NCAA Coaching Carousel

[H.U.S.T.L.E.]

Wow, writers in Virginia are awful at fact checking. A disaster of a random blog post is one thing, but I really like the Roanoke Times version of this year's history:

Kevin Willard, Seton Hall

Willard, 43, has led the Pirates to four straight NCAA bids. The 20-14 Pirates won the Big East tournament this year. The 10th-seeded Pirates fell to Wofford in the first round of the NCAAs.

I freaking wish.

Don't worry, not even VT fans like Mark Berman. He's insufferable, and obviously, not very good at his job.

[Hall2012]

Definitely getting less confident in Willard turning down VT to stay at SHU than I was earlier this morning.

[Hall2012]

Definitely getting less confident in Willard turning down VT to stay at SHU than I was earlier this morning.

Biggest hope right now is that he's using interest in the VT job to get a raise or help push through some of the facility upgrades he's been asking for.

[H.U.S.T.L.E.]

Definitely getting less confident in Willard turning down VT to stay at SHU than I was earlier this morning.

Biggest hope right now is that he's using interest in the VT job to get a raise or help push through some of the facility upgrades he's been asking for.

Believe it or not, there's some fans on VT message boards who don't want Willard because Seton Hall was implicated in the FBI investigation via Whitehead & Morton.

I can't even with these people... We have a great coach for 5 years resurrect the program and now our fanbase is all high & mighty over a report that never included Willard's name. There's a serious lack of self-reflection when it comes to VT basketball by the fanbase.

[Hall2012]

Believe it or not, there's some fans on VT message boards who don't want Willard because Seton Hall was implicated in the FBI investigation via Whitehead & Morton.

I can't even with these people... We have a great coach for 5 years resurrect the program and now our fanbase is all high & mighty over a report that never included Willard's name. There's a serious lack of self-reflection when it comes to VT basketball by the fanbase.

Yeah, all indication is that scenario was Tiny Morton acting is on his own. If anything further comes of it, Willard could certainly be blamed for hiring a shady character in Morton, but it doesn't sound like he's accused of any real wrongdoing himself.

[Hall2012]

Talk on the SHU boards has mainly switched over to who should replace Willard. The names coming up the most are:

Tim Cluess - Seton Hall last MBB coach, WBB coach, athletic director, and university president have all come directly from Iona...so why not go back to the well?
Adrian Griffin - The NBA alumnus route that St. John's and Georgetown took. His son also happens to be a top-10 national recruit for 2021.
Shaheen Holloway - Willard's top assistant until taking the head job at St. Peter's last year

[adoraz]

Willard to VT looking pretty likely, along with Dixon (TCU) to UCLA and Buzz (VT) to Texas A&M.

I figured Willard would leave after next year, but if they can get someone in there now this might not be a bad thing. Hall's next coach could get off to a fast start with an NCAAT bid year 1. Seton Hall doesn't have a good recruiting class for 2019 (ranked #75 overall with zero 4 stars) or 2020, so really their biggest recruits would be keeping the current players together for 2019-20.

Willard did a great job coaching this year, so would like to see him stay, but end of the day I think Hall will be fine.

[GoldenWarrior11]

I wouldn't be so quick to assume Willard will be going to Virginia Tech. VT is losing a lot from this year's team, and - judging from twitter - all of the incoming recruits will be headed to College Station to join Buzz as well. They will be taking a huge step back next year, and is not unlike Marquette's situation when Buzz left us either (pattern???). Willard also has a top-25 team coming in next season, which he could - in theory - paylay into a much better job next Spring. VT is probably between the 40th and 60th job in the country. Hall is well within that range as well (closer to 40 than 60).

If Willard accepts VT, I wouldn't be shocked to see him ever escape the middle of the ACC, with many years at the bottom. There's just too many blue blood basketball programs together in that conference, and Buzz was able to take advantage of Louisville going through a significant rebuild, along with Syracuse and Pittsburgh not being as competitive in his final seasons.

[scoscox]

Wojo too will have a great team next year. It’s a good move to try to get more money from Marquette and seton hall which I think at least Willard probably deserves, but I think it’d be a bad move for both to actually take the job

[MullinMayhem]

Getting sick of AAC coaches staying and Big East coaches always poached. Bad perception. That being said, money talks and our coaches will almost always be poached if they succeed at this level.