Sports Villanova is determined to rent Maryland’s Kevin Willard as its subsequent head coach, sources rapid FOX Sports early Sunday morning.
Willard is departing College Park after going 65-38 over the last three seasons with two NCAA Match trips and taking the Terrapins to the program’s first Sweet 16 since 2016. Maryland fell to No. 1-seeded Florida, 87-71, on Thursday.
Earlier than arriving at Maryland in 2022, Willard spent 12 years coaching within the Big East at Seton Corridor, where he charged the Pirates to 5 NCAA Tournaments in six seasons before departing for College Park.
Now, Willard will head to the Main Line to take a think at to recreate what a extinct rival of his, Jay Wright, had rolling at Villanova before Kyle Neptune took over in 2022.
Willard, who has Northeast roots, had turn into disconnected with the Maryland athletic department in most approved weeks. The 49-yr-frail head coach recently voiced frustrations with Maryland elevated-ups, and after athletic director Damon Evans left to take the the same job at SMU last week, the Terrapins’ athletic department has been left in a convey of chaos as duration in-between AD Colleen Sorem took over.
Willard’s relationship with Sorem had soured in most approved months, per sources, particularly all through yet one more in December when Sorem wouldn’t enable the team to take care of in Unusual York City for another night time all through the vacation season.
“Losing the athletic director has been a little hard, to be honest,” Willard acknowledged in a radio interview on the “Kevin Sheehan Show” on Wednesday. “I wasn’t looking ahead to Damon to head away for SMU. But I’ve been working with [Maryland Deputy Athletic Director/Chief Strategy Officer] Brian Ullman and everyone within the department, and so they’ve been expansive.
“I don’t want monumental things. I just want this program to be the best it can be,” Willard added. “I’m not asking for that much. I don’t want someone telling me we’re going to do it— I want it in my contract. I don’t want people making decisions about my program who aren’t involved in my program. Those are big ones for me. I live it, breathe it, every day. This fan base expects it, but this place hasn’t been treated that way for a long time. My goal is to get it there.”
Maryland had prepared a financial package to form Willard thought to be one of the ten perfect paid coaches in The US, sources rapid FOX Sports. But this walk modified into as soon as a household decision to be near his outdated dwelling convey of Unusual Jersey and to be the king at a college he gained main admire for in his Big East days – Villanova.
John Fanta is a nationwide college basketball broadcaster and author for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a differ of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Community to offering commentary on The Discipline of 68 Media Community. Apply him at @John_Fanta .
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