Finally, some clarity for Maryland after an awkward, uncomfortable few weeks. Kevin Willard to Villanova is done. It comes days after Florida dispatched Maryland in Thursday’s Sweet 16 and ended an internal saga that had turned public and a bit nasty.
While the Crab Five was busy leading the Terps to the second weekend for the first time in a decade, Willard was unleashing numerous tongue-lashings about the direction of Maryland basketball. Frustrations with NIL were apparent. Leverage was at the epicenter of everything.
Willard was looking for a change, and boy, did he get it. He returns to his Big East roots to money-laden Villanova, and Maryland is left staring down the reality of a complete makeover after a revival of one of the best basketball-loving programs in the Big Ten.
The mouthpiece-chompin’, Big Ten Freshman of the Year Derik Queen is undoubtedly off to the NBA. He will be a first-round pick. Julian Reese and Selton Miguel are out of eligibility. Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Rodney Rice will be coveted players in the portal. The Crab Five is no more, and Maryland has to turn the page after a phenomenal season ended sourly on and off the floor.
Maryland is lauded as one of the top 30 jobs in college basketball, but the timeline has the Terps playing catch-up in the carousel. Numerous big-name options have found destinations. Richard Pitino, who would’ve been a strong Willard replacement, chose Xavier. Sean Miller dipped for Texas. Ryan Odom earned the Virginia gig. Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota each feel fabulous about landing Darian DeVries, Ben McCollum and Niko Medved, respectively. Oh, and there’s no athletics director to run this search after Damon Evans jetted to SMU.
So, who’s next?
Williams is pushing hard for the job, according to Jeff Ermann of InsideMDSports. The 52-year-old has coached in the Big East at Marquette. He’s coached in the ACC at Virginia Tech. He’s coached in the SEC at Texas A&M. All that’s left is the Big Ten and the Big 12 to complete the high-major quintet.
Williams would keep the floor very high at Maryland. He built four straight 21-win teams at Texas A&M. He’s gone to the NCAA Tournament six times in the last nine years. His teams play extremely hard and win the extras by dominating the glass. Poaching an SEC coach wouldn’t be easy, but basketball is everything at Maryland, which isn’t the case at Texas A&M. That’s attractive.
Williams in the DMV could be a bit awkward, but he’s built competent rosters all over the country. In the portal era, does familiarity with the locals even matter that much anymore?
Also, there’d be real coaching carousel implications if Maryland was able to snag Williams. Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts could pivot to a familiar face … Nebraska’s Fred Hoiberg.
Maryland could flex its superiority over Penn State in hoops by stealing Rhoades. The former Rice and VCU coach has plenty of familiarity with the Big Ten, and some of his Moneyball-like moves at Penn State have been sneaky-great. Northern Illinois transfer center Yanic Konan Niederhauser was a tremendous evaluation (and has one more year of eligibility).
Penn State has not won big under Rhoades, but it’s a tough place to win consistently and he’s respected throughout the league. With Maryland’s resources, Rhoades could be in business.
Skinn knows Maryland very well. He was an assistant on Kevin Willard’s staff before taking the George Mason gig. He helped Maryland land five-star big fella Derik Queen who turned into the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Skinn has also crushed it at George Mason with back-to-back 20-win seasons. George Mason shared the regular-season, A-10 championship with VCU and fell just short of a NCAA Tournament appearance. Skinn built one of the elite defenses in college basketball this past season, and his first two George Mason teams have outperformed preseason expectations by a country mile.
Simpkins played at Maryland from 1992-96 and has serious ties to the DMV. He played at DeMatha, served as an assistant for nearly a decade at George Mason and is now the head coach at American. He led American to the regular-season Patriot League championship and inked a berth in the NCAA Tournament with three wins in a row at the Patriot League Tournament. It was American’s first showing in the Big Dance since 2009.
Luke Murray, UConn assistant
This would be a bit of an audacious hire for Maryland’s brass, but Murray is one of the masterminds behind the UConn dynasty. He’s highly respected for helping Dan Hurley’s offensive playbook turn into one of the hardest covers in college basketball.
Yes, he is Bill Murray’s son.
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