Villanova hired Kevin Willard to change course. ‘Rebuilding this program’ starts Monday in earnest.
It had been almost seven months since Kevin Willard left the University of Maryland for Villanova in an awkward and rather public coaching move, but a question lobbed his way at Big East media day in New York last week showed Willard’s past has followed him. And, at least for now, isn’t going anywhere.
What did Willard think about the idea of some Maryland fans organizing to attend Villanova’s road game at Georgetown, where those fans will most likely let their former coach hear in person how much they did not appreciate the way he left the school that hired him in 2022?
“I think it’s great,” Willard replied. “I’m trying to help [Georgetown coach Ed Cooley’s] budget. The more ticket sales I can get for Ed … I think it’s going to be great. I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to seeing the Maryland fans.”
Willard — who replaced the fired Kyle Neptune at Villanova — wore a smile on his face through most of the answer, and throughout the few hours on the morning of Oct. 21 when his return to the Big East brought him back to the arena, Madison Square Garden, he loves. The takeaway from that answer, and from that morning, was how different the lead voice of Villanova basketball sounds.
» READ MORE: Kevin Willard is ‘home’ at Big East media day, where his Villanova Wildcats are picked seventh
Gone are the sometimes boring and repetitive slogans of 40 minutes of Villanova basketball and being the best team we can be at the end of the season, trademarks Neptune learned from his mentor and predecessor, Jay Wright, which were more tolerable when they were backed up with long NCAA Tournament runs. Here, now, are rarely filtered words from a coach who might curse too much and will seemingly say what’s on his mind.
What did Willard think about the atmosphere the two matchups later this season between preseason Top 5 St. John’s and UConn might produce?
“I don’t care,” said Willard, the coach of the team picked seventh in the Big East’s preseason coaches poll. “I don’t. I’m not playing in them, why do I care what they’re like?”
Playfulness aside, Villanova hired Willard to get Villanova back to that level, where Villanova would be the subject of such questions. Neptune went 54-47 overall in three seasons, and 31-29 in the Big East. The Wildcats lost twice in the first round of the NIT during his first two seasons. Average, Villanova decided, was not good enough.
The games begin Monday, and the Willard era starts in earnest on a big stage. The Wildcats take on No. 8 Brigham Young in Las Vegas, the second game in a doubleheader that tips off with No. 3 Florida, the defending champion, taking on No. 13 Arizona. In the grand scheme of the sport right now, count Villanova as one of these things are not like the other when it comes to the four-team showcase at T-Mobile Arena.
It’s Willard’s charge to change that narrative.
‘He’s fiery, and I appreciate it’
Villanova fans will need to keep a program handy for a few weeks. The Wildcats are returning just one player who scored points last season, junior guard Tyler Perkins. Another, Matthew Hodge, was an academic redshirt. And a third, Wade Chiddick, is a walk-on.
The rest of the roster is a mishmash of transfers — some of whom followed Willard from Maryland — and freshmen. Willard says that when the team is fully healthy he wants to run a 10-man rotation. The Wildcats will be versatile and capable of playing multiple styles, Willard says, but it remains to be seen how good they will be. Such is life in the transient sport anymore. Willard talked last week in New York about barely knowing any of Villanova’s competition in the Big East.
“I don’t know who’s good, who’s bad,” he said. “Hopefully by the middle of December I’ll have watched everybody.”
» READ MORE: For Villanova’s Matthew Hodge, a long wait is almost over: ‘It’s everything I’ve worked for’
It’s that same timeline, too, when Willard said he’s hoping his team starts clicking.
“If you look at college basketball in general, most new teams that start playing really good, that’s usually the time frame you’re looking for,” he said in early October.
That might make for a not-too-pretty sight come Monday in Las Vegas, against a BYU team that features top freshman prospect AJ Dybantsa, a versatile wing, and pairs him with senior guard Richie Saunders, and former Neumann Goretti point guard Robert Wright III. On paper, it’s a loaded BYU team against a Villanova team with a lot of question marks.
Will Acaden Lewis, a top-rated freshman point guard who has looked the part in exhibition contests, be ready right away? Will big man Duke Brennan, a Grand Canyon transfer, handle the physicality and skill of the Big East? Will Hodge be ready for major minutes and major contributions? Will James Madison transfer Bryce Lindsay continue to shoot the ball at a high clip? Will graduate point guard Devin Askew, the most experienced player on the roster, the one who Willard says hold the keys to playing the uptempo offense he wants to run, be healthy soon enough to make an early impact?
