Villanova Head Coach Says He’s Firing His Whole Staff At Halftime
Throwing assistants under the bus didn’t stop a first-round exit for the Wildcats.
Tempers and temperatures run high during March Madness, with the elevated stakes and every game being a win or go home battle.
Often, especially for big programs, success or failure in March can be the difference between a head coach keeping his job or heading to the chopping block. Usually, those staffing decisions come from the athletic director or administration. Sometimes, it’s at the behest of fans or donors upset with the macro direction of the program.
But it’s pretty rare, bordering on unprecedented, to see a head coach threaten to fire his entire staff at halftime of an NCAA tournament game. That’s exactly what the #8 seeded Villanova Wildcats head coach Kevin Willard said he would do in his on-court interview after the first half of his team’s game against the #9 seeded Utah State Aggies.
And it doesn’t seem like he was kidding.
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Villanova Wildcats guard Acaden Lewis talks with head coach Kevin Willard. (Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)
Villanova’s Kevin Willard Says He’s Getting A ‘New Staff’ After First Half Lapses
Willard joined Lauren Shehadi on the court after the first half, and she brought up Utah State’s big advantage with points in the paint, asking, “Coach, 16 paint points for Utah State, how do you keep them out?”
He immediately responded, “I’m going to fire my staff,” he said, before Shehadi interjected, “Not Now!”
But Willard was serious, continuing, “Well yeah, I am, because we’ve given up eight points on underneath out-of-bounds defense, so the only thing I’m going to do is fire them and get a new staff.”
Shehadi, clearly surprised, said, “All right, go do that now,” before sending it back to the studio.
Willard’s staff did, in fact, return to the bench for the second half. Though it didn’t do them much good, as Utah State erased a two-point halftime deficit to pull off the slight upset at Viejas Arena in San Diego, 86-76. The Aggies advance to take on the #1 seeded Arizona Wildcats on Sunday, and Villanova’s headed back home. Presumably with a new coaching staff for Willard’s second season on the job.
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