Welcome to the conclusion of my three-part conversation with veteran Asbury Park Press and Gannett New Jersey writer and columnist Jerry Carino. In this installment, we wrap up the Kevin Willard era and also discuss why this job will mean so much to his successor, Shaheen Holloway.
Plus, the shocking changing of the guard at Villanova, Alexis Yetna’s return and Jared Rhoden’s quest to make it at the next level.
As most of you know, Jerry also is a talented news side columnist, writing important stories about ordinary folks with extraordinary and often difficult experiences and circumstances. He worked on this one during our talk, about a New Jersey father and son stranded in Afghanistan for seven months but finally able to make it back with some help. It's more than worth your time.
JPP: You were an undergrad when the P.J. Carlesimo era ended in 1994. How did that compare to the end of the Kevin Willard era?
JC: Actually, there are some similarities. They both ended after 12 years. They both ended on really disappointing NCAA Tournament showings. P.J. left to go to the NBA, so there weren't the same feelings people would’ve had if he had left to go to another college. One thing that felt similar was there was a feeling that both coaches had taken it as far as they could.
JPP: Interesting.
JC: I think with P.J., he felt he had done everything that he could do and obviously his ceiling was a little higher, but also with Willard there was a feeling that he had hit his ceiling. Not that anyone wanted P.J. to leave, there was a feeling what else could he accomplish here? He basically won a national championship. With Kevin, everybody kind of felt he had gone as far as he could go with this program. And he probably felt that way too.
JPP: I think the saddest thing about Kevin’s tenure is all the what-ifs, especially 2020. I mean, Kevin can tell us he had a Final Four team, but...Let’s put it this way. I think they would’ve gotten out of Albany, but after that, as you always say, it would have depended upon the matchups.
Was Myles Powell suddenly going to shake his shooting slump? Who knows?
JC: The question is would they have fulfilled their seed? There are plenty of 3 seeds that get knocked off by the 2 seed in the Sweet 16. To make the Sweet 16 at Seton Hall would’ve been a big deal.
JPP: But he’s talked about that as a Final Four team more than once.
JC: We'll never know. It's more than possible, but you can’t say that team would’ve made the Final Four. We'll never know.
JPP: And this year, the what-if is what if Bryce Aiken doesn’t get a concussion. What happens then?
JC: He's had a lot of bad luck, if you think about it. Jeremy Hazell gets hurt one week into (Willard's) first season.
JPP: When he actually had gotten him to buy in, and play defense, and Hazell got injured taking a charge.
JC: He was playing well all-around.
And then they had 2020, which was unfortunate, and then the Bryce Aiken injury, which really submarined the team’s hopes.
JPP: As far as Kevin leaving, I feel like something changed when Steve Pikiell got a raise and Andy Enfield got an extension. How do you see it?
JC: That's possible. Some people feel that Kevin was headed to Maryland from the time that (Mark) Turgeon was gone. They were impressed with what he did against them head-to-head.
I think he truly did wrestle like Hamlet with this decision, especially when it came to moving his family, who seemed very happy here. It is very possible that Steve Pikiell getting a Brinks truck full of money from Pat Hobbs, of all people, who also hired Kevin, was the breaking point. And Kevin said, “I gotta get mine, and I can’t get $4 million here, so I’ll go where I can get it.”
JPP: I'm not saying Kevin wants every last dollar, but I think that’s how he keeps score, like many people in sports.
JC: I don’t think he had one foot out the door for a year. He did have a kingdom here. He walked out of the kingdom into the lion’s den.
JPP: That’s true. He’s got to produce. And as you’ve said Under Armour and its resources and NIL opportunities will help him to get the 4- and 5-star players. But can he manage those high-maintenance egos? That was never his strength at Seton Hall, as we both know.
JC: Maryland is going to get you the players. The system is going to get you the players. What attracted them to Kevin is that Kevin will get more out of those players because Kevin is a master at player development.
A weakness of Kevin’s was managing internal conflicts. He didn’t suddenly become better at it. He just recruited better guys. He recruited guys who were better teammates and who were more coachable. That’s how Kevin resolved that.
There were many times over the years where Kevin had conflicts, whether it was Isaiah Whitehead and Sterling Gibbs, Desi (Rodriguez) and Khadeen (Carrington) or even this year, it was obvious that Bryce Aiken and Jared Rhoden were not two peas in a pod. They were not on the same page.
JPP: He's going to have to manage that at Maryland.
JC: Listen, I wish Kevin well. He did a great job of bringing Seton Hall back from the abyss. We've got to remember where the program was back in 2010 and he should be commended for that. He definitely enhanced the reputation of the place and left it in much better shape than he found it, which is what you ask from a coach.
It'll be fun when we see him at the RAC, the last place he wants to go! (laughs)
JPP: Got any Willard anecdotes that are printable?
JC: After a Big East tournament win, he would always go to the same steakhouse, by himself, he would go through the side door, sit in the same reclusive side of the place and order the same thing, a steak sandwich. The bartender knew his name, knew what he wanted, had watched the game, and nobody bothered him.
That’s how superstitious Kevin is.
And I’ve told this story many times, after Seton Hall beat Maryland in 2018, Mark Turgeon had four security guards escorting him through the concourse to the postgame press conference. Kevin did his presser in the hallway with his son by his side.
I always thought that showed you the differences in their style. Now Kevin is going to have the security escort and Sha will have his son walking around with him in the Prudential Center. It's funny how that happens.
