Maryland basketball is roughly two weeks away from its first game of the Willard era when the Terps host Niagara on November 7 for the season-opener. Ahead of two closed scrimmages against Virginia then Villanova, head coach Kevin Willard introduced his new team where he made expectations clear for the fanbase.
“It’s going to be the same thing every year—it’s gonna be Big Ten championship, national championship,” Willard said. “That’s the goal of this program. Is every year gonna be possible? Some years, probably more than not, but that is our goal every year. Our goal will not be anything different besides winning a Big Ten championship and hang another banner. No other expectation is allowed in this program.”
Breaking down the takeaways from Willard’s opening press conference followed by a full transcript:
Reenergizing the fanbase an early priority
It’s no surprise that reenergizing the fanbase was among the first priorities for Kevin Willard after accepting the offer to become the next head coach. Willard admitted “I was kind of a bachelor for like three months” after waiting roughly three months for his family to join him in College Park, but that gave the first-year head coach an opportunity to familiarize himself with his new home.
That involves crabs and crab picking, though Willard is more of a crab cake guy himself. “. I like crab cake. I don’t like cracking crabs. I’ll eat the crab cake, but the cracking thing is, it’s a lot of work for minimal return,” Willard joked. “I just think it’s a lot easier to order a crab cake and the guy, it’s there, it’s all there, you know, you crack it, and you take the legs off and then you’re sitting there, and you like, you have to eat like 50 of ’em for one crab cake.”
One thing that’s been clear, though, is the passion for Maryland basketball and rejuvenated fans have made a clear impression. “I was in recruiting at San Francisco, Texas, I was down in Florida, and everywhere I went, every airport I hit, it was a Maryland [fan]. And to me it’s kind of, as I’ve been here, I’ve just realized, you know, it’s a great fan base cause it’s so passionate about this sport. It loves Maryland basketball. Every time I go out to dinner with coach Williams or play golf with him, it’s amazing for as angry as he can get, how many people love him. It’s amazing and it’s something that’s, he’s been instrumental. He’s teaching me lesson after lesson about this place, and I just think it’s an extremely fun and passionate fan base.”
Chance to Play with More Tempo This Season
With stronger depth in the backcourt compared to the frontcourt heading into year one, Willard once again noted his desire to find complementary pieces to round out his roster. “I wanted to respect the guys that stayed. I wanted to make sure that graduated and they left having the opportunity to make sure they could prove what they were all about,” Willard added. Maryland also placed an emphasis on scorers after bringing in Jahmir Young, Don Carey and Noah Batchelor this season to pair with Hakim Hart and Donta Scott.
But the roster makeup will give Maryland a chance to play faster than fans may have expected to see under Willard. “We’re really not that big,” he added. “When you look at our roster, we’re big on the wings, inside. You know, we’re just not as, we’re not big and dominant. We’re not gonna be able to slow down and just kind of grind it out. I like our guard play. We shoot the basketball really well, so I think we’re really gonna have to work on the way we shoot the basketball. I slowed down the last couple years just because of necessity, cause of injuries. To be honest with you, it’s tough to play fast when you have seven guys. I think this roster can go nine to ten deep.”
Maryland enters the season with proven pieces to build around with Hakim Hart, Donta Scott and Julian Reese all back for another season. Willard also praised Scott after losing 30 pounds this offseason. “I think just having him back was really huge just cause it kind of it helped the people that we were bringing in recruiting, guys that had stayed had bought in and he was able to kind of talk about what we had done in April, our individual program, what we were doing, some things we were changing. He’s been an unbelievable leader. Like I’m talking about lights out. And it started from my first meeting with him, and he loves this place and he wanted to, you know, he wanted to graduate and play his last year here, but he’s lost 30 pounds. His game’s really good, and he’s led more by example than anything else.”
Willard chimes in on NCAA Tournament expansion, NIL
After bumping the number of teams in the NCAA Tournament from 64 to 68 years ago, rumors have reemerged going into the 2022-23 season that the NCAA has the desire to expand the tournament. Jon Rothstein reported on Thursday afternoon that the D1 Transformation Committee has had “dialogue to expand the NCAA Tournament in all sports to include 25% of the programs who are eligible,” meaning roughly 20 additional teams would be invited, but Willard opposed that line of thinking during his press conference.
