From getting Jay Wright’s blessing — and some old Seton Hall friends too — Kevin Willard opens up on his first few days as Villanova’s head coach and his journey getting to the Main Line.
Kevin Willard’s Seton Hall teams — especially after Big East conference realignment — always just seemed to be a thorn in Villanova’s side. The Wildcats bested the Pirates in 19 of 25 meetings during Willard’s 12-year run as Seton Hall’s coach, but many of those battles in the “new” Big East were close.
Some felt more painful than others, highlighted by Seton Hall’s Big East Tournament quarterfinal buzzer-beating upset of top-seeded Villanova in 2014 and a pair of Big East Tournament championship game clashes. The Pirates toppled the eventual national champs in 2016 and the ‘Cats took the crown in 2019.
Who would have thought during the peak of that series that one day Willard would be walking the Main Line not as an adversary but rather, Villanova’s head coach?
It’s been a whirlwind since the news first broke late Saturday night into Sunday morning of Willard becoming Villanova’s head coach, but he says he has been getting a warm reception from the fans his teams once gave agita to.
“The Villanova community has been so welcoming and from that aspect, it’s just been a little bit overwhelming with how much support and how much excitement we’ve been getting,” Willard said of his first few days on the job. “Went and saw our women’s team play in Indianapolis, which was phenomenal, got to support them. Sat down with the team Monday night, got to meet those guys and all six returners — great group of kids. Got to watch the game yesterday out in Vegas, met with a bunch of donors, took a red-eye back (to Villanova) and walked around campus, did some HR stuff, and did a lot of portal stuff.”
Willard hasn’t had his official public introduction and press conference yet, but he met with reporters over Zoom this week.
Sporting his Villanova gear, Willard admitted he’s still getting used to wearing his new colors. Make no mistake, he’s happy to be with the Wildcats, but before he took the job, he made sure to check in with different circles.
“I’m still very close with a large group of Seton Hall supporters and I had to get their blessing too, because we’ve had so many great battles,” Willard said. “I talked to Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson already and those guys, we started talking automatically about how great those battles were and how much we respected each other. As much as I love wearing this right now, the first time I put it on, it was a little bit of a shock.”
The most influential conversation, according to Willard, was getting the blessing from the Hall of Fame coach he once had many great battles with — Jay Wright.
Wright was busy with his television duties as a studio analyst for the NCAA Tournament, but the two made time to talk over the phone on Saturday night. Willard sat on his porch and ran through everything with Wright.
“I just asked him — ‘Jay, would you be OK if I did take this job?’” Willard said. “Jay was great. He’s like, ‘I’m 100% behind you.’ He said I think you’d be great there, whatever you decide to do, but he sold me on Villanova and I would not have even thought about taking this job if I had not talked to Jay and had he not sold Villanova the way he did.
“… This is a place that I believe we can get back to winning championships.”
Willard is 335-249 overall as a head coach, which includes three years at Iona, 12 seasons at Seton Hall and three more at his previous stop, Maryland, where he went 65-39.
He made the NCAA Tournament seven times and is fresh off of his first Sweet 16 appearance as a coach.
Willard’s departure from Maryland was not a smooth one. He caught some heat for his public comments during the NCAA Tournament’s first-round press conferences, where he called out what he felt were issues with Maryland’s funding and the athletic department’s direction. As rumors ramped up about his potential departure for Villanova, he deflected questions pertaining to his future and didn’t give any concrete answers for what would happen next.
He admitted to being well-aware of the criticism that came his way, but he doesn’t have many regrets over the situation and is ready to move on.
“Everything I said during the press conference was because I love Maryland,” Willard said. “I was passionate about my job. Very simply, all I want to do is try to get the best for my players and best for the program. I’m going to do the same thing here at Villanova. … Obviously, I think some of my comments during the NCAA Tournament probably could have been a little bit less abrasive, but unfortunately, sometimes when my passion for my program and my players come out, I get excited. The only thing I’m going to say is no one, no normal fans just don’t understand what went on. I had such a great team, I was so focused on my team.
“… The timeline, no one knows it, no one understands it. I can’t change that and I’m not worried about that. Maryland just got a great coach in Buzz (Williams) and I’m really happy for them and I’m super excited to be in a great basketball conference here and I just think it’s time for everyone to move on.”
Although Willard officially succeeded Kyle Neptune and got the keys to the program, interim head coach Mike Nardi is still coaching the team as they play through the brand-new Crown Tournament in Las Vegas. The Wildcats won their opening round game of the 16-team tournament field on Tuesday night, defeating Colorado in lopsided fashion.
They’ll resume action on Thursday night against USC.
Out of respect for the season still being underway with games to be played, Willard declined to comment on his potential roster or coaching staff.
The Wildcats graduate their entire starting five, including all-time leading scorer Eric Dixon. They are slated to potentially return six players, who still have eligibility remaining, but their futures are unclear. To date, only Nnanna Njoku entered the transfer portal, a decision he made back on March 24 after four injury-hampered seasons.
Willard has spoken with oossible returners already and he’s met with Baker Dunleavy, Villanova’s General Manager for men’s and women’s basketball.
Maryland did not employ anyone in a general manager role, so Willard is excited to be able to work with Dunleavy.
He plans on utilizing a defense-first philosophy, making it a non-negotiable to go all-out on that end of the court. In each of his last four seasons as a coach, his teams ranked in the top 35 for defensive efficiency according to KenPom.
Going back even further, since 2010 — his third and final year at Iona — his teams ranked in the top 70 nationally for defensive efficiency in 13 of 16 seasons.
Offensively, he aims to play fast and give his players freedom on that end of the court — as long as they do their job defensively.
As a competitor who got to see firsthand what Wright was able to do during his time at Seton Hall from 2010-22 — a stretch that includes seven Big East regular season titles, five Big East tournament crowns, three Final Fours and two national championships — he’s learned from observing Wright’s success but he hopes to put his own flair at Villanova.
With longtime players that had a bonus year of eligibility stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic being phased out, Willard believes the transfer portal will stabilize down the line, so player development, high school recruiting will be important once again, as well as identifying and getting those impact transfers.
“You look at all the pros that Jay was able to bring in here and develop,” Willard said. “I think that’s something that every coach during that time, especially in the Big East, really kind of respected what Jay was doing from a recruiting standpoint, but most importantly from a player development standpoint. That’s something that you know we’re really going to focus on now that the portal is kind of changed, we want to focus on high school kids, developing them and making them a priority again.
“And at the same time, I think everyone really realized — systems work. Jay had a really, really good system from spacing out and jump stopping and pivoting and doing all that stuff. Learning from what Jay had done, seeing what he had done here, you know, we’re going to try to do the same thing.”