Kevin Willard has left Maryland to lead the basketball program at Villanova, but many are calling out how he left Maryland behind.
Kevin Willard’s departure from Maryland may have been confirmed in the final days of March, but the signs had been there long before the headlines caught up.
After leading the Terrapins to a 27–9 season and a Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament, Willard stunned Maryland fans by bolting for Villanova — a return to the Big East, a conference he once called “home.” The decision ended a tenure marked by growing tensions, quiet discontent, and ultimately, an ugly and public unraveling between coach and program.
But for many close to Maryland basketball, this wasn’t a sudden breakup. It was a slow, simmering departure hiding in plain sight.
“The Big East Is Just Different”
Willard arrived in College Park in 2022 after a successful 12-year run at Seton Hall. The move was seen as a fresh start for a Maryland program searching for stability and success after years of uneven play under Mark Turgeon. Willard injected new energy, and in Year One, he delivered. The Terps made the NCAA Tournament and even advanced past the first round.
But even as Maryland began to rise again, Willard couldn’t hide his nostalgia for his former conference.
“The travel, the focus on basketball, the way the Big East is built — it’s different. I noticed that right away,” he said early in his Maryland tenure. “You feel it when you’re in it.”
Some brushed those words off as harmless reminiscing. Others heard a warning bell.
Scott Van Pelt Doesn’t Hold Back
By the 2024–25 season, it was becoming clear that Willard’s connection to Maryland was strained. Despite his success on the court, he was candid about the program’s limitations — from NIL funding to travel resources to institutional commitment.
“I just want it to be the best it can be,” he reportedly told people inside the program. “But it’s hard when you’re pushing the boulder up the hill every day.”
As Maryland advanced in the NCAA Tournament, speculation about Willard’s future became a persistent distraction. He refused to directly address reports linking him to the Villanova opening, even as industry insiders suggested the deal was already in motion.
By the time Maryland took the court against Florida in the Sweet 16, the writing was on the wall.
“I’m not going to say I didn’t care. That would be a lie,” said longtime Maryland fan and ESPN host Scott Van Pelt. “But by that point, we all knew what was happening. When this ends, everything ends. The seniors are gone. The coach is gone. It was a really sad, deflating way for the season to end.”
Not the Move — The Manner
Nobody at Maryland begrudged Willard for taking the Villanova job. It’s one of the premier programs in the country and far closer to his family roots. But it was the way he left — the tone, the silence, the mess — that left many feeling bitter.
“There’s a way to leave a place,” said one person close to the program. “This wasn’t it.”
Van Pelt echoed that sentiment: “Of course you can go to Villanova. Of course, you can do what’s best for your family. But maybe you don’t take a flamethrower to the house on your way out the door. Maybe you don’t make people who were in the fight with you feel like pawns.”
@pardonmytakeKevin Willard wanted out at Maryland before the season started♬ original sound – pardonmytake
Behind the scenes, Willard had led Maryland supporters to believe he might stay — if only the university committed more resources to basketball. “Tell me we’re serious about this, and I’ll stay,” he allegedly told multiple people involved with the program. But those promises evaporated in the span of a week.
A Larger Conversation in College Sports
Willard’s departure reignited conversations around loyalty, commitment, and hypocrisy in college athletics.
“We always ask these questions about the players: Why are they transferring? Where’s their loyalty?” one analyst said. “But no one asks that about the coaches. Why is that?”
ESPN’s Jay Bilas took it a step further, pointing out the double standard. “Coaches talk about adversity, commitment, and culture, but when they get a better offer, they’re gone — and that’s fine. Just stop holding players to a higher standard than the coaches themselves.”
Bilas also criticized the lack of transparency. “Your agent is your representative. If your agent is negotiating behind the scenes, then you’re negotiating behind the scenes. Own it.”
For Willard, a New Chapter
Meanwhile, Willard takes over a Villanova program that is eager to reclaim its spot among the sport’s elite. After years of consistent excellence under Jay Wright, the Wildcats have struggled to find stability. In Willard, they get a proven tactician with deep Big East roots and an immediate familiarity with the culture.
Whether he’ll thrive there remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: he left Maryland not because of failure, but because of a feeling — that something wasn’t right, that something wasn’t quite “home.”
“I love Maryland,” he once said. “But I know what the Big East feels like. And I missed it.”
In the end, maybe that was always going to be the pull too strong to resist.
