For the first time, Gary Williams offered his opinion of new Maryland basketball coach Kevin Willard in an interview with the Sports Junkies. What stands out to him about Willard?
“His work ethic. I’ve watched him over the years. You know, I’ve read some of the things Jay Wright said about Kevin Willard and I really agree. He brings it every day
to practice, to the games. His teams reflect that. They really work hard. But one thing you can be pretty consistent at is your defense. Somedays the ball doesn’t go in offensively, you know, you just don’t have it offensively,” he said.
“But you can still win games based on how hard you work and your defense. And I think he brings that ethic into a program. And I think players appreciate that. They appreciate coaches that they know their with them grinding. You ask players to grind hard every day. If they know the coach is, then they respect that. And I think that’s a strength that Kevin definitely brings.”
One of the common complaints about former Terps coach Mark Turgeon was that he didn’t hire or involve former players. Williams expects that to change under Willard.
“The connection to Maryland is important. I think, to be honest, one of the things that hurt Mark [Turgeon] a little bit was there was no connection with former players or whatever. And you look at some staffs like Carolina, Syracuse, they have all former players. Duke is another example. They have all former players, on their staff. So it’ll be interesting what happens as time goes on with the staff. Kevin understands that. He’s been a head coach,” he said. “He understands the importance of the staff and how the staff fits for a particular job. It’s not just hiring really good basketball guys as assistant coaches, but do they fit into what you’re dealing with in your particular situation?”
It was suggested that no Maryland coach can ever live up to Williams’ accomplishments.
“That’s not true. I think as a university, we have the resources and the assets especially, that’s the one thing about going to the Big Ten. Financially it’s a tremendous
difference in the financial package, the ACC right now to the Big Ten Network, all the football stuff, and the Big Ten certainly does that. And I think you saw it in the [Kevin Willard]
hire, what Maryland can do. And that’s what you have to do,” he said.
“You look at the Southeastern Conference, you look at the Big 12. Now all of the sudden, their basketball conference is as good as any conference in basketball in the country. You have to go after those guys and you have to do what they do in order to, you know, both those conferences have attracted really good coaches. And that’s the important thing now, is to put yourself on a level playing field where you can go pay those [coaches] and then good things happen.”