“I don’t think we should expand it. I think the NCAA should, instead of expanding it, should take some of that money and give it back to the players,” he added. “I think that we make a lot of money off the NCAA tournament, and I think they should have a playoff share. If you make the NCAA tournament instead of expanding the team, expanding the tournament…I think taking that extra money from all this and giving it back to the players that have earned it, I think that’s where their focus should be instead of making tournaments bigger and spending more money when they have the money that they should be giving back to the players.”
Willard’s advocacy for players maximizing their brand was reinforced during his comments regarding NIL, a development that has changed the recruiting world in college athletics. Willard noted that “it’s not going away” but supported the ability for players to maximize their earnings, but he admitted the issue was more complex than a straight-forward response. “It’s a necessary evil. I think it’s great for the kids, but…you deal with NIL on a daily basis. I mean, we don’t talk about it, but it’s in every conversation, if you kind of understand what I’m saying. It’s tremendous for these young men because they do a lot and it’s great that they’re getting NIL so it’s a touchy subject. I’m not allowed to say too much about it, so, but I think it’s great for the players.”
Turtle NIL launched at the beginning of summer, Maryland NIL collective that focuses its efforts on basketball.
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More from Willard
Opening statement: “Excited about this season. Excited about a new beginning. Most important, I’m really excited about the way this group has been working. They’ve been extremely energetic. They’ve been, practice with a purpose for most of the time, and I think, this is a group that’s really looking forward to proving what they can do on the court, both individually and as a team.”
On complementary roster pieces: “I think if you look at the roster, you know, as we built this roster…I wanted to respect the guys that stayed. I wanted to make sure that graduated and they left having the opportunity to make sure they could prove what they were all about. And if you look at the roster, one of the things that we really kind of needed, we needed guard depth, we needed shooting so we went out and obviously Jahmir [Young] or Don [Carey], Jahari [Long], all guys that we thought, if you look at Juju, [Hakim Hart], Donta [Scott], Ike [Cornish], Ian [Martinez], all guys that kind of were different than what those guys were. No one was gonna step on each other’s toes. They were all gonna come in and not compete, but at the same time kind of gel and form a good unit.”
On coaching staff: “I wanted to make sure I was gonna be able to hire the right guys. And David [Cox], obviously Tony [Skinn] and Grant [Billmeier] are three guys that I all knew, deeply respected. David obviously has been a head coach, will be a head coach again. Tony and Grant will be head coaches very soon, so I wanted guys that could teach the game at a very high level like they all can. I wanted guys that were from this area. Obviously Tony and David grew up in this area, went to school in this area and I think I have three of the best assistant coaches and I have to thank Damon [Evans] cause he understood that it was, it was gonna cost us a little bit of money to go out and get the best guys, but he was all for it and I think this staff has worked extremely hard, not only to put this roster together, but recruiting right now, recruiting next year or the year after. I just think I have three rock stars.”
On lessons learned from prior stops heading into year one: “The biggest lesson I learned was the guys I brought in and it’s a little bit different cause the transfer portal has changed what happened. Like you, I didn’t have the transfer portal at Seton Hall, so it was like the roster you had, whoever was left over, you kind had to deal with that and build off that. This year I really wanted to make sure the guys that we brought in were gonna set the tone from a work ethic, from a culture ethic, from an academic effort that will be able to set the kind of the set the standard going forward because right now we’re laying the carpet and we want the carpet to be smooth so we can keep building on that and build stacks and stacks on that. And the most important thing that I wanted to do is I wanted to get a staff that was gonna be great for my players and I wanted to bring guys in that were gonna set this culture, set the tone so that next year I didn’t have to reset the carpet in essence, that the carpet’s been laid. The guys coming in next year know how we work, know how we do things, know how we act, know how we go to class. And that’s probably the biggest difference is. I wanted a world class staff, which I have, and I wanted to make sure the guys I brought in were gonna be able to set the tone moving forward.”
