Having started my coaching career at Iona College, I always try to keep an eye on how the Gaels' basketball team is doing.
Kevin Willard has a great pedigree - son of former coach Ralph Willard, former assistant for Rick Pitino at Louisville - and after a 21-10 season where he successfully rebuilt the Iona basketball program, he was recently offered the job of rebuilding the Seton Hall basketball program.
Jeff Pearlman of Sports Illustrated writes of how Willard goes about his business the right way, and is the ideal person to be the leader of a successful program.
Channeling her inner Chris Rock, she noted that fathers are supposed to be with their children, and shouldn't be rewarded for fulfilling their obligations. Yet in the high-paced, high-power, high-ego world of Division I coaching, "supposed to" rarely results in actual righteousness.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino is supposed to only eat in a restaurant. Kentucky coach John Calipari is supposed to recruit student-athletes. Baylor coach Scott Drew is supposed to bring in players without first hiring their AAU coaches. Maryland coach Gary Williams is supposed to speak to his minions like actual human beings (Writer's note: To sit behind the Terps' bench during a game is to fulfill all course requirements for Vulgar Cussin': 101).
Kevin Willard was supposed to be with his wife, Julie, and their kids. But 90 percent of men in his position wouldn't have been. Sad but undeniably true.
Hence, it was with great happiness that I learned last week that Willard was hired by Seton Hall to take over a team in dire need of decency rehab. For the last four years, the Pirates once-proud program had been damned by the tyrannical reign of Bobby Gonzalez, a walking, talking, cursing stereotype of the modern madman coach. To say Gonzalez was loathed by his players and associates is an understatement of the Manute Bol-is-mildly-tall variety. The man known as Gonzo alienated high school coaches, high school recruits, opposing teams and a cornucopia of the Garden State's small animals, plants and minerals. He was a bad guy atop a bad team, and he got what he deserved.
Though his stay in New Rochelle was relatively short, Willard scored large points for a low-key demeanor and uncommon decency (as well as leading Iona to a 21-10 mark last season). He seemed genuinely interested in his players' personal development as people, and could be seen on most Saturday mornings during the fall taking his children to youth soccer practices, then sticking around to help out and offer encouragement.
Can he return Seton Hall to Big East dominance? Maybe, maybe not. When Willard was introduced two days ago, he promised nothing, instead merely insisting that his teams would focus on character and hard work. "They're going to have pride," he said, "and they're going to show their pride."
Win or lose, Seton Hall wins.
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