Terps Basketball: Kevin Willard Set to Be Hired as New Head Coach

More than three months after firing Mark Turgeon, Maryland will announce the hire of Seton Hall’s Kevin Willard as their new head men’s basketball coach within the next few days. He’s been perhaps the most inevitable candidate since the search process began, and is rumored to have expressed strong interest in the job as early as December. Let’s take a look at what the Terrapins are getting from their third head coach in more than three decades.

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Willard’s Resume

BSL Terps Analyst Jordan Katz profiled Willard here in January. After playing point guard in college for both Western Kentucky and Pittsburgh, he moved immediately into the coaching ranks as an assistant in the NBA for the Boston Celtics under Rick Pitino. After Pitino resigned, Willard followed him to Louisville where he spent six years as an assistant coach.

His first head coaching job came at Iona, where he spent three seasons from 2007-2010. After a 21-10 (12-6 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) record in his final year with the Gaels while being named the conference’s coach of the year, he replaced Bobby Gonzalez at Seton Hall. He’s been the Pirates’ head coach for the last 12 seasons, building the program into a perennial NCAA Tournament team and one of the better teams in the Big East Conference. He split the conference’s coach of the year honors with Villanova’s Jay Wright and led his team to a conference tournament title in 2016, and won a regular season title in 2020.

During his 15 years as a head coach, the 46-year old has compiled a 270-210 (56%) record. Over the last five seasons at Seton Hall, his record has been 98-59 (64%). He’s made the NCAA Tournament in all but one of the last six years that it was held, and his team was projected to be a #3 seed before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 tournament. Before he arrived, the Pirates had reached the postseason just three times in the previous 16 seasons.

According to KenPom, his Seton Hall teams have averaged to be the 59th-best in the country during his tenure. In the last five years, they’ve been the 43rd-best. He’s earned one #6 seed, two #8 seeds, one #9 seed, and one #10 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Like Turgeon however, his best team missed its opportunity in the postseason due to COVID-19.

He’s best known as a strong developmental coach, able to win games with rosters full of otherwise under-recruited players. It’s a skill he learned from Pitino, and should be reminiscent of former Maryland head coach Gary Williams. Stylistically, his teams typically combine strong defense with a weave/isolation motion offense similar to the one Turgeon ran in College Park for nearly a decade.

The biggest knock on Willard is likely his teams’ postseason record. He led Seton Hall to just one win in their five tournament trips, beating North Carolina State as a #8 seed in 2018 before losing to #1 seed Kansas in the Round of 32. Most recently, the Pirates were blown out as a #8 seed by #9 seed TCU in the first round of this year’s tournament.

What’s Next?

Maryland suffered their first losing season in nearly three decades last year, so Willard has his work cut out for him and will need to hit the ground running. His first order of business will be to assemble his coaching staff. None of the coaches currently on Seton Hall’s staff have any direct ties to the DMV area, so he’ll likely need to focus on hiring assistants familiar with the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. recruiting regions. Of the coaches left from Turgeon’s staff, Greg Manning, Jr. may be the most likely to be retained.

He’ll also need to cobble together the best roster that he can for the 2022-23 season, which won’t be easy given the typical turnover following a coaching change. Eric Ayala (could technically return, not expected to), Xavier Green, Fatts Russell, and Simon Wright have all graduated and won’t be a part of next year’s team. Marcus Dockery has already entered the transfer portal, and Ike Cornish has announced he’ll be returning. Decisions by players like Hakim Hart, Ian Martinez, Julian Reese, Donta Scott, and Qudus Wahab will be closely monitored.

The majority of next year’s roster will likely come from the transfer portal, which is likely Willard’s best way to make an immediate impact in College Park. He could also bring players with him from Seton Hall, though the majority of their biggest contributors from this season don’t have any eligibility remaining. Former 3-star guard Ryan Conway is the only player on the Pirates’ roster with DMV ties, having played at Dulaney High School in Timonium, MD. Jared Rhoden led Willard’s team in scoring this year and has one year of eligibility remaining, but may elect to enter the NBA Draft.

Keys to Long-Term Success

The blueprint to building a perennial contender in College Park hasn’t changed a whole lot over the years. Maryland’s campus is situated between the extremely fertile recruiting grounds of Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and breaking into both of those will be crucial for Willard and his coaching staff.

Looking ahead to the 2023 recruiting class, the state of Maryland boasts 4-star guards Isaiah Coleman (Fort Washington) and Jahnathan Lamothe (Baltimore). Virginia will also have a number of blue-chip wings from Charlottesville, Fairfax, and Richmond. While the transfer portal has diminished the importance of high school recruiting, it’s still a crucial step to building a program in this area.

Athletic director Damon Evans chose Willard with the expectation that he’ll be able to take his coaching abilities to the next level with the additional resources that a program like Maryland will offer him. But with these added resources will come heightened expectations. Simply reaching the NCAA Tournament in a few consecutive seasons isn’t enough to keep him employed in College Park. Deep tournament runs will be expected from him, and his job (along with Evans’) likely rides on whether or not he meets that goal.