On reenergizing the fanbase: “We wanted to embrace the tradition and the greatness of this program as I look up at the national championship banner. I thought coming in, I really wanted to get the former players on board. Not that they weren’t, but I really wanted to embrace them for us. Get them involved, get what they wanted out of the program. To me that was really important, wasn’t just gonna be my vision.
I knew what my vision for this program was, but I wanted to blend that with what coach [Gary] Williams’s vision was, Lefty’s vision was, what the former players wanted out of this program, and I took all their feedback and I kind of mixed it in with what I wanted this program to be. Because bring a little bit of the past, a little bit of the future and then, and move on and that was, I think the first and foremost was to get the fan base to understand that these former players were gonna be a huge part. Coach Williams is a huge part. He’s been instrumental in us having success so far. And I think the second time was our first couple recruits. You know, we really try to get local kids just to kind of let the fan base know that, you know, this area is gonna be huge to us. We’re gonna recruit it, we’re gonna bring kids in, we’re gonna, you know, make sure that they’re the stars. Kind of what I did at Seaton Hall. So, I think those two things were really the main things that we did. The style play is gonna be big. We’re gonna play probably way too fast and, we’re gonna shoot a ton of threes. We’re gonna press, we’re gonna get after it. Probably at times we won’t look good, just because I have 13 guys that have played five different styles and now, they’re trying to get my style, but I think again, we’re laying down the groundwork for the future.”
On local recruiting: “It’s really simple. I hate to say that. These kids in this area get unbelievable coaching from a very young age. It’s very unique. The kids don’t transfer schools. They don’t transfer AAU programs. They get great coaching at the AAU level, and they get great coaching at the high school level. It’s not that there’s not great high school coaches other [places], it’s just the amount of coaching that is done in this area to me is it’s second to none. It something I’ve never seen. You can go different areas and see great high school coaches, great AAU programs, but the amount that are in this area, it’s what makes these kids so special.”
On what he’s learned since taking the job: “I was told how passionate the fan base was and how tough they can be and everybody’s right. It’s a very passionate fan base, probably and it’s a much bigger alumni base and fan base. I knew it. I had, I had something in my mind that I thought it was, but I was in recruiting at San Francisco, Texas, I was down in Florida, and everywhere I went, every airport I hit, it was a Maryland [fan]. And to me it kind of, as I’ve been here, I’ve just realized, you know, it’s a great fan base cause it’s so passionate about this sport. It loves Maryland basketball. Every time I go out to dinner with coach Williams or play golf with him, it’s amazing for as angry as he can get, how many people love him. It’s amazing and it’s something that’s, he’s been instrumental. He’s teaching me lesson after lesson about this place, and I just think it’s an extremely fun and passionate fan base.”
On feedback from former players and coaches: “My great athletic director’s here, so he’s gonna get mad at me for saying it…it went from changing the logo, different color uniforms, scheduling, events, the type of players we bring in. I mean, we sat down and, you know, we talked to everybody and it was great feedback. It, you know, and it’s crazy. I mean, Lefty’s guys have such a different thing than Gary’s guys and Mark’s guys, you know, the younger guys. And so we kind of got ’em all together and we had dinner here one night and we probably had about a hundred guys and it was really cool. We didn’t have some of the new younger guys, because it happened right when the NBA guys were leaving but, um, it was kind of just a mixture of everything and it was all, everyone all had the same thing. They just kind of wanted to see the passion from the players back a little bit, see maybe a little bit more excitement, getting up and down and then I had some of the older guys saying, you know, I’d love to see more zone and slow it down. So it, it was all over, but it was all, you know, like I said, I took everyone’s advice and I still have to blend it with what I really want to do. But the logo is huge, man. Like, I love that Terrapin. I’m gonna get in trouble. I love that. I wear it all the time and I make him so mad cause I don’t wear the, I love, I guess the M’s important, but I love that turtle.”
On having Donta Scott return as key piece: “Donta’s been our best practice player. He’s lost 30 pounds. I knew Donta, I recruited Donta, obviously we played against him. But I think just having him back was really huge just cause it kind of it helped the people that we were bringing in recruiting, guys that had stayed had bought in and he was able to kind of talk about what we had done in April, our individual program, what we were doing, some things we were changing. He’s been an unbelievable leader. Like I’m talking about lights out. And it started from my first meeting with him, and he loves this place and he wanted to, you know, he wanted to graduate and play his last year here, but he’s lost 30 pounds. His game’s really good, and he’s led more by example than anything else.”
