Villanova Head Coach Kevin Willard Talks Current Roster, Future Recruiting

The Big East held its Media Day for the 2026-27 season on Thursday, Oct. 1, and Villanova head coach Kevin Willard described what he expects from his team this year. Asked about his players, Willard praised senior guard Tyler Perkins for his role in maintaining the Wildcats’ culture through last offseason’s coaching change, citing Perkins’ work ethic as playing a central role in that continuity.

“He’s been invaluable because his work ethic, there’s no one better. Every morning he’s in there at 7 a.m., he’s in there Friday nights at 8 p.m., his work ethic has really been great in helping keep Villanova culture the way it is,” Willard said. “The biggest thing I’ve seen is he’s gotten so much more confident in his game. I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve noticed: I think he understands that he’s a really good player. He doesn’t have to go out and try to prove it, he can just go out and play basketball.”

Willard compared Villanova’s biggest acquisition of the offseason, 7-foot-3 Italian center Luigi Suigo, to another one of his successful former players, center Derik Queen of the Maryland Terrapins and the New Orleans Pelicans. Willard said that he’ll deploy Suigo in a similar fashion to how he did Queen, but acknowledged that the comparison isn’t one-to-one because Queen is a head shorter than Suigo at 6-foot-9.

“He reminds me a lot of Derik Queen: they both have really, really good passing, great hands, both shoot the basketball. Having so much success with Derik, we’ll probably have the same game plan with GiGi,” Willard said. “He does have to get used to American basketball, the speed of American basketball, the speed of American guards.”

No High School Recruiting?

With the NCAA’s new five-in-five eligibility model giving athletes five seasons to complete their college careers, Willard said he plans to retain this year’s core instead of recruiting a new generation of high school athletes.

“I feel like we have a great roster this year. A little bit more talented, a little bit deeper, a little bit tougher,” Willard said. “We’re not recruiting a high school kid this year, so that’s probably a big change. Just because of the fifth-year rule, we have six guys that can come back for a fifth year. So I’d rather have one of my players come back than play a high school kid.”

That’s a major change in philosophy from ‘The Villanova Way’ under Jay Wright, who prioritized recruiting and retaining players from day one rather than bringing in transfers, but Willard said that similar to the way the addition of another year of eligibility from the COVID-19 altered 2020 season played out, he thinks the change will even out after a year or two and he and other coaches will focus back on recruiting high schoolers.