At this time last year, Kevin Willard’s job status was uncertain. There were rumors of players transferring. The Seton Hall coach was, in his words, “pretty close” to not returning.
“I literally just said to someone, what a difference a year makes,” Pat Lyons, the school’s athletic director, said Wednesday.
That’s putting it mildly.
Willard guided Seton Hall (22-8) to a stunning third-place finish in the Big East after being picked seventh by the league’s coaches. The Pirates are a lock to reach the NCAA Tournament on Sunday — his first in nine seasons as a head coach, six at Seton Hall, three at Iona College — for the first time in a decade after going 12-6 in the conference, their most league wins since the 1992-93 season, and Willard was rewarded for his team’s accomplishments by being named Big East Co-Coach of the Year.
“I have an athletic director that really stood by me, and I have a group of kids that stood by me. I think that goes a long way,” Willard said during a press conference at the Garden before the Big East Tournament kicked off. Third-seeded Seton Hall faces No. 6 Creighton Thursday night in the quarterfinals.
“It’s going to sound corny: I shared this with my team before I left. What I told them was this was their award. They earned it, they deserved it. They’ve listened, they’ve worked hard, they’ve done everything I’ve asked.”
Willard and Villanova’s Jay Wright shared the award. Somehow, Xavier’s Chris Mack, the United States Basketball Writers Association’s National Coach of the Year, was snubbed.
When last year ended, with nine losses in 10 games, Willard met with Lyons. There was trepidation on both ends. Ultimately, Willard didn’t want to go, so confident in the players he recruited to the program, guaranteeing to Lyons they would win.
Willard has a special bond with this team, mainly because the five starting sophomores — Isaiah Whitehead, Khadeen Carrington, Ismael Sanogo, Desi Rodriguez and Angel Delgado — many of them highly rated prospects, chose him and Seton Hall at a time few would. They had growing pains last year, plenty of them, but spent the entire summer working together, starting to do so three days after the season concluded.
Carrington recently said if Willard, 42, didn’t come back, everyone would have left. Willard alleviated pressure from them, making the game fun where last year it was stressful, according to Whitehead. Early in the year, he benched Rodriguez for talking back after being taken out, making sure previous chemistry issues didn’t surface.
“More than anything, he hid the pressure he had on himself from the team,” Whitehead said. “It really means a lot to see him smile and really [be] relieved of the pressure.”
Before practice on Wednesday, before Willard made the trip across the river to the Garden for the press conference, he shared the news with his players. They mobbed him, one by one giving their coach a hug, smacking him on the back of the neck, an odd Seton Hall tradition this year when it gets good news.
“Each kid told me how proud they were,” Willard said. “It was a very special moment. “They understand that I believe in them tremendously. No one left after last year — that group, no one left. Isaiah could’ve went somewhere, Khadeen could’ve gone anywhere, Angel [too]. That group, they believed in what we’re trying to do, and that’s why we had a really, really good year.”
Senior guard Derrick Gordon, who had been battling concussion symptoms, practiced fully on Wednesday and will play against Creighton, according to Willard.
Dunn named Big East Player of Year
Providence junior Kris Dunn repeated as Big East Player of the Year on Wednesday, beating out fellow unanimous first-team selections Isaiah Whitehead of Seton Hall, Josh Hart of Villanova and teammate Ben Bentil.
The 6-foot-3 point guard was fourth in the league in scoring (16.3), second in assists (6.4) and first in steals (2.7), leading Providence to a fourth-place finish and likely third straight NCAA Tournament berth. Dunn also won Defensive Player of the Year honors, and is the only player to win both awards, which he has now done twice.
Marquette freshman Henry Ellenson, like Dunn a projected top-10 pick in June’s NBA draft, was the Rookie of the Year. The versatile 6-foot-10 forward, an eight-time Big East Rookie of the Week selection, led the conference in rebounding (9.8) and averaged a team-leading 16.8 points per game. He was also the first freshman to make the league’s first team since Syracuse’s Carmelo Anthony in 2002-03.
