Maryland head coach Kevin Willard addressed the media in Birmingham on Wednesday afternoon ahead of Thursday's first-round matchup with West Virginia.
Read the full verbatim transcript of his pregame press conference below.
Q. So Kevin, basic, just start with what you guys have to do, what are the nerves for guys who haven't played in this tournament before?
COACH WILLARD: I think everyone is really excited to be here. For the guys that haven't played in it, I think it's a great experience. For us against West Virginia, we have to be really good in transition defense and really good on weak-side rebounding. Those are two areas that they excel at.
Q. West Virginia, Maryland haven't played often in recent years. Obviously you have a history. It was a while ago. Your thoughts of coaching against Huggs when you were at Seton Hall way back when and even before that as a player at Pitt.
COACH WILLARD: I have great respect for the fan base at West Virginia. Playing at Pitt was always a big game with such a passionate fan base. I said this before, I think coach Huggins, there's a reason he's a Hall of Famer. He hasn't stuck with the same style year in and year out. He's adapted to his team extremely really well. They are always physical, they always rebound well, they always defend well, but this is a basketball team that's playing so much quicker than what he did back when I played against him eight, nine years ago when I was at Seton Hall. I have always admired Coach Huggins in the way he adapts offensively and defensively with his team.
Q. It's been an endless conversation around the Big 10 in recent years about translating from league play to tournament play and how things are officiated and all these things. I imagine you are well aware. In terms of your first time making that transition, you know, what is your line of thinking on that of what translates, I guess?
COACH WILLARD: I don't know. I got in trouble earlier this year because I made some comments that I probably shouldn't have made.
Q. No one is watching. You're good.
COACH WILLARD: Right. I can tell you now going through a whole year of the Big 10 schedule, I can see a little bit -- I think there's a couple negatives I found that I think hurts us in the NCAA Tournament. I would say although it's really cool finishing on Sunday right before Selection Sunday. Having four of your best teams play at 12:30 and 2:30 after playing at night is a really, really hard thing for technically four of your best teams to have to play Saturday when most leagues are done or championships are done Saturday. The amount of rest that they get, I think it hurts them. Now that I've gone through the Big 10 Tournament. And I would also have to say the level of talent top to bottom in the Big 10 is something I had never experienced. So I can tell you from, I think, we get worn down as a league, has nothing to do with reffing, nothing to do with scheduling -- I think what it has to do with -- we played three straight games and we went against Zach Edey, Hunter Dickinson, Steven Crowl, and then we had to come back a week and a half later and get Zack Edey and Hunter Dickinson again. They are such good players and it's a very physical league because of the size that's in the league. I do think as the year goes on, I saw it, you do get worn down, and then you have your conference tournament that ends on Sunday, Purdue won at 4:30, 5 o'clock in the afternoon and now they have to get ready to play in the NCAA Tournament. It's really cool playing on CBS at that slot. I have watched every Big 10 Championship Game for as long as I can remember, because it's really exciting and you are waiting for Selection Sunday. I do feel the size of the league and the timing of the tournament. We lost to Indiana on Friday. And Indiana -- we were done at 11:30 at night. Indiana had to play at 1:30 in the afternoon. They are going to be shot. So I think that's -- from technically an outsider now being an insider, those are my observations.
Q. What do you think about the nature of Big 10 basketball? Interior oriented, it's typically slower tempos. Things like that. It's a style of play, it's officiating a certain way. Translating that against both matching up with a team from a different league and also the officiating like you mentioned.
COACH WILLARD: I think the biggest thing I noticed, I thought this league is going to be slow. It's not a slow down. Michigan State gets up and down. Iowa gets up and down. We play pretty fast. I also think matchups, we beat ourselves up and we have a lot of 7, 8, 9, 10 seed. It's hard to get up in the NCAA Tournament when you are a 7, 8, 9 seed just because of matchups. Coach Izzo has been to seven Final Fours. He's been right there. I look at Matt Painter, as good a coach as he is. He's had his opportunities. Being in this league now, I think it's only -- we'll win a championship a lot sooner than people think. Terrific. Great seeing everybody. Oh, sorry. That's how I am at press conferences at home.
Q. Hey, Coach. Just a few things about, you know, this season with all the turnover, the transfers coming in, new guys coming in. Can you talk more about what those guys have meant to this team and for a lot of them making their first NCAA Tournament with Maryland, also your first appearance in the tournament as head coach of this team.
COACH WILLARD: Yeah. I've talked about this a lot. I think being selective in the transfer portal and making sure we brought kids in. Your first year in a program is really really important. You want to lay down the foundation for what the future is going to be. You can bring kids in and try to knock it out of the park right away and try to do all this, and year two you are really struggling, year three you are really struggling. We brought kids in who I thought were extremely high character, good players, and all wanted to help bring Maryland basketball back to a level that we could sustain. And I think like guys like Don Carey, Jahmir Young, Pat Emilien. Those guys came in -- Jahari Long. They all came in. They are high-character kids. They complimented the guys that stayed from last year, and I think that's one reason we had success, and I think it's one reason we'll have continued success. The foundation that these guys have laid will be passed on to next year's team and the team after that. And that's, you know, we've created a great culture in a very short period of time, not because of anything besides having great kids.
Q. Kevin, obviously your dad is a coach. Talked to Huggins about this. His dad was a coach. What is it that leads kids into the profession when their fathers were there? You guys see negatives as well --
COACH WILLARD: Child abuse. Really, it's child abuse. My first memory of life is helping my dad revarnish St. Dominic's High School basketball gym. I was out there pouring the polyurethane while he was sweeping it. We were both in there as kids helping him. I have been around this game since I was -- that's my first memory of life is helping him in a gym. I was in the back of the van. You know, all the guys at St. Dom's would try to get me to go up and make sure we could stop at McDonald's after a game. I love being around teams -- I've pushed my sons to baseball because I want them to try something different in life, because this is a very hard profession. I think as a kid you don't -- and I played for my dad so it's a little bit different. I saw a little bit of the negativity. But you only see the fun times. You get to go in the locker room, you get to be on the court, you get to be through warmups. I was a ball boy for the New York Knicks when I was in sixth and seventh grade. I'm sitting there next to Michael Jordan. You remember that. You don't understand that, you know, you have to deal with one of your players' parents dying, and you have to deal with that. And you have to deal with these kids and the stress that they go through. You don't see that as a kid. But I think it really -- I was very blessed to have such a great father that included me in all those things. And I was very blessed to play for him, because I think he's one of the best coaches that ever coached.
You are not going to ask about referees again, are you?
Q. I won't. There will be no calls from Chicago, don't worry. You know, when programs typically, you know, often times I should say, hire from family, right. And the coaching tree or someone who played there. When you're kind of a relative outsider coming into a place with the history of Maryland that people feel like they have ownership of, whether it's ex-players and all the other stuff. That's something we don't see is, I imagine, a lot coming at you from people who want to have a hand in the future and things like that. And can you just kind of explain what it's like to be in that position of wanting to coach your program but also realizing there's a million people who feel like they have their hands on it.
COACH WILLARD: So I guess, you know, growing up in New York, playing college basketball in the late 90s, early 2000s when Coach Williams really had this program rolling, I think I was very lucky that I had a very good sense of history of Maryland basketball. So I was definitely an outsider because coming from Seton Hall, being from New York. But I had a great sense of the history. And when I got this job, I always say this, I wanted to meet Stevie Francis. I wanted to hang out with Coach Williams. I wanted to play golf with Coach Williams, even though everyone says, "Don't play golf with him because he's miserable." I was such a fan of what the history of this program was, and it was an honor for me to be able to sit in the seat. I wanted to embrace everything that came with that. I wanted to meet every former player. I wanted to talk to everyone -- Scott Van Pelt, you know, I got to have lunch on the first day of the job with Scott Van Pelt. I'm sitting there going, that's Kevin Plank, the owner of Under Armour. I'm sitting there having dinner with him, and I'm thinking -- I think you have to embrace that. You have to understand and embrace the magnitude of the job. And not only do we have great former players from the 60s, 70s, 80s, but we -- Mark did a great job recruiting in the 2010s and 11s. That generation too. Those guys are all playing. So to embrace, Mark's guys, Gary's guys. We've had three coaches in the last 50 years, 60 years. It's been something amazing. So I knew the history of the program. I love the history of the program. I was a fan watching the championship in 2000-2001, the Final Four. So I think that really helped me embrace this great tradition. I think it's helped me coach and understand what kind of style that I needed to play to kind of get this fan base back behind us. And that was really the main -- I was just a big fan to be honest with you.
Now am I done? Awesome.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.
