Kevin Willard to Maintain Villanova Way, Help Wildcats Evolve

New Villanova Men’s Basketball head coach Kevin Willard made a media appearance on FOX College Hoops on Tuesday, April 1, giving a preview of what the Wildcats will look like under his guidance.

Villanova fans grew accustomed to small ball after more than two decades of watching Jay Wright and his hand-picked protege Kyle Neptune, but Willard made it clear from the beginning of his interview that he won’t box himself and his team into a given style of play, evolving as his personnel changes alongside the game itself.

“We will change how we play. I think college basketball has evolved where you have to change how you play year to year,” Willard said. “We will still get after it defensively, we’ll pick up the tempo a little bit, we’ll continue to press the way we’ve done the past couple years.”

However, Willard clarified that he doesn’t want to shake things up too much. Entering one of the more stable programs in all of college basketball during the constantly shifting era of NIL deals, Willard said that he wants to keep the culture forged under Wright in place.

“Style of play is definitely going to change. What’s not going to change is this great culture, this brotherhood that Jay has created,” Willard said. “I think it’s the best culture in college basketball. I’m not going to change the Villanova way at all.”

Willard’s ties to Villanova date back to the mid 1990s when he played at Pitt, then a Wildcats foe as a member of the Big East. He also coached at Seton Hall for more than a decade, and described his front row view to the Wildcats’ success… and how it made joining Villanova a slam dunk decision.

Big East Bloodlines

“I played three years in the Big East, I coached 12 years in the Big East at Seton Hall, and I got a first hand view of what Villanova basketball was all about,” Willard said.

“And when the job came open, it’s one of those jobs that you really just can’t pass up because it’s one of the best basketball jobs in the country… to be back in the Big East, to be part of this family, to be part of this culture, the Villanova family, it’s just a great honor.”

Willard said he also built a strong relationship with Wright during those years, describing how he talked over his job offer from Villanova with the legendary head coach.

“I would not have even thought about taking the job if Jay had said no, and he said ‘I’m 100 percent behind you,’” Willard said. “And really it meant the world to me, because I’m very good friends with Jay.”

In his closing remarks, Willard gave recently fired Wildcats’ head coach Kyle Neptune credit for the job he did in trying to fill Wright’s shoes, recognizing just how monumental of a task Neptune faced… and promising to put the Wildcats back on the map.

“We’re gonna get it back. We’re gonna work together. I think Kyle [Neptune] did an unbelievable job in taking over for a legendary coach, I think Kyle and his staff deserve a lot of credit for preaching that at a very hard time,” Willard said. “What we’re gonna do is we’re gonna… get Villanova basketball back to where Villanova wants it.”