There are more questions than answers.
» READ MORE: With an experienced Villanova point guard injured, freshman Acaden Lewis might get the keys right away
But Willard and the new-look Wildcats have spent the last few months gearing up for what’s about to start. Summer workouts gave way to fall workouts. Injuries to Askew and Temple transfer Zion Stanford have caused some tinkering to the plans, but the players have had plenty of time to get used to Willard.
“I love it so far,” Perkins said. “I love his concepts, the way he handles himself every day in practice, it’s been amazing. And how he teaches us certain things, how to be a man off the court, the responsibilities that you have as a basketball player at this level.”
It’s all new to Lewis, the Washington native and crafty lefty who will handle the ball a lot as a freshman, an unusual experience for Willard, who has typically had a veteran in the point guard spot.
There will be some growing pains, but Lewis so far likes the way Willard is coaching him. During a mid-October exhibition game against Virginia Commonwealth, Lewis got an earful from Willard after throwing an underhanded pass right before halftime.
“He’s fiery, and I appreciate it,” Lewis said. “It keeps you locked in. It keeps you on your toes. Even when you make good plays he’ll ask you why you did it.”
Willard is an old-school coach. The cursing you sometimes hear in public is certainly heard inside the Davis Center at practice. Wright may have been known as “GQ Jay,” and he has a squeaky clean public image, but he was no choirboy around his players. Willard is cut from that same cloth.
“I definitely respond to that,” Perkins said. “I feel like that’s how it should be. I feel like a coach should be able to get on their players and know that it’s coming out of love and that they want the best from you and that it’s going to help the team win games.
“I’m all ears whether it’s good, bad, he’s yelling, he’s not yelling. I’m all ears.”
» READ MORE: How the ‘different personalities’ of Acaden Lewis and Tyler Perkins will guide Villanova
‘Getting it back’
The ink was barely dry on Willard’s contract with Villanova, and it was only a day after he was officially introduced on campus with a formal press conference, but his first real social media post was a selfie with a trophy-wielding group of fraternity brother dodgeball champions.
There is an element of the job as Villanova’s men’s basketball coach that involves being a part of the larger university community. To stop by a women’s basketball or men’s soccer game and wear a smile. To tee it up at charity events or clink bourbon glasses and light up cigars with big-money givers. To make outsiders feel like insiders.
There was a feeling among some alumni that Neptune’s program was too closed off. That the coach, whether because he was reluctant or uncomfortable, didn’t do enough engaging with the community. Neptune was laser-focused on winning, and may have thought that winning basketball games would be the great equalizer in the end. But even if he had won a little bit more, the off-court part of the gig would have left more to be desired.
For now, that part of the job seems to be one of Willard’s strengths.
“The engagement piece of being the head men’s basketball coach, it can’t be understated,” Villanova athletic director Eric Roedl said at Big East media day last week in New York. “He’s opened up his program in terms of people coming in and watching practice, the players being out in the community and on campus. Coach has done everything that he can possibly do to try to engage both internally and externally, and I think that goes a long way in the Villanova community.
“In addition to being the head men’s basketball coach, you’re in many ways one of the key ambassadors of the university and he’s really embraced that role. I think that’s going to really help as we continue to grow this program.”
Ambassador duties are only one small piece, though. Winning is paramount. Villanova would not have moved on from Neptune and spent more money and resources on Willard if it didn’t think three consecutive seasons without a tournament berth was unacceptable.
Willard has so far done and said all the right things. He will, like Neptune did, have a few years of runway as the school adjusts to life post-House settlement and tries to get things back on track. But Willard knows, as he said in an interview in June, “We got to win. I expect to win.”
“We’re really excited about the trajectory of the program,” Roedl said. “Since I’ve gotten here as the AD, one of the things that’s really stood out to me, even though I’m an alum, is we just have tremendous alignment from our board, from university leadership, from our community, our fan base, coach Wright has been an incredible resource both for coach Willard and for myself. Everyone is rowing in the same direction and there’s a lot of excitement around rebuilding this program and getting it back to the level that Villanovans expect it to be.”
Whether that happens or not is anyone’s guess, and Willard will ultimately be judged on the on-court performances. The games, and Villanova’s calculated gamble, start Monday in Las Vegas.
