After finishing with the second-most wins in Seton Hall history, and reviving a historic Pirate program, Kevin Willard will now chase new opportunities and become the head coach of the Maryland Terrapins.
His new contract will reportedly pay him $24.9 million over seven years, a heavy raise from a base salary of $2.4 million at Seton Hall.
Seton Hall will undergo a head coach search that has St. Peters coach and former Pirate Shaheen Holloway at the top of its list, but Maryland now has their leader.
Willard coached 12 seasons for the Pirates, and led the Big East school from South Orange, New Jersey to five NCAA Tournaments with a 1-4 record in the tournament. Under his tenure, Seton Hall tied for a Big East Regular Season Championship in 2019 and won the Big East Tournament in 2015.
Willard inherited a program that was heavily struggling to get by and only had one .500 season under their previous head coach Bobby Gonzalez who coached four seasons.
It took five seasons of missing the NCAA Tournament for Willard to get the Pirates dancing, but his sixth season saw that 2015 Big East Tournament victory along with a 25-9 record.
Seton Hall only missed the tournament once for the next six seasons of his tenure, and the Pirates were expected to hold a high seed in the COVID year of 2019 where they went 21-9.
This past season they finished with a 21-11 record and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament while also knocking off teams like Michigan, Texas, and UConn.
The success at Seton Hall will etch his name in Pirate lore for eternity with the likes of P.J. Carlesimo, but how will this same success be seen at Maryland?
ELITE PLAYER DEVELOPMENT, MORE RECRUITING RESOURCES
Willard has also been a head coach who focuses on developing his players, and at Seton Hall was able to work with players for multiple years. Myles Powell, who is currently in the 76ers organization, may be the most notable.
Powell won the Jerry West Award and was a first-team All-American, but unfortunately, the team led by him never saw the NCAA Tournament due to COVID-19 in 2020.
Willard also developed players such as Angel Delgado, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Isaiah Whitehead, Desi Rodriguez, Myles Cale, and Jared Rhoden.
All these players have been a part of putting Seton Hall on the map, and the credit for their development goes to Coach Willard.
With Big Ten resources at Maryland, the expectation is that Willard will be able to do what he did well at Seton Hall, but to an even greater degree.
Under Turgeon, the Terrapins were able to bring in multiple top 15 classes and were a mostly consistent program in terms of recruiting.
Willard will have to recruit in a more competitive environment in this new conference, but his recent class shows he has the ability to do so.
In 2021, the Pirates had the 32nd ranked class nationally according to 247 Sports, including two solid transfers in four-star Kadary Richmond from Syracuse and American three-star transfer Jamir Harris.
If the resources at Maryland are used correctly, the names will only get bigger, and the teams could be able to reach very high levels under Willard.
DEFENSIVELY, MARYLAND WILL BE MUCH BETTER
At Seton Hall, Willard’s teams have embodied the toughness of the New Jersey lifestyle with their stout and physical defense. In the Big Ten, this is beyond important to have a team that can defend at a well above average level, and Willard can accomplish that feat.
This past season, the Terrapins allowed their opponents to average a shooting percentage of 43 percent from the field while the Pirates sat at just about 40 percent.
Perimeter defense is where Willard’s teams have started however as the Pirates only allowed their opponents to shoot 31 percent from three.
Seton Hall also ranked 29th in adjusted defensive efficiency according to KenPom, Maryland on the other hand ranked 111th.
This is all testament to the defensive-mindedness of Willard, and this will be useful against Big Ten units and tougher out of conference opponents that can score with ease.
Seton Hall has tended to rely on isolation basketball, so Maryland may need to bring in assistants with offensive minds, but defense wins championships and Willard can do so in College Park if the right things are put in place.
HANDLING EXPECTATIONS
There are a lot of positives about the Willard hire, and the expectations could be high especially for a power five school like Maryland with plenty of basketball history.
However, Willard will be trying to right the ship with a team that went 15-17 last season, and patience may be required for the short term.
As previously mentioned, it took Willard six seasons to reach the NCAA Tournament, and if the same is true at Maryland, the plug should not be pulled too early.
It takes time to rebuild a program, and Willard will be sure to take his time and put care into it just how he did at Seton Hall.
The Terrapins also had two graduate transfers depart along with a senior and a sophomore guard in Marcus Dockery entering the transfer portal. Willard will need a few seasons to get solid recruiting classes in place and build his team the way he wants it.
Willard will also utilize the transfer portal as best as possible, this current Pirates team had six players that got a great number of minutes. Four of these players came in this season and made an immediate pact in the Richmond and Harris, along with Missouri transfer Tray Jackson and South Florida transfer Alexis Yetna.
He was able to do the job that he did at Seton Hall with the materials that only a small number of coaches could have successfully replicated.
Now at Maryland, everything is in place for Willard to bring Maryland to a place they have not been since the legendary tenure of Gary Williams, all it may take is a little bit of patience.
