BY JP Pelzman
This is the first of three installments of my interview with New York Post college basketball writer and columnist Zach Braziller. Similar to my recent talk with Jerry Carino, it’s structure is kind of a like a written podcast. I hope Zach’s insights, not only on Seton Hall, but on St. John’s and the rest of the college hoop scene are interesting.
..................JPP: How would you characterize your relationship with Kevin Willard? It's fun for people to observe from the outside, but what is it like from the inside?
ZB: It’s definitely grown. It's definitely a unique relationship. He's probably the head coach I'm closest with. There’s other coaches I'm pretty cool with, I'd say Steve Masiello at Manhattan is someone I have a very good relationship with. Dan Hurley (of UConn) is someone I go back a long ways with when he was coaching at St. Benedict’s, so I have a good relationship with him. But Kevin is definitely the one I feel the closest with.
I definitely feel like he’s loosened up in recent years. He’s definitely a funny guy and he isn’t as buttoned-down as he appeared early on. He's really kind of shown his personality more and I think that kind of endeared him to the fan base. He likes to take shots at me in the press conferences, which is cool. My boss is a Seton Hall fan and he gets a kick out of it when he listens to a press conference. I’ll take shots at him, too. We'll text and I'll remind him of things. It's a good relationship. I like it.
He doesn’t take himself nearly as seriously as people think. I think that’s the misconception about him.
