BY DONALD HEATH
For Effingham Now
STATESBORO -- Jay Wright returned home Thursday night wearing visitors’ garb.
Wright’s now almost three years removed from that special 2013 basketball season at Effingham County, when he engineered the Rebels offense all the way to the Final Four of the Class AAAAA state tournament.
Since that season, Wright, a point guard, spent a year at Casper College in Wyoming and now is in his second season at the University of Louisiana Lafayette.
He also has tales of an eventful summer, playing hoops for two weeks in China as part of a sports mission trip called Reach USA.
“We went to the Great Wall during some spare time,” Wright said. “It shows how basketball can open up your world.”
The Rincon native is refocused on getting Louisiana Lafayette back to the elite of the Sun Belt Conference. With Wright and four other starters returning, the Ragin’ Cajuns were picked to finish first in the league in a preseason voting of conference coaches.
ULL jumped out to a slow 6-8 start (2-3 in the league). But his most recent visit to the Coastal Empire encouraged Wright. His team snapped a two-game losing streak by defeating Georgia Southern 74-65 in Hanner Fieldhouse.
Wright received a maximum 35 (free) tickets to distribute to friends and family by getting his teammates’ extra passes.
Early on, he showed the form that made him a second-team All-Savannah Morning News performer as a senior. Wright made his team’s first two baskets en route to an eight-point night.
“(Wright) plays extremely hard and will do whatever it takes to win,” said ULL coach Bob Marlin, who knows he invaded Georgia Southern turf to lure the quick, defensive-minded guard.
GSU coach Mark Byington admits the Eagles recruited Wright hard. After Thursday’s game, Byington sought out Wright to catch up.
“Obviously, players like him we’d like to keep here, but he fell into a good fit with Lafayette,” Byington said.
Wright said he wasn’t worried about leaving the comforts of home. And Marlin’s recruiting of Wright came from a tip in Wyoming.
With a strong returning group, Marlin was looking for a junior college point guard to replace Elfrid Payton, the Cajuns’ outstanding floor leader who was a a first-round draft choice of the Philadelphia 76ers in 2014.
Payton, who left Lafayette after his junior year, is now a starter with the Orlando Magic.
“We knew we were going to lose Elfrid to the draft, so I was looking for the best junior college point guard available,” Marlin said. “A coach in Wyoming, Pat Rafferty (at Central Wyoming College), said he really liked (Wright’s skills) and that he thought he could play at a higher level than the Sun Belt.”
Along with conference schools Georgia Southern and South Alabama, Wright had other offers, including Ole Miss, Marlin said.
“It was never about location,” said Wright, who is majoring in sports management. “I just felt Lafayette was a better situation.”
And Wright, who earned third-team All-Sun Belt honors, fit in well. He won the starting point guard job last season and averaged 9.1 points and 3.6 assists a game while helping the team win 22 games.
Wright drilled a 3-pointer with nine-tenths of a second left to defeat Sam Houston State 71-70 in the second round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
But Wright’s forte is defense. Last season, he was a finalist for the Lefty Driesell Award, given by CollegeInsider.com for the nation’s top defensive player.
Wright said the virtues of defense were honed at Effingham County.
“It affects the game a lot,” Wright said. “Stopping (the opposing point guard) helps you win games.”
And if Wright needs extra motivation, he has his former Effingham teammate, Jakeenan Gant, on speed dial. Gant is now playing at the University of Missouri.
“We talk all the time,” Wright said. “He’s like a brother to me.”