Kevin Willard
Head Coach
Alma Mater Pittsburgh '97
Bio
Year-By-Year Record
Highlights
- Led Seton Hall to 2016 BIG EAST Championship
- Has guided Seton Hall to four straight NCAA Tournament appearances and 20-win seasons (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)
- Led Pirates to first NCAA Tournament win since 2004
- Team cumulative GPA is currently over 3.0
- 54 BIG EAST All-Academic team selections
- Three NCAA Academic Progress Rate Public Recognition Awards (2015, 2016, 2017)
- Ranked as high as No. 13 in the national top-25 polls
- One of only two coaches to ever win Peter A. Carlesimo Award three times
That’s the program that Kevin Willard has built in his nine seasons as the head coach of the Seton Hall men’s basketball program. With a keen eye for recruiting, an emphasis on individual instruction and skill development and a dedication to academic success, he and his coaching staff have built the Pirates into winners on the court and in the classroom.
In 2018-19, he coached The Hall to its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, a feat the school has not accomplished since a string of four straight NCAA berths from 1991-94. In addition, he has led the Pirates to four straight 20-win seasons, a program first, as well as four consecutive third place finishes in the BIG EAST with a .500 or better record in all four seasons.
Willard has mentored 13 All-BIG EAST selections and three BIG EAST All-Rookies, and this includes Fuquan Edwin, the 2014 BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year, Angel Delgado, the 2015 BIG EAST Rookie of the Year, 2017 unanimous All-BIG EAST selection and Haggerty Award winner and 2018 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award winner, Myles Powell, a unanimous All-BIG EAST selection and the Haggerty Award Metropolitan Player of the Year in 2019 and Isaiah Whitehead, the 2016 unanimous All-BIG EAST first team selection and Haggerty Award winner, who went on to be selected in the second round of the 2016 NBA Draft.
Making a huge emphasis on effort in the classroom, Willard’s student-athletes have also combined for 54 BIG EAST All-Academic team selections, and the program has boasted a perfect single-year academic progress rate in five of the seven NCAA reports since he became head coach as well as perfect multi-year APR scores in 2016 and 2017. The NCAA has also recognized Seton Hall with NCAA APR Public Recognition awards for boasting an APR in the top 10 percent in the country three consecutive years from 2015-17. In 2019, Willard's top academic student-athlete, Michael Nzei, was named the BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Willard has proven to be a strong evaluator and recruiter of talent, as he brought in a consensus top-15 national recruiting class in 2014, led by Whitehead, the program’s first McDonald’s All-American since 2001 and just the fifth all-time. He also has been able to retain Metropolitan New York’s top talent; the 2019-20 roster boasts six scholarship student-athletes hailing from either New York or New Jersey.
The 2018-19 season was one of Willard's finest coaching jobs as he took a Pirates team that was picked to finish eighth in the BIG EAST and molded them into a gritty group of student-athletes who never gave up. Playing an incredible amount of tight games that came down to the final possession, the Pirates rallied to win 20 games, made a run to the BIG EAST Tournament final and secured a fourth straight NCAA Tournament bid. The berth was the result of some big time wins for the squad, including a neutral court victory over then No. 9 Kentucky at Madison Square Garden, a road victory at Maryland, home wins over nationally ranked Marquette and Villanova and then a repeat victory over nationally ranked Marquette in the BIG EAST Tournament semifinals. Willard's excellent work was recognized when he was named NABC District 5 Coach of the Year and the recipient of the Peter A. Carlesimo Award as the Met Writers Co-Coach of the Year.
Willard's wizardry in skill development continues to show in his student-athletes. Through hard work, Myles Powell continued his development as one of the all-time greats in Seton Hall history. His junior campaign proved to be historic, averaging 23.1 points, 13th best in the nation, and also finishing in the BIG EAST's top-5 in scoring, three-pointers made and steals. Powell's penchant for the dramatic contributed to the Pirates' big victories on the season, and at the end of the year, Powell was awarded a slew of honors, including Associated Press All-America honorable mention, Haggerty Award Metropolitan Player of the Year, unanimous All-BIG EAST first team and NABC and USBWA All-District.
The 2017-18 season was filled with accolades and milestones as a senior-laden squad delivered the program's first NCAA Tournament victory since 2004, a 94-83 win over NC State that was followed by an eye-opening performance against top-seeded Kansas. The Pirates, who were ranked as high as No. 13 in the Associated Press poll on the season, played a rigorous schedule throughout the year, achieving banner wins over Texas Tech, Louisville, Butler and Providence. Twenty-six of Seton Hall's 34 games came against KenPom top-100 teams, and the Pirates won 15 of those contests, while also earning nine wins against teams that advanced to national postseason.
The Hall also proved to be an elite BIG EAST squad once again as the Pirates finished in a tie for third place and maintained their position as one of the best teams since the realignment of the new BIG EAST in 2014. Including conference tournament wins, Seton Hall has the fifth-most league wins in the 10-team conference since 2014 (50) and the third-most league wins since 2016 (36).
The Pirates finished 2017-18 rated No. 24 in the Sagarin Ratings, No. 26 in the KenPom, No. 27 in the BPI and No. 31 in the NCAA RPI while also receiving votes in the final Associated Press and USA Today Coaches polls.
The Pirates again got outstanding individual performances as Delgado cemented his place as one of the all-time BIG EAST greats, breaking the career conference rebounds record, winning the season's rebounding championship for a record-tying third time in four years and averaging a double-double for a second straight year. He was the easy choice for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar National Center of the Year Award. Desi Rodriguez took his game to the next level, leading the team in scoring and most 20-point games on the season as he took home second-team All-BIG EAST honors. Khadeen Carrington transitioned to point guard and steadily got the Pirates to where they need to be with a career-high 150 assists while also scoring a barrage of points towards the end of the season. Myles Powell made a huge leap in his sophomore year, increasing his shooting totals, raising his scoring average by five points and, most impressively, more than tripling the number of assists he generated en route to BIG EAST Most Improved Player of the Year honors.
In 2016-17, Willard’s student-athletes built upon previous success to enjoy a strong non-conference season that included wins over Iowa, California and a nationally-ranked South Carolina squad. After a bumpy start to BIG EAST play that was a byproduct of a difficult schedule, the Pirates regrouped to post an incredible February and March, finishing the conference slate with seven wins in their final nine tries to earn a tie for third place in the BIG EAST, which ultimately earned seven NCAA Tournament bids. Plus, for the third time in the last four seasons, Willard guided The Hall to a spot in the BIG EAST Tournament semifinals with a championship victory in 2016.
With four top-50 RPI wins, nine against the top 100, three victories over nationally ranked opponents and only one loss outside the top 100, coupled with the team’s strong finish, Seton Hall’s resume made for an easy at-large selection into the NCAA Tournament. At season’s end, he repeated as the Peter A. Carlesimo Met Writers Coach of the Year, becoming just the fourth coach to ever be honored in back-to-back season, and Forbes Magazine named him one of the “Top 10 NCAA College Basketball Coaches for the Next 10 Years.”
One of the biggest reasons The Hall returned to the NCAA Tournament is because of its defensive identity. The Pirates ranked in the top half of the BIG EAST in scoring defense, field goal percentage defense and steals while leading the conference in rebounding margin. Rebounding was Seton Hall’s strong suit, as the Pirates out-rebounded opponents in 25 of 32 games. The team’s offensive rebounding was also off the charts, averaging 13.1 offensive boards per game that were converted into points 57 percent of the time.
