Twitter not excited with reported choice of Maryland’s next coach

March 19, 2022

As soon as the final buzzer sounded Friday night in TCU and Seton Hall’s NCAA Tournament game, the rumors began to brew about Seton Hall’s head coach Kevin Willard leaving for Maryland.

Saturday morning those rumors took a step further. According to CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein, Maryland is “zeroed in” on Willard as their next head coach.

College basketball insider Adam Zagoria reports an announcement of Willard being the Terrapins head coach “could come on Monday.”

Willard has been at Seton Hall for 12 seasons. The Pirates have made five appearances in the last six NCAA Tournaments. They won the 2016 Big East tournament under Willard and were the conference regular season champions in 2020.

However, Willard has been unable to carry that success deep in March. He has a 1-5 record in the NCAA Tournament following Seton Hall’s 69-42 loss to TCU Friday night.

That lack of success in March is a concern for many following Maryland closely, who felt the Terrapins could have made a bigger splash in its coaching search.

Sources: At least half the fan base already wants Kevin Willard fired from his position as the next Maryland basketball head coach. https://t.co/tgxMxwCnC9
— Justin Fitzgerald (@jfitzgerald52) March 19, 2022

In recent years, Maryland fans voiced their frustration with the struggles in March for Mark Turgeon. While he did a decent job at winning games, his lack of success in March irked the Maryland faithful and they didn’t hide their feelings. Ultimately, Turgeon stepped down in December eight games into this season.

If Maryland fans didn’t like Mark Turgeon, I’m not so sure how this Kevin Willard hire is going to pan out.
— Tyler Byrum (@theTylerByrum) March 19, 2022

The optics of Maryland running off Mark Turgeon in December to hire a guy who's 1-5 in the NCAA tournament are admittedly terrible, but let's not forget that Kevin Willard can really coach. Six 20-win seasons in seven years at Seton Hall is really hard to do.
— Jeff Eisenberg (@JeffEisenberg) March 19, 2022

Honestly, if Maryland is hiring Kevin Willard, this is shaping up like when Edsall and UCONN got destroyed by Oklahoma and they hired him 24 hours later…and it went downhill from there
— Jeremy Huber (@jrhubersxm) March 19, 2022

https://twitter.com/McMahon2UMD/status/1505157397752524802

If Kevin Willard is the best they could do, the Maryland job is significantly less appealing than we thought
— Jeremy Schneider (@J_Schneider) March 19, 2022

Maryland's going to have to trot out this Kevin Willard guy (or whoever) at a press conference and act like he was their first choice all along and we're just thrilled to have him. Get ready!
— Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) March 19, 2022

Doesn’t sound like Willard is a popular choice in Maryland. However, there are some that have a positive spin on the choice.

If Kevin Willard is ultimately Maryland’s guy, fine. Don’t know the man so I’m not gonna judge too harshly. Hopefully he can recruit the DMV well and then we can go from there.— Daniel Oyefusi (@DanielOyefusi) March 19, 2022

Nate Oats or Eric Musselman would’ve been my top choice for the Maryland job, but between buyouts & overall attractiveness of the gig there’s no guarantee either would leave their current posts.

Kevin Willard’s had a solid run at Seton Hall. Good coach. Does he move the needle?— Ethan Cadeaux (@Ethan_Cadeaux) March 19, 2022

If you’re feeling down about the Maryland hire just remember Kevin Willard beat Mark Turgeon’s best team ever without his two star players and came into Xfinity the year before and owned the Terps.

This is an upgrade.— Jordan Gold (@Jordan_Gold0) March 19, 2022

Rick Pitino, Andy Enfield and Mike Brey were some names rumored for the Terrapins’ opening. But Pitino made it clear he is comfortable remaining at Iona. Enfield received a contract extension from USC to back off Maryland’s interest. Brey seems firmly entrenched at Notre Dame.

Is Willard the best Maryland could get? Maybe. But if the hire becomes official, he’ll have to do a lot to please the fan base and erase the unpleasant memories of the Turgeon era.