Maryland Basketball coaching candidates: Top 5 potential Kevin Willard replacements for Terrapins in 2025

NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament West Regional-Maryland at Florida - Source: Imagn

Head coach Kevin Willard and the No. 4 Maryland Terrapins were eliminated in the Sweet 16 of March Madness by the No. 1 Florida Gators. They lost their game 87–71 after narrowly defeating No. 12 Colorado State in the previous round. Following their loss to Florida, there are rumors that Terrapins head coach Kevin Willard is leaving the team to take a job at Villanova.

With the news that Kevin Willard could be leaving the team, the Terrapins are working on finding a replacement. These are five head coaching candidates for Maryland in 2025.

UPDATE: Kevin Willard officially stepped down from his head coaching position at Maryland to join the Villanova Wildcats, per official release. The Terrapins, who were knocked out by Florida in the Sweet 16, will now have to find a new leader ahead of the upcoming season.

Maryland Basketball coaching candidates 2025

#1 Duane Simpkins

The Terrapins reportedly have three names already on their shortlist of head coaching candidates. Per reports, they contacted American University's Duane Simpkins.

Simpkins led his team to a First Four appearance in this year's March Madness Tournament. However, the team was eliminated 83–72 by Mount St. Mary's. His improvement from his first to second season was significant as the Eagles went from 16 to 22 wins.

#2 Tony Skinn

Tony Skinn finished his second season as the head coach of the George Mason Patriots. After leading his team to a second-round appearance in the National Invitation Tournament, he looks like a candidate to move to a Power Five conference. Maryland has reportedly contacted him to hire him if Kevin Willard leaves the team.

#3 John Calipari

John Calipari is one of the most interesting head coaching candidates for Maryland. He is by far the most experienced head coach the Terrapins have added to their shortlist. He has decades of experience dating back to the 1980s.

While he is on the shortlist for Maryland and has been contacted, it would be surprising if he were hired. Calipari just finished his first season of a five-year contract with the Arkansas Razorbacks.

#4 Chris Collins

Chris Collins from the Northwestern Wildcats is an interesting option. Collins helped elevate the program to multiple NCAA appearances and could be a candidate for the Terrapins.

#5 Ryan Odom

VCU Rams head coach Ryan Odom is one of the top candidates to leave a mid-major school for a Power Five conference. He has an NCAA Tournament win under his belt, when he led UMBC to an upset over No. 1 Virginia in the 2018 March Madness Tournament, one of only two times a 16 seed has won a game in March Madness. As a result, he is an interesting coaching candidate.

About the author

Alexander O'Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex's favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex's favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex's proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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Edited by Abhimanyu Gupta