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What new Maryland head coach Kevin Willard said during his introductory press conference
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A new era of Maryland basketball is beginning.
On Monday, Maryland announced the hiring of Kevin Willard, who will be the new leader of the men’s basketball program. He replaces Mark Turgeon, who stepped down early during the 2021-22 season. Danny Manning served as the interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
Willard spent the past 12 seasons at Seton Hall, where he compiled a 225-161 record during his run with the Pirates. Seton Hall reached the NCAA Tournament in 5 of the last 6 seasons, as well.
According to Jeff Ermann of InsideMDSports.com, Willard’s contract will pay him $4.4 million per year in a 5-year deal.
On Tuesday, Willard was officially introduced as the next head coach of the Terrapins and he spoke during the introductory press conference. Here’s what the new Maryland leader had to say:
Kevin Willard talked about he adapts to his personnel. Seton Hall was slower-paced.
"What I'm trying to do here is, I'm really trying to get back to playing a little more more up-tempo, a little more freestyle on th eoffensive end. Recruit some guys that can do that." #Terps
— Jeff Ermann (@Jeff_Ermann) March 22, 2022
Maryland expects to start building its basketball practice facility next Jan. Will take 18 months to build.
Kevin Willard: "This is one of the most premiere basketball jobs in the country without a practice facility. Just wait until we get a practice facility."
— Jeff Ermann (@Jeff_Ermann) March 22, 2022
Kevin Willard: "No one's gonna outwork us … My promise to you is no one will outwork me. It just won't happen… We are gonna have fun, we are gonna bring the swag back to Maryland basketball. And we are gonna win at a high level, I promise you that .. I won't let you down."
— Jeff Ermann (@Jeff_Ermann) March 22, 2022
Kevin Willard: "We're going to bring that swagger that coach Williams had. That Joe Smith, Stevie Francis, Steve Blake … Juan Dixon.
"We are gonna bring back that passion, that energy that coach Williams coached with, that his players played with."
— Jeff Ermann (@Jeff_Ermann) March 22, 2022
Willard on watching Maryland and Gary when he was younger.
"I remember thinking to myself, I want to play for that man. I want to play at that school. Because they had such swagger, they had such confidence.
"We are going to bring back that swagger."
— Jeff Ermann (@Jeff_Ermann) March 22, 2022
Kevin Willard: "This is a top ten job in college basketball, hands down. 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, and is a top-10 job." #Terps
— Jeff Ermann (@Jeff_Ermann) March 22, 2022
Kevin Willard on meeting players, who are on spring break: "We had our first Zoom meeting. It's always fun to have 11 kids back on Zoom. I forgot how much they hated it. I forgot how much I hated it. Just brought back nightmares of covid."
— Emily Giambalvo (@EmilyGiam) March 23, 2022
The cool things about people being mic'd and audio coming through those mics is that you can hear Kevin Willard mumble things like: "I never answer questions sitting down."
— Emily Giambalvo (@EmilyGiam) March 23, 2022
Kevin Willard says he was offered four other jobs this year.
— Emily Giambalvo (@EmilyGiam) March 22, 2022
Willard on talk w/ president Darryll Pines: "I was so relieved because I thought he was going to start talking about engineering and everything he did at the school. … He started talking about KenPom and this stat and that stat. I was like, 'Dr. Pines, you're my kind of guy.'"
— Emily Giambalvo (@EmilyGiam) March 22, 2022
It will be "heavy" on DMV guys.
— Emily Giambalvo (@EmilyGiam) March 22, 2022
Kevin Willard, speaking after 20+ minutes of scripted administrators, makes himself sound like a media pro.
"We don't do scripts in the Northeast."
— Emily Giambalvo (@EmilyGiam) March 22, 2022
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB