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Social media reactions to Kevin Willard's latest press conference, Villanova rumors

Chris Breiler

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For about 24 hours it seemed that all of the nervousness within the Maryland fanbase had gone away. On Tuesday, head coach Kevin Willard made an appearance on the Kevin Sheehan show and said that his intention was to remain in College Park.

"As of right now I'm staying," Willard said.

"It's not a contractual thing for me. It's more of a program thing for me. And Brian [Ullmann] and I are on the same page, he has been awesome. He has put a lot of what I've felt over the last three years about the program... I think he's finally starting to understand where I want this program to go. And that's all that matters to me. What Lefty did, what Gary did, what Mark did... what I want to try to do is elevate this program to the best. It's what our fans want, it's what our donors want, they talk about it all the time. It's what I want, it's what my expectations are. When you're at a place like Maryland, there's just certain things that need to be done to be at the top of college basketball."

Of course, the 'as of now' portion of that statement left room for interpretation.

Over the last two weeks, Willard has been incredibly transparent about his current thoughts on the Maryland basketball program and what he believes is required to be successful. In fact, that transparency raised a few eyebrows. Not only did Willard announce the departure of former AD Damon Evans before the school made an official announcement, he also ran though a list of fundamental changes he thinks should take place - including changes with NIL and revenue sharing.

Maryland Basketball
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"I need to make fundamental changes to the program," Willard said during a press conference ahead of the round one matchup with Grand Canyon. "That's what I'm focused on right now. That's why probably a deal hasn't gotten done, because I want to see... I need to see fundamental changes done. I want this program to be great, I want it to be the best in the country, I want to win a national championship.

"But there's things that need to change. When you're at a place for three years, and you put your heart and soul into it, you kind of sit there and say, 'ok, for us to be successful, x, y, and z needs to change.' First and foremost, I need to make sure that where we are with NIL and rev share is not where we've been with NIL in the past few years. We've been one of the worst, if not the lowest in NIL over the last two years. "

Given how open he's been about the situation at Maryland in recent days, it came as a bit of a surprise to see Willard change pace on Wednesday and deflect questions about his future at Maryland. When asked to respond to Mike Locksley's comments about keeping things behind closed doors, Willard dodged the question and talked about matchups with Florida instead. Given his unwillingness to answer those questions, many fans took it as a sign that things are trending in the wrong direction.

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Chris Breiler
CHRIS BREILER

Christopher Breiler launched Winged Helmet Media and began covering the Michigan Football program in an unofficial capacity in 2017. He then joined Wolverine Digest as part of the FanNation network in 2021 as a contributing writer, where he served as both a writer and a photographer on game days. In 2024, he took over as the Managing Editor for Michigan Wolverines On SI. In January of 2025, he took over as Publisher for Maryland On SI. His love for Michigan Football brought him into the industry, and his passion for being a content creator has led to some amazing experiences along the way.

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