Jordan Wright is coming home.
Four years after leading The Dunham School to its second consecutive state title, Wright, who played four seasons at Vanderbilt, committed Wednesday afternoon to LSU coach Matt McMahon.
In a tweet, Wright, shown wearing the Tigers’ home white uniform, wrote “CALLIN’ BATON ROUGE!”
The 6-foot-6, 220-pound guard/forward became the first player to commit to McMahon’s program since the transfer portal opened March 13.
Interestingly, the portal opened four days after a disappointing first season under McMahon ended with LSU’s 77-68 loss to Vanderbilt and Wright in the SEC tournament.
Wright, who scored 15 points and had 15 rebounds in that win, said McMahon was one of the first coaches to reach out after he entered the transfer portal March 27.
The next day, the Tigers’ second-year coach flew to Nashville to make an early pitch for a homecoming.
“We had a meeting, had a really good conversation,” Wright said by phone from the Vanderbilt campus. “He flew straight home and went to visit my parents. So, it kind of started then.”
After that initial meeting, Wright said he and McMahon talked every day until making his decision — which, he later admitted, wasn’t a difficult one at all.
“We had some really long conversations,” Wright said. “We talked about everything, and he laid everything out on the table: What my vision was, what his vision was … and we aligned.
“I really enjoyed talking to the staff and getting to know him and the rest of the staff, and we made it happen.”
Wright said he always thought about coming back and playing for LSU one day, but was focused on obtaining his degree from Vanderbilt — make that degrees.
The 2022 SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year will receive degrees in communications studies and human and organizational development during commencement exercises May 12.
“That was my first priority,” he said of graduating from Vanderbilt. “Once I got that, if the opportunity presented itself to go home, I would try to do that.”
Leave a Reply