On NIL: “NIL is, it’s not going away. It is what it is. I mean, I have a great group of guys that have formed a collective that’s as good as anybody’s. It’s a necessary evil. I think it’s great for the kids, but…you deal with NIL on a daily basis. I mean, we don’t talk about it, but it’s in every conversation, if you kind of understand what I’m saying. It’s tremendous for these young men because they do a lot and it’s great that they’re getting NIL so it’s a touchy subject. I’m not allowed to say too much about it, so, but I think it’s great for the players.”
On style of play for current roster: “We’re really not that big. So, when you look at our roster, we’re big on the wings, inside. You know, we’re just not as, we’re not big and dominant. We’re not gonna be able to slow down and just kind of grind it out. I like our guard play. We shoot the basketball really well, so I think we we’re really gonna have to work on the way we shoot the basketball. I slowed down the last couple years just because of necessity, cause of injuries. To be honest with you, it’s tough to play fast when you have seven guys. I think this roster can go nine to ten deep.”
On culture of the state of Maryland and picking crabs: “I don’t have that down. Coach Cox, I don’t know if he’s here, man, that he’s like an expert at cracking crabs. He taught the whole team. I’ve, you know, it was kind of weird. My family didn’t move down until August, so I was kind of a bachelor for like three months. And really what I wanted to do was kind of hit every part of the state and just kind of see and get the feel, you know, from Annapolis. I’ve fallen in love with Baltimore. I think Baltimore is awesome. It’s got such a cool vibe to it, but, you know, that was just my goal. I just wanted to see what the people were all about, kind of get, get their vibe, so I spent a lot of time just going out, grabbing a beer, eating dinners. I like crab cake. I don’t like cracking crabs. I’ll eat the crab cake, but the cracking thing is, it’s a lot of work for minimal return. You know, I just think it’s a lot easier to order a crab cake and the guy, it’s there, it’s all there, you know, you crack it, and you take the legs off and then you’re sitting there, and you like, you have to eat like 50 of ’em for one crab cake. So, I like crab cakes, but this area is everything I thought it was. I’ve spent a lot of time in DC too. I love just walking around DC looking at the monuments, but that’s been my goal is just to kind of really get a good feel. I knew the area, I’ve recruited the area, but I really just wanted to get the vibe of the people in the state and it’s a great state.”
On measuring expectations heading into year one: “It’s going to be the same thing every year—it’s gonna be Big Ten championship, national championship. That’s the goal of this program. Is every year gonna be possible? Some years, probably more than not, but that is our goal every year. Our goal will not be anything different besides winning a Big Ten championship and hang another banner. No other expectation is allowed in this program.”
On competitiveness in Big Ten: “I don’t think we’re gonna be as smooth in the beginning as I would like. I think I have 13 guys that have played for six different coaches and there’s times we look really good in practice and there’s times where there’s someone that’s played for a coach three years does it in a totally different style than ours. His reaction, it just goes back to what he’s reacted for the last three years and that breaks everything down. I think the biggest thing for me is I’m gonna be patient ‘cause I know, I think we’re gonna be really good once we can kind of get through December. I think we’re gonna be really good. Like I said, I like the way these guys are practicing. I love the way we shoot the basketball. It’s just a matter of all of us getting on the same page defensively and that’s gonna take a little bit of. Most coaches aren’t patient, but the one thing I have learned is that you have to be patient early on.”
On NCAA expansion: “I don’t think we should expand it. I think the NCAA should, instead of expanding it, should take some of that money and give it back to the players. I think that we make a lot of money off the NCAA tournament, and I think they should have a playoff share. If you make the NCAA tournament instead of expanding the team, expanding the tournament…I think taking that extra money from all this and giving it back to the players that have earned it, I think that’s where their focus should be instead of making tournaments bigger and spending more money when they have the money that they should be giving back to the players.”