The Maryland men’s basketball program brought the cheerleaders and the band. The school invited dozens of donors, staffers from across the athletic department and any fan who wanted to be there. And it kept Kevin Willard hidden in the tunnel at Xfinity Center as a hype video played — all in anticipation of a moment that officially ushered in a new era.
As he takes the reins as Maryland’s new coach, Willard is tasked with elevating the program and helping it compete for titles. After the hoopla and more than 20 minutes of prepared remarks from administrators, Willard stepped to the microphone Tuesday night and said, “I am from the Northeast, and we don’t do scripts in the Northeast.”
He then hit many of the notes that the Maryland fans in the building probably wanted to hear — most notably that he’s ready to embrace the lofty expectations attached to the program. Maryland’s 2002 national title is drifting further into the past, and since 2004 the Terrapins have reached the Sweet 16 just once. The fan base wants more than previous coach Mark Turgeon delivered: winning records and one shared Big Ten title but no deep March runs. Athletic Director Damon Evans put his trust in Willard as the coach who can lead the Terps there. When the two discussed the job, postseason expectations were mentioned “just about every other sentence,” Willard said.
“Kevin and I share high — I mean, high — expectations,” Evans said.
Willard spent the past 12 seasons at Seton Hall, building consistent NCAA tournament teams but never making it past the second round, and before that he led the program at Iona. But Willard has never had the resources of a Big Ten team — and the recruiting power of a school with such a strong tradition.
“This is a top-10 job in college basketball, hands down,” said Willard, a Long Island native. “I would not have moved my family and left a place that I loved very dearly if I did not think this was a place that we should be winning national championships.”
Maryland fans want the program’s future to resemble what it once was under Gary Williams, who still works in the athletic department and was in attendance Tuesday. Willard leaned in to that history, recalling memories of watching the Terps in 1999 when he was an assistant with the Boston Celtics. He remembered seeing Williams sweating as he raced up and down the sideline, and Willard viewed him as a coach he would like to play for. He saw energy and passion oozing from Williams’s players.
Willard, 46, has only met with his new team through a video call because the university is on spring break. But his message, he said, was simple: “Enjoy spring break, and when you come back to the University of Maryland, we’re going to start working. We’re going to start having fun. And we’re going to start building a national championship team.”
Willard seemed at ease throughout his public unveiling. He mentioned how he felt relieved when President Darryll Pines referenced Ken Pomeroy’s analytics, well known in basketball circles, during their conversation instead of Pines’s work as the former dean of the engineering school. When asked about the timeline of the past few days, starting when his Seton Hall team exited the NCAA tournament with a first-round loss, Willard quipped: “Thanks for bringing up the TCU game. I see D.C. media is just like New York media. I’m going to get along great.”
Willard briefly became emotional when discussing his time at Seton Hall, but the timing was right for his family, he said, because his sons are entering ninth and 10th grade, so they could move and still “make sure that they had a great high school experience.” Willard said he had four other job offers this year, but “nothing was the University of Maryland.”
Willard said he will have his staff in place by the end of the week, and it will be “very heavy” on assistants who are familiar with the D.C. area. Recruiting local talent will be crucial as Willard rebuilds, and he’ll have the draw of a new practice facility. Evans announced that the money needed to cover the building’s $40 million price tag had been raised by donors. Construction is set to begin in January, with a timeline of about 18 months until completion. Maryland is one of the few high-major schools without a basketball practice facility.
Willard described the past few days as a “whirlwind,” even though he admitted after the NCAA tournament loss that he was unsure about his future at Seton Hall when asked about rumors of him moving on to College Park. After Turgeon stepped aside in December, Maryland had months to speak with the agents of coaches through a search firm, and the school moved quickly after the regular season concluded.
Finally in his new home arena, Willard bustled from one television reporter to the next, sharing his vision and his hopes. He received a giant Under Armour logo from Kevin Plank, the company’s founder and a Maryland graduate, and Willard’s teenage kids were asked to join him on the stage to receive the 40-pound gift. It was all part of the ceremonial buzz — which at times felt forced and over-the-top — but it brought a welcome change in College Park.
“We are going to bring the swag back to Maryland basketball,” Willard said. “And we are going to win at a high level — and I promise you that.”
