Rutgers basketball: Kevin Willard is coming to town

Of all the folks who saw Rutgers basketball win at top-ranked Purdue Monday night, no one watched with a greater sense of urgency than the coach of the next team facing Steve Pikiell’s defensive wood-chipper.

“They are one of the most connected defensive teams I think I’ve seen in a real long time,” Kevin Willard said by phone Tuesday morning. “They feed off each other, they know what they’re doing, they all cover each other’s backs.”

Willard, whose Maryland squad visits Jersey Mike’s Arena Thursday (6:30 p.m., Big Ten Network) knows a thing or two about what’s coming. During the latter half of his 12 years at Seton Hall, where he built a perennial contender through in-your-face defense and hungry, underrecruited players, he watched Pikiell chart a similar course down the road. But this Rutgers defense comes with a twist.

“You always have to prepare for Steve and their man-to-man defense – they hard-hedge, they’re physical, they grind it out, but now they’ve become a special prep team with the way they’re pressing,” Willard said. “I think the absolute world of what he’s done.”

Not quite a homecoming

Willard’s Seton Hall teams went 4-3 at the RAC, and he posted a 3-2 record against Pikiell in the Garden State Hardwood Classic – but was 0-2 against Pikiell in Piscataway. Both of those losses featured madhouse environments.

Maryland won at Rutgers last year, but a lot of the roster has changed. What will Willard tell his Terps about the atmosphere that awaits?

“Honest to God, I don’t know yet,” he said. “Not sure if I want to spook them, because I know that especially after the win last night, that place is going to be rocking.”

He’ll be received badly, for sure. Once the archrival, always the archrival, and the cancellation of the 2020 Garden State Hardwood Classic during the pandemic stuck in Rutgers fans’ craw. A brief recap: Amid the total non-conference overhaul that fall, a potential open date for the rivalry fell through when Seton Hall opted to visit Penn State instead, rather than burn its home turn in the Rutgers series without fans in the building. That made sense, but was not well communicated to the Rutgers side, which found out through social media.

The two sides eventually patched things up and the series resumed, but after Seton Hall won in 2021, Willard admitted that he wasn’t a fan of the series because of the outsized importance that gets placed on one game and the pressure that comes with it.

“I hate this game, I really do," he said at the time.

That has no bearing on Thursday’s meeting, except it might explain why the boos have an extra edge to them. But Willard’s a level-headed guy; he’s not going to climb into the stands or jaw back at boobirds. In fact, he’ll have a contingent of family members and friends from the area in attendance.

“I’ll get to see some people who supported us and supported the family,” he said. “We still have very good friends in the area.”

Adjusting to a new setting

After taking over a Maryland program in disarray, Willard’s gotten some surprising results so far. The Terrapins (10-4 overall, 1-2 Big Ten) spent time in the Associated Press Top 25 after beating Miami and Illinois; more recently, they’ve been blown out by UCLA and Michigan.

“This group has worked hard and they have a great attitude,” he said. “They’ve put a ton of effort into getting us to where we are this first year; after everything they went through last year and having to rebuild this roster, they’ve done everything we’ve asked. We haven’t played well at times, but their effort and attitude have been great.”

It’s been a time of adjustment for him, too. Seton Hall was a smaller stage. There, when Willard regularly criticized the Big East schedule, his barbs more or less stayed within the niche community that follows the program. Last week, when he blasted the Big Ten schedule, it became a national story.

“Being at a big state school, the amount of alumni, the amount of fans, the attention from the media, everything is magnified,” Willard said. “It’s a little bit of an adjustment because it’s more time consuming, but that’s all part of getting to know the lay of the land. It’s not a negative, but you’re getting used to different aspects of the job.”

The Big Ten schedule is different in some key ways – more and farther flights, plus no round-robin. It’s imbalanced, and you’re really at the mercy of the schedule-maker.

“You see Rutgers once, you might not see them again until next February,” Willard said. “It’s not like when (Seton Hall) played Providence every year twice a year, and you and your players have a great feel for them.”

An eye on the Hall

There’s a misconception that Willard was actively looking to get out of Seton Hall after squeezing 225 victories, six NCAA Tournament seasons and two Big East titles out of a job that, when he arrived in 2010, was considered flat-out undesirable. The truth is, a suitor had to check a lot of boxes to pull him from his kingdom in South Orange. Resource-rich Maryland checked those boxes, it wasn’t too far away, and the upside is high.

He’s still keeping tabs on the Pirates from afar.

“I’ve watched every game,” he said. ““I love the program, I love the school, my family loves it. I still talk to alumni regularly.”

His successor, Shaheen Holloway, was his right hand at the Hall for eight seasons and at Iona for three before that. They’ve been in touch.

“I think Sha is doing phenomenal,” Willard said. “The players are getting adjusted to his personality. They’ve had a couple of bumps but they’ve played with toughness, which is exactly what he wants from them. I think they’re going to start turning the corner and winning more games.”

Willard and Holloway share many coaching principles, but they’re different people. For example, Holloway lapped up the pressure of the Garden State Hardwood Classic. He’s also been publicly demanding of his players whereas Willard did his prodding behind closed doors.

“What made Sha such a great player is what makes him a great coach: He’s as competitive as anybody,” Willard said. “Not that I’m not competitive, but it just comes out different. That’s why he’s going to be a big success there.”

It takes time to put your stamp on a program. Holloway and Willard are still in the early stages. Pikiell has firmly affixed his on Rutgers, and although Willard won’t relish his return to the trapezoid, you can take this to the bank -- he’ll appreciate the way its occupant plays.

Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rutgers basketball: Kevin Willard is coming to town