Villanova’s first season under head coach Kevin Willard represented a step forward. The Wildcats’ 24 wins were the program’s most since their 30 wins in Jay Wright’s final season in 2021-22, and they earned their first NCAA Tournament trip since that season.
But it ended with disappointment on Friday when they dropped an 86-76 decision to No. 9 seed Utah State. While losing by double-digits to a mid-major program is bad enough for a team that is used to competing for national championships, Willard didn’t exactly do himself or the program any favors by making himself the focal point.
Kevin Willard’s jokes miss the mark in middle of ugly defeat
During the broadcast, Willard was doing an on-court interview coming back from a commercial break and made a joke about how he was going to fire his entire staff for the way his team was playing.
He doubled down on that after the game and again repeated he was going to have to get a new staff, before finally snapping back at reporters that it was a joke. He also said he did not care about any online criticism that came from it.
