I recall Zagoria asking him whether his wife wanted him to stay in New Jersey, to which Willard responded "my wife wants me to get as far away from her as possible." I don't remember much else.
Jerry C — Introduction No Later Than Wed
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It was clear that Willard was not going to answer anything about his leaving. And BTW it was Zack who first did ask the question on record in a presser. I remember that as he sat directly behind me that night.
Regarding off the record stuff, that is common with all sports reporters. Coaches will tell reporters/media members a lot if they trust that the info will not be printed. Otherwise the reporter gets nothing. Better to have off the record info than not have anything as it helps to navigate future stories without revealing exact details.
I have to do the same thing on the Trove. Sources trust me to not post what they ask me to keep to myself. But down the road knowing what I know aids in formulating future content for the site.
It's a game that all reporters must play.
Thanks Joe and Bud…this tweet I do recall. Not what I would call directly addressing the Maryland rumors. But hey it’s something.
I’ll be curious to keep tabs as to how the Maryland media holds Willard accountable if the performance is not up to their expectations. I just have a feeling the approach will be different than what he is used to.
Jersey City is now throwing a parade for the team Friday. This might change timelines?
That's my logic. Pen to paper this week. Press conference next week my guess or whenever after they give Sha a chance to talk to his players.
First? To my recollection he was the only one to ask that question during a press conference. If I'm wrong then please let me know.
Understandable. Dan - are you often asked to nuance or “soften” in the most positive light the negative stuff you hear, to the extent you are allowed to share it all? For example, on the forthcoming “timeline” you are going to share on the HC developments, I imagine there is some stuff that doesn’t paint certain folks in the best light. Whether it’s what was reported about Sha’s relationship with the school no shorter than a few weeks ago, KW not going anywhere to bring out the door, etc. I imagine if you are giving the green light to share certain things you need to be wary of putting the most positive spin possible on it, at least in many cases.
I hope not. I could be wrong, but the world of Seton Hall basketball will not change exponentially if we hold of until Monday. How many recruits/transfers aren't going to pick up the call if Sha comes calling next week as opposed to end of this week? If we do sign up and wait to announce it, you know someone in the media is going to find out and put it out there making things awkward for Sha.
I was reading an Maryland article printed about Willard NCAA record and it was him giving excuses (nothing wrong with that). But KW said this year we lost Aiken to injury as well as a power forward right before the tournament. I honestly do not remember losing a PF. His quote is below.
"This year, we kind of just limped in. We lost our point guard halfway through, then we lost our power forward right before the tournament. You have to be fresh going into the NCAA tournament."
"This year, we kind of just limped in. We lost our point guard halfway through, then we lost our power forward right before the tournament. You have to be fresh going into the NCAA tournament."
Maybe he meant our Power Forwards stopped playing before the tournament....
I never share anything that a source gives me that he doesn't want shared. Even though at times when people question me regarding comments or opinions I have expressed it would serve my purpose. Meaning at times I look bad because what I know and why I said it cannot be fully justified.
Regarding Kevin Willard in particular. He was never an easy guy to cover. He had an A type personality and wanted to always control the narrative. Meaning he did not always take kindly to certain questions and because of that those questions were seldom asked.
And yes I know the response to that by many will be...well that's the job of the media, and to a degree they would be correct. But it was a game everyone (especially those not associated with a major newspaper) had to play to stay in the inner circle. Don't and getting news on the program became harder. Not impossible, but certainly harder.
Willard isn't the only coach like that. In fact a good deal of them are. You simply learn to work around the issues you have to face.
We shouldn't wait to hire or announce Holloway. Everyone knows that he's coming to the Hall and we need to fill the coaching void immediately. Parade goers will treat Holloway no differently knowing that he's been hired by SHU, he's done something for their program that no other coach has done in NCAA history.
Considering Richmond posted up better than any of our PFs, I could see where the confusion set in.
That is what I may call a laslol...lol
Dont know about you Lefty, but the St Petes post guys play better post than ours. I wonder how tall the coach is who taught them at St Petes. Gotta feeling he is shorter than me...
