New Villanova head coach Kevin Willard aims to bring the Wildcats back to national prominence while keeping the program’s culture intact.
As just the 10th head coach in the history of Villanova’s men’s basketball program, Kevin Willard used his opening press conference on Wednesday as both a self-introduction and a recertification of the principles and brand that Hall of Fame head coach Jay Wright built over his 20 seasons at the helm.
“On behalf of the entire Villanova community, we are thrilled to welcome you to our family,” said school president Father Peter Donohue in a tongue-in-cheek conclusion to his opening introduction.
“No pressure, but we expect great things in the season to come.”
Willard’s hiring follows the early departure of Kyle Neptune, Wright’s hand-picked heir. Neptune missed the tournament in all three of his seasons as head coach, an unacceptable reality for Villanova. Willard, Donohue and athletic director Eric Roedl delivered a clear message that the program aspires to meet a higher standard.
“I’m not here to change Villanova basketball,” Willard said. “Villanova basketball is one of the elite basketball programs in the country — I’m not here to change the culture. I’m not here to change the attitude. I’m not here to change anything besides the way we play.”
Willard emphasized that toughness would be a consistent quality under his watch. Nevertheless, he recognizes that he must be adaptable in the ever-changing landscape of NIL and the transfer portal.
“Where the flexibility comes in is your playing style,” Willard said. “You’re not going to always have to be able to play fast or play big or play small; your roster changes so much. But your culture doesn’t have to change. We have values that we’re going to live by every day.”
Willard is coming off of a Sweet 16 trip with Maryland and a 65-39 record over three seasons. Dating back to his Seton Hall days, he’s made seven of the last 10 NCAA tournaments. He won Big East Coach of the Year in 2016 when Seton Hall also won the conference tournament, and the Pirates also won the Big East regular season title under him in 2020.
“I feel like I’m in the prime of my coaching career. I just turned 50,” Willard said. “My wife and I are going to be empty nesters. We sat down and made a family decision … where we want to spend technically my last job. … This is going to be our last move.”
After the press conference, Willard was adamant that he would not continue to walk the sidelines into his 70s and that there is no higher level than Villanova for him. This is a job with massive expectations and the looming shadow of a legendary coach who is clearly still a part of the program’s operations. Those topics were recurring themes of Wednesday’s presser, as was the outlook of the 18-year veteran coach.
“If you look at where [Villanova is] in college basketball and what Coach Wright built, I have no problem saying every day that this is Coach Wright’s program,” Willard conceded. “I’d be a fool not to accept that and not to embrace it.”
The new coach emphasized that his duties were to maintain Wright’s values in the program while also modernizing it. Willard will look at new ways of acquiring and developing talent as Villanova climbs back up the ladder of success.
“[Wright’s] system was phenomenal because he could redshirt guys. You had guys like Mikal Bridges redshirting,” Willard said. “Those days have blown away, and you’ll never see them ever again. So, play style has to change, and the way you coach the game has to change. “
“It’s why I kept my whole staff,” Willard said. “I have to teach my defense, my offense, and literally, you have three weeks when you get your players to start working on it. You have to be so much more adaptive in the way you play. You cannot just say, ‘This is what we’re going to do. This is how we’re going to do it because we did that last year.’
“It doesn’t work that way anymore.”
Wednesday was just the second day Willard had been on campus since accepting the job, and he’s hitting the ground running. The Wildcats host an official visit for Willard’s former Maryland guard Rodney Rice this week, and the head coach is still in the process of scheduling handfuls of Zoom meetings and visits with prospective players.