Maryland, men’s basketball coach Kevin Willard nearing contract extension

Maryland men’s basketball coach Kevin Willard and the university are nearing a contract extension, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. Details of the deal are not immediately known.

When the Terps wooed Willard away from Seton Hall in March 2022, the school gave him a seven-year contract worth $29 million with an annual salary of $3.9 million. That contract expires on March 31, 2029.

Last year, Willard was the state’s second-highest-paid employee, trailing only Maryland football coach Mike Locksley’s total earnings of $6 million.

Willard was paid $4.08 million, which included $498,000 in regular earnings and $3.58 million in other compensation, in 2024. It marked a slight increase from the $4.04 million he made in 2023.

Willard became the first coach in program history to guide the team to the NCAA Tournament in his debut season and the first coach to accumulate 20 victories in his first campaign. The Terps lost to Alabama in the second round. A year later, the squad stumbled to a 16-17 record and exited the Big Ten Tournament in the second round.

This season, however, the 49-year-old Willard has led the Terps to a 25-8 record, matching the most wins he has had in a single season in his career. In 2015-16, he helmed a Seton Hall team that went 25-9 and captured the Big East Conference regular-season title.

Maryland also went 14-6 in the Big Ten, which is another career best for Willard and tied for the second-most single-season conference wins in school history. The 2014-15 team went 14-4 in the Big Ten, and the 2019-20 squad enjoyed a 14-6 mark in the conference. All three teams trailed the standard set by the 2001-02 team that forged a 15-1 record in the Atlantic Coast Conference en route to claiming the program’s first — and only — national championship.

The Terps earned the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament and clobbered No. 7 seed Illinois, 88-65, in Friday’s quarterfinal before suffering an 81-80 loss to No. 3 seed Michigan in Saturday’s semifinal. They are projected as a No. 4 or 5 seed in the NCAA bracket, which will be unveiled tonight around 6 p.m.

In his first three seasons at Maryland, Willard has 63 wins, which is the most by a coach in his first three years in College Park. He also has compiled 32 conference victories, which is tied for the most in the first three seasons with Bud Millikan from 1951 to 1953.

Willard’s success coincides with the construction of a new basketball facility that began in June 2023 and is scheduled to open this summer. The 44,000-square-foot Barry P. Gossett Basketball Performance Center will boast a dedicated practice court, a strength and conditioning section, expanded locker rooms with state-of-the-art technology, athletic training areas with hydrotherapy, space for studying film and planning game strategy, office space for the men’s and women’s coaching staffs, and lounge areas.

The new building will allow the school to use offices, locker rooms and other space in the Xfinity Center to be utilized by several Olympic sports.

This article will be updated. Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at eklee@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun.

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Maryland, men’s basketball coach Kevin Willard nearing contract extension

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