Maryland HC Kevin Willard brushes off NIL, revenue-sharing questions in hilarious interview ahead of Sweet 16

Maryland coach Kevin Willard led the No. 4-seeded Terrapins to the Sweet 16 after a dramatic buzzer-beater by Derik Queen downed the No. 12-seeded Colorado State Rams in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Terrapins will play the No. 1-seeded Florida Gators in the Sweet 16 on Friday for a spot in the Elite Eight.

There has been plenty of speculation about Willard's future after he brought up the issue of revenue-sharing with Maryland student-athletes last week. During his pregame news conference, Willard hilariously dodged a reporter's question about the issue instead choosing to focus on Gators star Walter Clayton.

"I'll be honest. I think our biggest issue is that we gotta stop Clayton," Willard said. "He's really good. He shoots the basketball when left like 48%, he shoots the basketball on the right like 38%. So, really the last couple of days trying to come up with a game plan to stop Clayton because I think he's one of the best guards in the country that we've seen and then obviously trying to fix our rebounding woes have been at the top of my mind too. So, yeah, it's a big problem."

The Kevin Willard situation explored

Kevin Willard led the Seton Hall Pirates to five NCAA Tournament appearances in 12 seasons before taking the Maryland Terrapins job in 2022. With his future up in the air, he has the Terrapins sitting at No. 10 on the KenPom rankings, their highest since 2022.

During an appearance on CBS Sports on Wednesday, analyst Jon Rothstein broke down the Willard situation, highlighting that former Terrapins athletic director Damon Evans had presented him with a new contract but had left Maryland and taken the same job at the SMU Mustangs.

"All eyes are on Villanova," Rothstein said. "As of right now at 5:00 eastern on Wednesday before the start of the Sweet Sixteen, there is now one power conference job that's open... and that's Villanova. Now, Villanova is waiting on Maryland's Kevin Willard.

"From Willard's reaction in press conferences throughout the NCAA tournament, things at Maryland are extremely, extremely volatile right now. Willard has aired a lot of these frustrations publicly throughout the NCAA tournament. But I have never seen a program go to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament and have all this uncertainty surrounding what's going on with their head coach moving forward."

Before his future is decided, Kevin Willard will have to deal with the looming threat of the dominant Florida Gators, who are the favorites (+350) to win the national championship according to BetMGM.