Villanova coach deadpans that he’s going to fire his staff during mid-game NCAA tournament interview

Villanova coach Kevin Willard was, uh, a bit unhappy with the way his team was playing defense on out-of-bounds plays in the first half against Utah State in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday.

During his mid-game interview with TNT, Willard deadpanned that he was going to fire his assistant coaching staff. Sideline reporter Lauren Shehadi was quick to catch what Willard had said. 

“Coach, 16 paint points for Utah State, how do you keep them out [of the lane]?” Shehadi asked.

“I’m going to fire my staff,” Willard said before Shehadi interjected with a “not now.”

“We’ve given up eight points on the underneath out-of-bounds defense. So the only thing I’m going to do is fire them and get a new staff,” Willard said before immediately turning and going back to his team’s huddle.”

It’s safe to assume that no one was actually fired during the first half. After all, there was not a mass exodus from the bench and Willard did not look overly displeased with his coaching staff when he got back to the huddle. But it’s still one of the funnier mid-game interviews you’ll see all tournament long and it happened on the second day of March Madness. 

Willard is in his first year at Villanova after leaving Maryland to take the Wildcats’ head coaching job. Willard led Maryland to the Sweet 16 a season ago amid rumors that he was looking to leave the school. Willard had openly discussed the school’s men’s basketball program funding and didn’t downplay links to Villanova after it had made a coaching change before Maryland’s NCAA tournament run began.