The Athletic has live coverage of the Men’s Sweet 16 NCAA Tournament games
SAN FRANCISCO — Wednesday’s first update in the employment drama engulfing Maryland coach Kevin Willard presented itself shortly before 10 a.m. The assembled media were at that point permitted to watch the first 15 minutes of the Terrapins practice at the Chase Center. In doing so, all on hand could confirm that, yes, Kevin Willard was in fact still coaching Maryland men’s basketball in the NCAA Tournament.
That was it for the revelations in that window, unless you count Willard having a short conversation with broadcaster Stan Van Gundy in which the Terrapins coach hailed a Van Gundy food recommendation.
And, really, that was it for revelations, period, for anyone wondering about the futures of Maryland and (presumably) Villanova, an open job to which Willard has been linked as a top candidate. For the past week, Willard has been an open fire hydrant. On Wednesday, he was a deadpan comic.
The relevant highlights?
Question: “Obviously you’ve been very open the last week about trying to get greater NIL share, revenue share. I’m sure you saw (football coach) Mike Locksley yesterday said he would prefer to keep some of these issues in-house. Why have you felt bringing this discussion in the open has been the best way to advocate for your program?”
Willard: “The biggest thing is we’ve got to stop (Walter Clayton Jr.). He’s really good. He shoots the basketball going left 48 percent. He shoots it right going at, like, 38 percent. So really, the last couple of days, trying to come up with a game plan to stop Clayton because I think he’s one of the best guards in the country that we’ve seen.
“And really obviously trying to fix our rebounding woes have been at the top of my mind, too. It’s a big problem.”
Question: “You went on the radio last night or yesterday and talked about working with somebody in the athletic department. Were there any updates you had for us about it?”
Willard: “Yeah, we’re playing Florida. We’re playing Florida. It’s a big matchup for us. This is all about the Sweet 16 and these guys enjoying it as much as possible. I’ve enjoyed it tremendously. I do love this town. It’s a great town. Great food. Got to have dinner with P.J. Carlesimo last night, which is always a lot of fun, the stories we get to tell about Seton Hall. And Chris Mullin and coach Van Gundy joined us. We had a great time last night.”
Thus ended the somewhat touchy question portion of the media session, given the stone wall erected at the end of every query.
But before he left, Willard provided one extremely personal insight: Maryland’s head coach is not a fan of eating actual crab legs.
“I like crab cake,” Willard said, responding to a question from a local reporter about the team’s “Crab Five” nickname and whether the group actually enjoys crab meat. “I feel the whole process of going through cracking the crab and peeling the crab and doing all that just to get — like, it’s not that much crab. It’s a lot of work. It’s really cool to have a couple of beers with friends and do it down by the harbor. It’s really good. But I prefer someone just make me a nice crab cake. And I love crab cake.”
Informative? Enlightening? On Wednesday, Kevin Willard left that up for interpretation.
(Photo: Eakin Howard / Imagn Images)
