Villanova coach Kevin Willard earned a win in his return to Seton Hall on Tuesday night, and he also took a shot at the NCAA for being “clueless” after the latest controversial college basketball signing.

A question from this reporter about the turnaround Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway has engineered from last year to this year led to this answer from Willard.

“He’s done a phenomenal job,” Willard said of Holloway after beating his former school, 64-56, to snap Seton Hall’s five-game winning streak. “He’s a phenomenal coach. He’s a great person. It takes time.

“This era is crazy, man. This era is, you know, insane, like, you know what he has to deal with and what everyone has to deal with. You know, the NCAA is totally clueless, lost. It’s like, it’s a joke. I just tried to sign, like, a 47 year old Chinese guy in some Chinese European League. I’m sure he’ll get eligible. I think Oklahoma just signed a 24 year old Russian. It’s like, what are we doing?”

Willard was referring to Kirill Elatontsev, a 6-foot-11 center from Russia who was cleared to play by the NCAA in October and announced his commitment to Oklahoma on Tuesday. Elatontsev played professionally for Lukomotiv Kuban in Russia and averaged 7.0 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game last season.

The big man is set to fill Oklahoma’s final vacant roster spot and will be eligible to play for the Sooners immediately.

Willard, who led Seton Hall to five NCAA Tournament appearances and was given a pre-game video tribute in his return to the school, is not the only coach to criticize the trend of allowing NCAA schools to sign older pro players.

In October, Michigan State coaching legend Tom Izzo called the news that Louisville was adding former G League guard London Johnson “embarrassing” and “ridiculous.”

Johnson was originally a member of the high school Class of 2023 but turned pro in 2022 and has been in the NBA G League the last several years.

“Kids aren’t the problem. We’re the problem,” Izzo said then. “This was sprung on us again yesterday, where a guy can be in the G League for two or three years, and then all of a sudden, he’s eligible. Most of my people knew nothing about it…. I’m not real excited about the NCAA or whoever’s making these decisions without talking to us, just letting it go because they’re afraid they’re going to get sued.”

The NCAA rules in place say G-League players can still be eligible for college basketball if they’re within a five-year window of their high school graduation class and haven’t gone through the NBA Draft process or already signed an NBA contract.

Izzo cracked that he was going to reach out to some of Michigan State’s former pros about joining his team, including 66-year-old Magic Johnson.

“If you want a silver lining in a cloud, I am going to call Magic tonight, I’ll call Jaren Jackson, Miles [Bridges], Gary [Harris], Max [Christie],” he said. “You know, this just goes to show you how ridiculous people, people that are in power, make decisions.”

In another recent development, BYU added big man Abdullah Ahmed, a former G League center who played 54 games with the Westchester Knicks.

He made his debut on Monday for BYU, playing nine minutes and grabbing five rebounds in a 109-81 beatdown of Eastern Washington.