PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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Kevin Willard’s coronation at Maryland on Tuesday, which seemed to have been planned with all the efficiency of a presidential inauguration, was the opposite of his exit from Seton Hall itself, which seemed to have been drawn up on the back of the TCU final box score.
All that was missing was “I hereby resign as HC of the SHP.”
Still, even though the affair in College Park was the equivalent of your ex enjoying a night on the town without you, it’s instructive to take one final look (I promise) at the Kevin Willard era.
(Yes, I believe that some people will never pay attention to a Kevin Willard-coached game again unless the Terrapins happen to play the Pirates. I also believe the schadenfreude crowd will even root for Rutgers against Maryland as long as Willard is in charge.)
As with any separation immediately afterward, in assessing the Kevin Willard era at The Hall, this much is clear--it's complicated.
The easiest way to do it is to start with the positives, and then counter with the negatives.
The good
Cleanup.
It's revisionist history to claim it wasn’t that bad when Willard took over. The landscape was more barren than a Mad Max movie. That’s why a fresh-faced (yet bald with a weave) soon-to-be-35-year-old Iona coach with no NCAA Tournaments on his resume got the gig in the first place.
Willard lifted Seton Hall out of that hole and into perennial NCAA contention. That seemed far off 12 years ago.
Player development
Players got better during their time in South Orange. Not every one of them--no staff bats one thousand--but many did improve.
Of course, Willard isn’t the only one who gets credit.
Assistant coaches, particularly Shaheen Holloway and Grant Billmeier, deserve much credit. Holloway’s fine work is no longer a secret, but people around these parts always knew.
Dee-fense
Unlike predecessor Bobby Gonzalez, for whom defense often was optional, Willard made it a foundation. And that aspect of the game often saved the Pirates when Willard’s, um, offense malfunctioned.
The bad
March sadness
Whatever the reason, whether they were distracted or simply outplayed, the Pirates’ 69-42 loss to TCU was a fitting end to Willard’s arc in South Orange. Seton Hall was 1-5 in NCAA Tournament games under Willard.
To be fair, the Pirates got a terrible draw in 2016 after winning the Big East tournament, and nobody will ever know how Willard’s best team would’ve done in 2020.
Still, this is the gaping hole in his resume, and makes his hiring strange. Mark Turgeon was run out of College Park because he couldn’t get to the Sweet 16.
Know this: It is unlikely Willard gets to 1-5 in the NCAA Tournament with Maryland. If he is 1-4, the Under Armour brigade will be writing checks to relieve both him and AD Damon Evans, the man who hired him, of their duties.
January
With all the talk about Daylight Savings Time, few people realize that for the past several years South Orange and Newark have operated in January on WST--Willard Swoon Time.
Willard Swoon Time is unique to these two locales but, fortunately for Seton Hall, it usually automatically resets when the calendar turns to February.
However, WST has cost the Pirates better NCAA seedings (see above). Willard cannot afford to repeat the pattern.
Iso, iso
Willard took a shot at himself (and the fans he’s leaving behind) Tuesday when he touted his work ethic and then said, “(Opponents) might have a better zone offense, and if you ask the Seton Hall fans, they will tell you, everybody has a better zone offense than me.”
It was a funny (and pre-scripted) quip, but it demonstrated he is as stubborn as ever and will bring his iso concepts south. The problem at The Hall was that not every lead offensive player was good at it. For every Isaiah Whitehead, there was a Jared Rhoden, a good player who needed more ball-screen action to help him succeed.
It seems clear Willard believes his iso concepts will work at Maryland because with the assistant coaches he intends to bring in, such as Tony Skinn, he will get the 4- and 5-stars who can succeed at iso. Plus, Maryland’s superior facilities also will help. But Skinn has been more sizzle than steak thus far as a recruiter even though he has a great reputation in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Willard also will have to raise his game off the court. There will be media demands on his time. He got paid, and that comes with the deal.
Who knows? Maybe Willard and Seton Hall will meet down the road in a 7-10 NCAA game. We all know the selection committee’s macabre sense of humor.
Willard's watersheds
March 12, 2016--Seton Hall 69, Villanova 67
Isaiah Whitehead’s three-point play gave The Hall its first Big East tournament title since 1993. That’s the happiest I ever saw Willard after a game
March 15, 2018--Seton Hall 94, NC State 83
Which one of these is not like the others?
Khadeen Carrington scored 26 points and Desi Rodriguez added 20 in Willard’s only NCAA victory
Feb. 8, 2020--Seton Hall 70, Villanova 64
Myles Powell scored 19 points and Sandro Mamukelashvili scored 12 of his 17 points in the second half as the Pirates snapped a 17-game road skid to the Wildcats
Willard’s woes
March 17, 2017--Arkansas 77, Seton Hall 71
The Pirates blow an eight-point second-half lead and Carrington twice turns the ball late in the game with better ballhandler Madison Jones inexplicably on the bench
Feb. 25, 2012--Rutgers 77, Seton Hall 72, OT
A phantom foul on Herb Pope in OT was costly. This and a subsequent blowout loss at lowly DePaul cost the Pirates a possible NCAA at-large bid
March 11, 2015--Marquette 78, Seton Hall 56
Fans were almost in open revolt behind the Seton Hall bench as an impassive Willard sat throughout the second half as his team finished the season with nine losses in 10 games. Fortunately for him, Whitehead and the rest of the rest of the incoming freshmen will resurrect the program and save his job the following season starting a succession of many rewarding campaigns in South Orange, culminating in yesterday's Maryland press conference.
