As of early Sunday morning, one of the worst kept secrets in college basketball is officially no longer a secret… according to ESPN's Jeff Borzello, former Maryland Terrapins head coach Kevin Willard will be leaving the Big Ten to return to the Big East to become the head coach of the Villanova Wildcats. This puts an end to weeks of speculation, dating back to when Villanova fired former head coach Kyle Neptune, that the Wildcats were simply waiting on Maryland's NCAA Tournament run to come to an end.

Kevin Willard certainly didn't do anything to quiet down any of this noise. If anything, the 49-year-old head coach poured a can of gasoline over the flames when he went in on Maryland's lack of NIL spending immediately before the Terps' tournament run began.

“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,” Willard told reporters. “I need to make sure that we are where we are with NIL, and rev share is not where we've been with NIL over the past two years. We've been one of the worst, if not lowest, in the NIL in the last two years. So, that's first and foremost.”

Despite Maryland's subpar NIL efforts, Kevin Willard was still able to coach the Terrapins to a 27-9 record and their first Sweet Sixteen appearance since the 2016 NCAA Tournament.

Willard will now be going back to the Big East, where he spent 12 years coaching the Seton Hall Pirates before accepting the job at Maryland in 2022. In those 12 seasons in South Orange, New Jersey, Willard went 225-161 and led the Pirates to five NCAA Tournament appearances and one Big East Tournament title. In the three seasons since Willard left, Seton Hall hasn't made an NCAA Tournament appearance.