One of Maryland basketball’s biggest supporters isn’t holding back anymore, sharing his thoughts about the way Kevin Willard left the program for Villanova.
ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt ripped Willard on his ‘SVPod’ podcast on Tuesday for how the former Terrapins coach conducted himself with the Maryland athletic department and prominent boosters in recent weeks and suggested Willard knew he was leaving for Villanova before his team was eliminated from the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
‘Of course, Kevin Willard can go to Villanova. Of course, you can go back to your Big East roots. Of course, if it’s better for your family,’ Van Pelt said at the start of several minutes of comments regarding the situation at his alma mater. ‘But maybe you don’t take a giant (expletive) on the front steps of the house you’ve lived in the last three years. You don’t do damage to the university and the program you’ve been for three years.’
‘And you don’t take the efforts of the people behind-the-scenes, who’ve largely poured their hearts and souls into this for free, for you, to try to fill in the gaps and tell them that … ‘I just want this program to be the best it can be.’ Maybe you don’t tell those people that to their face repeatedly, when everyone in the industry is saying to me, ‘Scott, why are you guys wasting your time? This is done.’ Everyone in the business knows it. He’s gone.’
Villanova officially announced Willard as its new coach on Sunday. But Van Pelt said on his podcast he knew before Maryland tipped off in its Sweet 16 game against Florida last Thursday that Willard would be leaving and the program resurgence would not be sustainable in its current form. The podcast was released hours before Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams was announced as the new hire at Maryland.
Like many Terrapins fans, Van Pelt lamented how Willard’s decision to leave ‘sabotaged and hijacked’ the spotlight during the school’s best postseason run since 2016.
Willard had a 65-39 record and made the NCAA Tournament twice in three seasons at Maryland. He arrived after a 12-year stint at Seton Hall. But his unhappiness in the Big Ten became a national headline last month when he used a news conference before No. 4 seed Maryland began the 2025 NCAA Tournament to bemoan his program’s NIL situation and budget, among other grievances.
That Willard’s requests were ultimately not made in good faith is what had Van Pelt cursing mad on his podcast.
‘I was very vocal in saying I agreed with him, that he should get those things. One hundred percent, he was not wrong,’ Van Pelt said. ‘But what really troubles me is asking good and decent people that busted their (butt) on your behalf to jump through hoops to give you the things you want, knowing full well nothing they give you … ain’t gonna be enough because you’re gone. It’s the exact same script as when we got him from Seton Hall, almost to the same lines.’