Yet, for all that Wright had accomplished in his 16 years at Villanova, prior to last season the school hadn't won a title since 1985. In this, Wright got his scrappy overachievers to glimpse motivation, not frustration. And he concocted a coaching style all his own—a dash of old-school this and a dollop of New Age that—to steer his players ever upward. Of course, now a new mystery looms for a band of self-imagined underdogs adapting to life on top: How does Wright keep success from spoiling everything?

The night before home games, Wright and his players stay at a local hotel. The team eats a meal together and watches video of the next day's opponent. And then the coach dispenses a little insight—along with bottled water and a healthy snack—before everyone heads for bed.

One such night this winter, with his top-ranked team seemingly on a cruise course to the tournament, Wright stood to address the players. As usual, he began by plunging a dagger into the group's collective ego.

“Being ranked number one?” Wright says. “It's bullshit. We haven't played teams like Kentucky or Kansas. It means nothing. This season is all about dealing with the ‘disease of me.’ You're 22 years old, and you're walking around campus and everyone is telling you you're a rock star, which is why I'm inspired by you seniors, because you work to get better every day.”

Wright is counseled by a Zen devotee who once referred to himself as the coach’s “dream interpreter.”

The struggle, Wright makes sure his players know, is the same for him. Ask him about his new book, Attitude: Develop a Winning Mindset on and Off the Court, and his modesty borders on ambivalence. “You win one national championship and now you have all the answers?” He sighs. “All the attention, it's really scary, because it's intoxicating.”

Thankful as he is to be winning, Wright, 55, seems perpetually attuned to a subtle frequency of worry—to an internal signal reminding him of the precariousness of the human psyche. He wasn't always this way. When he became a head coach at Hofstra in the mid-’90s, he obsessed over the game strategy. He thought, as many coaches do, that the intricacies of play design and the sheer force of his will were the lone keys to winning.

But after three losing seasons, Wright's job was in jeopardy. His team would invariably lose close games by unraveling when setbacks occurred. A late three-pointer by the opposing team might demoralize his team on the next play. Maybe, he thought, the difference is attitude. If his guys could learn to be unaffected by the last play, and to play for one another rather than for the adulation from the stands, maybe they could get out of their own way.

And so Jay Wright embraced a new approach that emphasized how his players thought about the game, and he brought it to Villanova in 2001. These days at the team's facility, there's ample evidence of Wright's focus on the psychological. “See, we think about every message they hear and see,” he told me on a recent tour, pointing to phrases painted everywhere, slogans like "Players play for their teammates and coaches; actors play for the crowd."

“We're not complex in what we do X-and-O-wise,” he tells me. “But we do spend a lot of time on how we react mentally to every situation.” The idea isn't to draw up lots of plays but instead to give his guys the confidence and the freedom to make plays. And here is where Wright's psychological approach feels unique. While just about every coach in America rallies his or her players with motivational verses or tries to summon an inner-dwelling Tony Robbins, Wright wants his players to feel as if they're in control on the floor, admonishing them to play with a “free mind.”

There's an element of the True Believer in Wright. When a kid approaches for an autograph, he'll take the ATTITUDE or HUMBLE AND HUNGRY bracelet from his wrist and, as though passing along a sacred text, bestow it on the fan—with an elevator-pitch-length exhortation to try to overcome selfishness. The approach can sound corny, sure—and Wright's aware of that. But he's found that impressionable college kids provide a willing audience for his proverbs. Which is why, even though rumors often circulate that Wright may soon try his hand at an NBA gig, he seems uniquely suited to the college game. After all, what are the chances that a millionaire pro athlete is going to gleefully wear Wright's motivational bracelets and, the night before a game, thankfully gather with his teammates for a healthy snack?

To spend some fly-on-the-wall time backstage with a major college basketball program is to marvel at the diversity of decisions that confront the head coach. He is a CEO toiling at a strange and singular work, running a lucrative, persnickety operation. Wright focuses on minimizing his choices and the worries. This is how the Philadelphia-area tailor Gabriele D'Annunzio found his way to Wright's office one day when I was hanging out there.

The 72-year-old D'Annunzio has outfitted the likes of Frank Sinatra and Frankie Avalon. On this day, though, D'Annunzio comes to Wright, and the coach barely interrupts a day focused on Villanova basketball. To further aid in eliminating decisions, D'Annunzio will later give Wright photos of outfit combinations that populate his two spacious closets—one dedicated to his suits and just shy of 50 shirts, another providing a home to his shoes.

While the coach and the tailor huddle over a table full of fabrics, a parade of Villanova staffers burst in to run a variety of pressing matters by Wright. As he discusses team chemistry with associate head coach Baker Dunleavy, he drops his gym shorts and slides on a pair of tuxedo pants.

Portrait of an Impeccable Coach

PHILADELPHIA, PA - JANUARY 29: Head coach Jay Wright of the Villanova Wildcats reacts to a call during a college basketball game against the Virginia Cavaliers at the Wells Fargo Center on January 29, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Wildcats won 61-59. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) Mitchell Layton PHILADELPHIA, PA - NOVEMBER 29: Head coach Jay Wright of the Villanova Wildcats reacts during a game against the Penn Quakers at The Palestra on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania on November 29, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Villanova defeated Penn 82-57. (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images) Hunter Martin

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 04: Head coach Jay Wright of the Villanova Wildcats looks on during a college basketball game against the Georgetown Hoyas at the Verizon Center on March 4, 2017 in Washington, DC. The Wildcats won 81-55. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) Mitchell Layton VILLANOVA PA - DECEMBER 26: Head coach Jay Wright of the Villanova Wildcats reacts to a call during college basketball game against the DePaul Blue Demons at the Pavilion on December 26, 2016 in Villanova, Pennsylvania. The Wildcats won 68-65. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) Mitchell Layton

Handling humdrum chores (like suit fittings) in his office helps streamline the coach's day, but there's another, more psychic benefit, too: Wright wants to stay connected to his priorities. In 2009, after his team went to the Final Four and he encountered his first rush of major attention, Wright grew distracted. “I didn't handle it well,” he says. “I realize now my job wasn't to be on ESPN. I'd be out doing all that stuff, come back here and yell at someone at practice, and they're thinking, ‘Well, you haven't been here for three days!’ So I know this time I need to be present.”