Chris Knoche on Kevin Willard's departure: “like a thief in the night"

Ahmed Ghafir
Mar 30
4 min read

The band-aid was officially ripped off overnight after official news of Kevin Willard’s departure from Maryland to Villanova as head coach, leaving the Terps with a head coaching vacancy for the second time since the COVID season. Only this time, Maryland finds itself in a different situation following Damon Evans’s departure to SMU and no long-term plan in place to replace him. Add in the fact that the transfer portal has been swirling already for one week and with the potential need to replace at least four starters and overhaul a roster, time isn’t on Maryland’s side.

While part of that is attributed to Maryland’s Sweet 16 finish that delayed those efforts, Willard’s dishonesty through the negotiation process put the program in this spot with the new Big East coach arguably more hated by the fanbase than his predecessor, Mark Turgeon. In the eyes of Maryland basketball analyst Chris Knoche, Willard left the program “like a thief in the night.”

“I don't know where to start with this. I mean, it just over the last ten days, all of it feels calculated and orchestrated,” Knoche said to Doc Holliday on 106.7 on Sunday. “And on the one hand, Doc, I was actually in the press room when he said that about ‘I'm just going through it. I haven't talked to my agent, haven’t talked to my wife, my family.’ I get on the planes going to Seattle and going to San Francisco and coming home from San Francisco, and his wife and kids were there the whole time. I mean, it's sort of defies logic to think that it wasn't discussed at all in the hotel room. I just – it was so poorly handled by him. And the worst part about it, Doc is, the program hadn't been to a Sweet 16 in ten years. And this is an opportunity, this is when this group should be dancing in the streets. When you win two games in Seattle, also the Derik Queen thing. You're the most talked about program in the country for that, because of the way that game ended, because of Queen, this personality. And [Willard] stole that. He stole that. I don't know any other way to put it. He stole that. And that's really infuriating. When you when you think about it like that, a program that is used to a level of success, finally gets back there. And he deserves some props for being a huge part of that, no question about it. But at the end of the day, runs away like a thief in the night, really. He took that away from Maryland fans and for that, I mean, it's hard to look at it any other way for me.”

Of course, the saga reached another level when Willard went ahead and announced that his boss, Damon Evans, was likely headed to SMU from Maryland for the same position in a move that only strained relationships through the athletic department. “He's probably going to SMU, so it's kind of tough to negotiate with somebody that's maybe not here,” Willard said during the first weekend. But Willard announcing Evans’s departure was only part of the saga, coupled with rants about Maryland’s needs to improve its resources, with gripes about the lack of department flexibility and citing the failed New York trip.

But Maryland’s interim administration on multiple occasions bridged the gap with Willard, which seemingly remained consistent throughout the process as Villanova chatter lurked through the postseason. As we know now, Willard’s desire to ultimately land back at a basketball-only school proved too much to overcome for Maryland – as Willard gradually took down the school paying him over $4 million annually with each passing day.

“It's a great job in a great conference. You're compensated handsomely. You have resources that a lot of programs dream about. You also have a brand new practice facility that will open this summer. It's a great, great job,” Knoche said. “Back to Damon and that departure, and the fact that Willard announced that departure – the last couple of weeks were simply a public airing of the grievances. So that when he left, and it was inevitable that he was leaving, when he left, he had already said he was the guy who announced Damon's departure. That wasn't an SMU press release. Willard did that the day before SMU even mentioned it. So the fact that he did it, he broke that news, again, just going back to my initial depth that it was a calculated thing, poorly handled, poorly executed, and just really disingenuous to me.”

While the Willard era abruptly ended, Knoche pointed to the idea of promoting one of the assistants after naming David Cox. “This may be foolish, but that way, you may have a chance of keeping the two guards that you really want to keep as sort of the focal point.”

Meanwhile, Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams has surfaced as the loudest candidate in the early stages of the search as Maryland’s administration works to move quickly in hopes of building on the 2024-25 season.

“There will not be a shortage of candidates. There will be sitting Division One, Power Five head coaches that would really want to get involved with this job. They'll want to do it quietly, and they'll want to do it – they won't want to do it or air anything publicly, but you'll see a lot of interest. And word always gets out who's interested and who they're talking to, and my guess is there'll be some really qualified guys that they bring in as candidates. I just hope it happens quickly, because every day [that] you’re coach-less, the portal is one of those things you want to get a handle on. And really understand who’s out there, how they benefit you and that sort of thing. And that's absolutely critical.”

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