence would be disruptive to the team's preparations or leave them with some catching up to do this fall. After seeing his team take part in its first full practice of the season, it sounds like those concerns were unfounded.

"We’ve got a good group, our assistants did a real good job with these guys during the summer and I feel like we’re in a good place," Wright said. "I think we have a really difficult early-season schedule, I think as things are going right now we can be prepared for an early difficult schedule.”

Fortunately, Villanova was in a strong position to handle the summer circumstances. For starters, Wright has been away during the summer working with Team USA before, so he and the staff had a bit of a blueprint on how to handle his absence. In addition, the return of Collin Gillespie and Jermaine Samuels as fifth-year seniors added an invaluable level of experience that not only paid off this summer, but should continue to pay dividends throughout the season.

“I credit our upperclassmen and our coaching staff, they really did a good job this summer," Wright said. "I left July 2 and I saw where the team was and then when we started working out in August I saw where they were and I could see a big difference. You can see the job that the upperclassmen did and the coaches did in teaching our concepts."

Wright noted that it's one thing for a coach to explain and demonstrate a concept to a player, but it's a completely different thing to have an experienced upperclassman using that concept against you every day in practice.

“Those guys (the upperclassmen) know what we’re doing, those guys are teaching our younger guys," Wright said. "Even guys like Brandon Slater and Justin Moore, those guys have been around. It makes practice a lot more enjoyable as a coach, you can be more patient with the younger guys. I think it makes it more enjoyable for everybody.”

While having the right pieces in place to handle the somewhat unusual summer circumstances might appear at first glance an instance of good fortune, the reality is that it's another benefit of the way that Wright runs his program.

Generally, Villanova players are brought along a very clear progression that culminates with a group of juniors and seniors handling much of the responsibility. In addition, when constructing his staff, Wright likes to promote from within, having assistants follow a similar progression path as players in the program. The result is a staff that is well-versed in the tenets of the program and one with a deep grasp of the how's and why's of the program.

Even in a more typical year, that experience and continuity can produce big benefits. In a summer like this one, it could prove to be invaluable.