The Big East only got three teams into the NCAA tournament, and one of its March Madness participants ran into some trouble early in its first-round game.
No. 8-seeded Villanova fell behind early against No. 9-seeded Utah State, trailing by as many as nine points in the first half. Coach Kevin Willard, in his first season with the Wildcats after leading Maryland to the Sweet 16 last season, was not pleased with his team’s performance early in the game — particularly the fact that it was getting outscored in the paint 16-2.
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He gave a blunt assessment of his coaching staff after the slow start.
“I’m going to fire my staff, because we’ve given up eight points on the underneath out-of-bounds defense,” Willard said during an on-court interview with the TNT broadcast. “The only thing I’m going to do is fire them and get a new staff.”
It seems his staff feared for their jobs, because the Wildcats responded quickly and retook the lead later in the frame. Willard has the Wildcats back in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2022, when they reached the Sweet 16.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Kevin Willard says he will fire staff after Villanova’s slow start
