Villanova coach Kevin Willard was, uh, a bit unhappy with the way his team was playing defense on out-of-bounds plays in the first half against Utah State in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday.
During his mid-game interview with TNT, Willard deadpanned that he was going to fire his assistant coaching staff. Sideline reporter Lauren Shehadi was quick to catch what Willard had said.
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“Coach, 16 paint points for Utah State, how do you keep them out [of the lane]?” Shehadi asked.
“I’m going to fire my staff,” Willard said before Shehadi interjected with a “not now.”
“We’ve given up eight points on the underneath out-of-bounds defense. So the only thing I’m going to do is fire them and get a new staff,” Willard said before immediately turning and going back to his team’s huddle.
It was one of the funnier mid-game interviews you’ll see all tournament long, no matter if Willard was serious or not. And after the game, he went with the line that he was going to fire his staff again when he was asked about the same issues in Villanova’s 86-76 loss.
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When asked about any potential staff changes in a follow-up question, Willard said it was a “joke.”
Villanova’s issues in the loss ran deeper than their first-half defending of out-of-bounds plays. The Wildcats were outscored 15-3 after leading 73-71 with 6:04 to go.
Willard is in his first year at Villanova after leaving Maryland to take the Wildcats’ head-coaching job. Willard led Maryland to the Sweet 16 a season ago amid rumors that he was looking to leave the school. Willard had openly discussed the school’s men’s basketball program funding and didn’t downplay links to Villanova after it had made a coaching change before Maryland’s NCAA tournament run began.