With the start of the college basketball season quickly approaching, Kevin Willard is preparing for his 15th season as a college head coach. However, the Huntington, N.Y. native is entering unfamiliar territory after joining Maryland following a 12-year stint at Seton Hall. While Willard is still adjusting to a new program, he is excited about the future.
It is a future with a Big Ten program that, while going through some downtime the past few seasons, is historically and traditionally a powerhouse in college basketball.
Maryland, who won a national championship 2002, has missed the NCAA Tournament two of the last three seasons. Only three times since their national championship season has Maryland advanced beyond the second round.
“There is an enormous sense of pride within the state of Maryland, within the fan base, within the residents, Baltimore County, city of Baltimore,” Willard said this week during Big Ten Media Days.
“I knew the tradition, coach Williams (former Maryland head coach Gary Williams) has been great helping me get around all the places, but the sense of pride that they have for their program is really cool. It’s been something I think that’s helped us recruiting, it’s helped us with this team this year. It’s been great.”
As Willard looks to make his mark on the Terrapins program, he is surrounded by talent. Maryland is known as a basketball state, but its newest head coach isn’t focusing on just players from Maryland. He is looking for players that fit the Terrapins’ culture.
The idea of fencing in Maryland is one that he says isn’t realistic or feasible.
“You can’t keep all kids home,” Willard said.
“They’re all going to transfer eventually anyways with the transfer portal. We’re trying to build the right type of kids. It’s a great area. High school basketball, AAU basketball in the DMV is by far second to none. It’s kind of cool being there because you get first dibs on a lot of kids that obviously we couldn’t get before.”
While the 47-year-old Willard is starting a new chapter in his career, he brings an impressive resume to College Park. During his final seven seasons at Seton Hall, the Pirates made the NCAA tournament five times. They never finished lower than fifth in the Big East Conference in that span.
As Willard looks to build on that success in Maryland, he is inheriting a program that finished last season with a 15-17 record. In Big Ten play, they went 7-13. Despite their struggles, the 2016 Big East Co-Coach of the year has already been impressed by the passion that he has seen for Maryland basketball.
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