Im hoping Holloway is talking to recruits behind the scenes as we speak. Agree cant wait till official announcement. time is now!!
You want to do an interesting exercise.
In the last 20 years rank for me the best PF/Cs to play at Seton Hall that had a good back to the basket game.
I’ll give you my top 5
1. Kelly Whitney
2. Eugene Teague
3. Herb Pope
4. Angel Delgado
5. John Garcia
20 years (12 in Willard’s tenure) and that list is pretty limited. I wouldn’t even know who to list from 6-10 to be honest.
You show how clueless you are by not having Larry Davis in your top 5. LOL
Not fair. I was big fan of Larry Davis. Wish we would have gone 5 guards more often. Could have been revolutionary.
For me when I read the article below , I felt like Willard was in defensive mode with the Maryland press. He was trying to make compelling excuses regarding our tourn record. To me he sounded like he was feeling the heat before even coaching his first game. Another "error" was him saying we were going to be a 2 seed in Powells last year.
https://247sports.com/college/maryl...nsfer-portal-Julian-Reese-and-more-185214797/
https://247sports.com/college/maryl...nsfer-portal-Julian-Reese-and-more-185214797/
I’m thinking pen to paper and announcement this week, press conference next week.
It’s a recruiting dead period now until the championship game is over but everyone will be at the Final Four and Sha needs to be there as Seton Hall Head Coach.
He also claims that they should have been a 4 seed in 2015-16. We were clearly in the 8-9 range, as usual, before heading into the Big East tournament. Not sure how that run jumps you to a 4 seed.
He goes onto to say that he scrapped his entire offense from 2015-16 because he HAD to feed the ball to Angel and play inside out. I clearly remember how Angel almost went for a triple double in the first round of the BET that year vs Marquette and said to myself why haven’t we run the offense through Angel and the post all season. So I am not sure what he is talking about there.
Lastly this quote is really telling…
"I'm good friends with Mark, I think Mark did a phenomenal job here. You know, again, consistency is not, for some reason in America today, being consistent is not a good value. Which, I don't know why that happened, or how that happened in this country. But Mark was very consistent. His teams played very hard and won a lot of games," he said.
it’s like he is almost trying to defend his inability to take the team further and already try to temper expectations at Maryland. Consistency is good, nothing wrong with that. But our society has always been built on how can you dream to be better, go farther, and achieve more. So if that is not where he wants to set the bar he is going to be in trouble and I also think that is why things became stale for some including myself. Settling for consistently being good but not striving to be great was not the bar I wanted for my Pirates.
hes already putting up the wall shielding his insecurities.
As it has turned out, I'm glad he moved on. The breath of fresh air is so nice.
Love Sha and he will have us mentioned with a lot of top players.
Exactly
They could announce it as soon as the parade is over. Get him a car to the airport and he'll be in NOLA BY 6 PM local time. And start looking for any assistants he may still need.
He will still be one of the hottest interviews. Even in studio
Maybe he was talking about Samuel completely disappearing at the end of the year 🤔
Maybe Samuel or Yetna was playing through something that wasn’t for public consumption.
Gotta believe the guy pissed in your coffee one morning. Whether you want to admit it or not because of Willard, Sha doesn’t face a tough rebuild ahead of him. He can come in and compete from day 1. That’s not the case for a lot of new coaches. I think it would be best to just say thank you and move on. The biggest issue he faces is bringing in money. I hope your contributions in the Sha era meet your level of negativity over the Willard years.
Just not buying that Willard was ok with just making the NCAAT. All these coaches are are intensely competitive. The S16 has to be the goal that Willard wanted badly. That being said, it is the right time for him to move on in his career. We’re getting Holloway and that’s all that really matters.
i think sha would get it done regardless of any rebuild scenerio. also, 5 seniors are graduating. one of them Harris leaving specifically because of willard. imagine if his brother goes with him.
Sha will have no problem bringing in money. fans not only like him, they love him. and he loves them. willard hated fans. maybe well be surprised to see the buzz generated when its not a wet rag leading the helm.
of course, if i cant contribute more than $1000 its essentially useless, or so im told
