Late Wednesday, when Mike Nzei saw a photo of Kevin Willard wearing a powder-blue Villanova warmup, he had to laugh.
For four years at Seton Hall, with Willard as his coach, Nzei and the Pirates fought the Big East blueblood tooth-and-nail. They met in two Big East Tournament title games and an unforgettable 2019 regular-season finale that got the Hall into the NCAA Tournament.
Now Willard was wearing their outfit, having taken the Wildcats’ reins after three years at Maryland.
“When I got that news, I was shocked and happy for him at the same time,” said Nzei, a former starting forward and Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year who works in Goldman Sachs’ global banking division. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, they went for our guy – the guy who gave them problems all those years when he was at Seton Hall.’”
Willard’s career move sent shock waves through the sport – he’s the first coach to leave the Big Ten for the Big East since realignment in 2013 – but to Nzei, it makes sense.
“He’s proven himself in the Big East,” he said. “He knows what it takes to win in that league. He’s a Big East guy. I feel like he belongs there.”
On Wednesday Willard spoke with reporters for the first time since his tumultuous exit from College Park, and although he chose his words carefully, a few of his remarks were telling for those who know him well. Here are three takeaways that might have gotten past those uninitiated in Willard-speak:
1. He’s tired of leaning on transfers.
Way before the transfer floodgates opened, Willard used transfers to reload at Seton Hall (Quincy McKnight, Bryce Aiken, Romaro Gill, Ike Obiagu, Derrick Gordon, Madison Jones, Kadary Richmond). He mined the portal perfectly last offseason to build a Sweet 16 roster at Maryland.
“We want to focus on high school kids and develop them, making them a priority again,” he said Wednesday. “We’re still going to recruit high school kids and we’re going to develop high school kids because I think they can help you—year to year—develop your culture, keep your culture. It’s very hard to just bring transfers in every year and keep a culture that you want to work.”
Focusing on high-schoolers is risky today because portal poachers are always lurking, but Villanova pours enough money into its program to play the retention game, so Willard can lean on his player-development chops and avoid the headaches that come with constant roster turnover.
2. He doesn’t quite know what to make of having a general manager
At Maryland Willard was his own GM, and he did a good job in that role. Villanova was an early ...
