PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
The definitive source for all PirateCrew news.
Bio
**2020 USBWA DISTRICT II COACH OF THE YEAR**
**2019 PETER A. CARLESIMO MET WRITERS COACH OF THE YEAR**
**2019 NABC DISTRICT 5 COACH OF THE YEAR**
**2017 PETER A. CARLESIMO MET WRITERS COACH OF THE YEAR**
**2017 FORBES TOP 10 NCAA BASKETBALL COACHES FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS**
**2016 PETER A. CARLESIMO MET WRITERS COACH OF THE YEAR****2016 BIG EAST CO-COACH OF THE YEAR**
Highlights
Led Seton Hall to 2016 BIG EAST Tournament Championship & 2020 BIG EAST Regular Season Championship
Guided Seton Hall to four straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 2016-19 (a fifth straight trip in 2020 was canceled due to COVID-19) as well as an appearance in 2022
Has accumulated seven 20-win seasons and seven finishes in the top-half of the BIG EAST Conference
Led Pirates to program's first NCAA Tournament win since 2004Coached Seton Hall's first consensus NCAA first-team All-American since 1953
Ranked as high as No. 8 in the national top-25 polls
Team has won the NABC Team Academic Excellence Award five straight years (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)72 BIG EAST All-Academic team selections
Three NCAA Academic Progress Rate Public Recognition Awards (2015, 2016, 2017)
One of only three coaches to ever win the Peter A. Carlesimo Award three or more times
The 11th winningest coach in BIG EAST history
Come to Seton Hall University, develop your academic and athletic skills, play in the greatest basketball conference in the country, compete for conference championships and NCAA Tournament bids and graduate with a degree and the opportunity to play professionally all while enjoying a great student-athlete experience.
That’s the program that Kevin Willard has built in his 11 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.
Willard has mentored 15 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 National Center of the Year Award winner.
Isaiah Whitehead, the 2016 unanimous All-BIG EAST first team selection and Haggerty Award winner, who went on to be a second-round selection in the 2016 NBA Draft.
Myles Powell, the 2020 BIG EAST Player of the Year, Seton Hall's first NCAA consensus first-team All-American since 1953, a two-time Haggerty Award winner and the 2020 Jerry West National Shooting Guard of the Year Award winner.
Sandro Mamukelashvili, the 2021 BIG EAST Player of the Year and Haggerty Award winner and finalist for the 2021 Karl Malone National Power Forward of the Year Award.
Making a huge emphasis on effort in the classroom, Willard’s student-athletes have also combined for 72 BIG EAST All-Academic team selections, and the program has boasted a perfect single-year academic progress rate in six of the nine 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. The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) has given the program the Team Academic Excellence Award five consecutive years from 2016-20 for finishing the academic year with a grade point average above 3.0. Seton Hall has twice received the BIG EAST Men's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award with Michael Nzei winning in 2019 and Ike Obiagu winning in 2021.
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. His 2021-22 recruiting class was also rated in the top 25 by 247Sports.
The 2020-21 season marked Seton Hall and Willard's sixth consecutive top-four finish in the BIG EAST Conference, one of the best basketball conferences in the country. Only Villanova has also completed six straight top-four finishes in the same span from 2016-21. The Pirates also reached the BIG EAST semifinals for the fifth time in their last seven BIG EAST Tournament appearances with a thrilling overtime quarterfinal win over St. John's.
Willard and his staff's tutelage of Sandro Mamukelashvili over four years paid off handsomely as the star power forward developed into the 2021 BIG EAST Player of the Year and Haggerty Award winner after being one of only two athletes to rank in the BIG EAST's top-five in scoring and rebounding and one of only two to be in the top-15 in scoring, rebounding and assists. The coaching staff also saw a rise to stardom in Jared Rhoden, who upped his game to become the team's second primary scoring threat by averaging 14.9 points per game, up from 9.1 points the previous season. Rhoden was a first-team All-Met selection and the BIG EAST free throw shooting champion, and his performance in the BIG EAST Championship landed him All-Tournament honors.
The 2019-20 season was one to remember as Willard beautifully managed the team's high expectations and turned them into a championship. The Pirates were the favorites in the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches Poll and were nationally ranked in the preseason, and despite two major injuries to the team in December, Willard's group stayed the course and won a share of the BIG EAST regular season championship for the first time since 1993. The Hall was nationally ranked for most of the season, reaching as high as No. 8, and the Pirates had one of the best months in program history in January, going 7-0 as part of a 10-game winning streak. The Pirates had three wins over top-10 programs, including a victory at No. 10 Villanova on Feb. 8, the program's first road win over their rival since 1994.
