Mike Nardi was introduced to the Connecticut media Wednesday morning, officially adding UConn Guy to Villanova Guy and Jersey Guy as the most visible portions of his professional and life experiences. He’s 40, old school on one hand and new school on another, blended in that he’s come through college basketball as a player and coach at a time when it’s been necessary to straddle a fault line.
On one side, how the sport used to be. On the other, what it’s become. Nardi’s former coach and boss at Villanova, Jay Wright, thinks the diversity of Nardi’s understanding of an evolving sport and its people will make him a great assistant to Dan Hurley on the UConn men’s basketball team — and, one day, a great head coach.
“One of the greatest players we ever had,” said Wright, twice a national champion in his 22 years with the Wildcats before his 2022 retirement.
That’s saying something, considering Nardi wasn’t necessarily the best player on his particular mid-2000s teams. A four-year starter, he averaged 10.1 points a game in his career, at the height of which he was part of an electric four-guard lineup with Kyle Lowry, Allan Ray and Randy Foye.
Nardi was very good, efficient, productive. But there’s more that goes into areas of impact outside the two-hour, televised competition windows during which players are often primarily judged. Nardi, behind the scenes, operated like a coach well before he became one.
“What he brought as a player and what he brought to our team — to all those guys — he was the guy who really showed them all how to work on the highest level,” Wright said. “The rules were different back then. In the summer, you couldn’t work with the team and you had to rely on guys to do a lot on their own. Mike brought a level of intensity and attention to detail in individual workouts that all those guys emulated, and it really changed our program. Those characteristics transitioned to coaching. He’s got a high IQ, a great understanding and work ethic, and great experience.”
Nardi graduated in 2007, went undrafted and spent eight years playing professionally overseas. He returned to Villanova in 2015 as the Wildcats’ director of student-athlete development, and later worked under Wright as video coordinator and director of operations before a seven-year run as an assistant coach — four under Wright, three under Kyle Neptune.
Over the years, as Nardi transitioned from playing to coaching, college basketball started to morph into something largely unrecognizable, with the advancement of social media, the introduction of the NIL era (name, image and likeness) and eventually the complete elimination of amateurism. Coupled with the light-speed movement facilitated by use of the transfer portal, college coaching and college recruiting are much different activities than they were just 10 years ago.
This is the era of adaptation. Nardi, like Hurley, was a decorated prep player in New Jersey and a solid, intense Big East guard. He has also lived basketball realities that need a different touch and way of thinking. There’s a lot to draw from both.
“What amazes me is that when you get through the transfer portal and NIL and get to the season, the incredible job that coaches are doing putting these teams together with one- and two-year guys,” Wright said. “The quality on the court is outstanding. It has not affected the level of play. [Nardi] is actually going to be part of the generation that, as an assistant, he knew and learned under the old rules and then was still an assistant coach as part of the transition to this new era. He really understands it. I think it is going to be really healthy for him. Having been a professional player made it easier to transition into this new world. He was a successful player who understands the players’ perspective and has always been supportive of players being rewarded.”
Wright said he began talking to Nardi more about the big picture, the broader spectrum of running a program, during his last couple of years as Villanova coach. He told him to start thinking even beyond the players he was working with every day.
“To think like a head coach,” Wright said.
Nardi became one in March for a stretch. When Neptune was fired after Villanova’s quarterfinal loss to UConn in this past season’s Big East Tournament, Nardi was named interim head coach and ran the program for several weeks, including three games at The College Basketball Crown. In Las Vegas, Villanova defeated Colorado and Southern Cal before being eliminated by Central Florida. Wright, who remains a special advisor to the president at Villanova in addition to his TV work, was impressed with the way Nardi handled that role, knowing the staff wasn’t going to be retained, knowing he was soon likely to be looking for a new job, trying to keep a team together through an unsettling time.
“It was an unfortunate scenario just because of how everything transpired, with Kyle being let go,” Nardi said. “Being approached with the opportunity, I really looked at it as a chance to gain experience being a head coach but really to give back to the university. They had done a lot for me and my family. And for our team in general. I felt we had a good team, those guys worked hard all year, gave them an opportunity to put themselves on a platform to continue to get exposure. They all have dreams and aspirations. … I did learn a lot and it was a valuable experience that I think will help me here, knowing Coach Hurley and what he has to go through every day, and then hopefully moving forward at some point, whenever that times comes, to being able to run my own program.”
At UConn, Nardi, a married father of two, is expected to play a lead role in recruiting and in working with guards. Another type of work he got into with guards — blanketing the court with Lowry, Ray and Foye back in the 2000s — would be familiar to UConn fans of a certain age.
Take 2005-06. UConn and Villanova had great teams of contrasting styles. The Huskies were loaded with size, Hilton Armstrong and Josh Boone up front, Rudy Gay on the wing, Denham Brown, Marcus Williams and Rashad Anderson on the perimeter. Jim Calhoun used to joke that if he and Wright could agree to a trade at the fictitious deadline — a UConn post player for a Villanova guard — both coaches would have the perfectly balanced team.
The matchups were compelling. UConn was ranked No. 1 and Villanova No. 4 the first game in Philadelphia. The Huskies led by as many as 12 but Nardi made a 3-pointer midway through the second half to give Villanova a 48-47 lead and the Wildcats never trailed again in a 69-64 victory. Two weeks later in Storrs, UConn won the rematch, 89-75, in front of one of the loudest crowds in Gampel Pavilion history. The teams went on to share the Big East regular season title, and both made the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. UConn lost to George Mason, Villanova to eventual champion Florida.
“When I came back on staff in 15-16, [Wright] was the same guy he was when I was a player, but I got to see that other side of that,” Nardi said. “He really introduced me to the coaching profession. Attention to detail, his ability to bring it every day and his energy, and just his humility and who he is as a person. The relationships, the way he treats people, no matter who you are. You could be the best player on the team. You could be our last guy or a practice player. You could be the associate head coach. You could be the student-manager. He always respected people as if they were just good people. That was a big piece of what I learned from him. And he worked hard. A lot of people didn’t get a chance to see that. You only saw the product, but he was about bringing it every day and making sure we practiced as hard as we could and were competitive.”
It was in the mid-2000s that Nardi fell in love with the intensity of a pursuit, the grind, what made Villanova burgeoning power.
“And I think that’s part of what transpired with those teams in the 2000’s with Randy Foye and Kyle Lowry and Allan Ray and myself,” he said. “We were smaller, we had to be tenacious, we had to be connected, we had to play harder than the other teams. When we were going up against Connecticut, their front line and their size was just at times overpowering. We got to a point where we were older — my junior year, Randy and Allan’s senior year — and we started to figure some things out. We had some battles. … We respected what they were doing and they were always the team we were chasing.”
Nardi asked Wright to reach out to Hurley on his behalf in recent weeks, and Wright did. Wright said it probably wasn’t needed, though. Nardi and Hurley knew each other well, same Jersey basketball and recruiting circles, similar Big East experiences as players, similar reputation for an old school approach to a new school way of operating.
Nardi was wearing a UConn shirt and sitting in a UConn office at the Werth Champions Center as he spoke on Wednesday. It was a strange feeling, he acknowledge. It was a great feeling, he added.
“Coach Wright to is like a father figure, a mentor,” Nardi said. “He took a chance on me when I was in high school and saw something special in me as a player, my competitiveness, my work ethic, my feel for the game, my passion. And then going through that process with him as a player, just instilling an attitude and helping me mature and grow as a man. As a player, that went a long way for me, just being able to handle different things thrown at you during those years of 18-22.”