Iona's Kevin Willard Named the 2010 The Rock MAAC Coach of the Year
MAAC Sports
Albany, N.Y. - Iona College men's basketball coach Kevin Willard has been named the 2010 The Rock MAAC Coach of the Year, by his peers - the MAAC's head coaches.
Willard led the Gaels to an overall record of 21-9 and a 12-3 mark in the MAAC, en route to earning the third seed in the 2010 Citizens Bank MAAC Men's Basketball Championship.
During his first year as a head coach and his first in New Rochelle, the Gaels finished with 10 more victories than the previous year, one of the top turnarounds in NCAA Div. I in 2007-08. He instilled his foundation of up tempo, aggressive play with an emphasis on having fun playing the game of basketball to his young team. At 34, Willard remains one of the youngest coaches in Division I. In 2008-09, his squad boasted one of the youngest lineups in the nation with eight freshmen and three sophomores. Scott Machado set a new Iona rookie standard for assists and became the third player in program history to win the MAAC's Rookie of the Year Award.
Kevin Willard was appointed the 11th men's basketball head coach at Iona on Apr. 10, 2007 as a part of an official press announcement in the Hynes Athletics Center. He returned to the tri-state area after serving the previous six seasons as an assistant and associate head coach at the University of Louisville.
At Louisville, Willard was responsible for assisting with Louisville's game preparations, scouting and preparing game plans to aid the Cardinals in the attack of their opposition. He also served as chief recruiting coordinator. During his tenure, Louisville was ranked in the Top 25 for five seasons and reached the post season in each of his six years. The squad reached the NCAA Tournament on four occasions including a visit to the 2005 Final Four, the first time in 19 years that the Cardinals had advanced that deep into the post season. In his six seasons at Louisville, the Cardinals posted a 142-58 record, averaging nearly 24 wins per season.
In the historic 2004-05 campaign, Louisville finished as the No. 3 team in the nation in the final 2004-05 ESPN/USA Today poll while posting a stellar 33-5 record. The win total matched the most victories in U of L history. The Cardinals also earned their first-ever Conference USA regular season title and also claimed the league tournament championship. Louisville reached its first NCAA Sweet 16 since 1997 as the No. 4 seed in the Albuquerque Regional before advancing to its first NCAA Final Four since 1986. When Rick Pitino took a short medical leave in 2004, Willard guided the Cardinals to a 64-48 victory over Houston in Freedom Hall for the one game during Pitino's absence.
Prior to Louisville, Willard worked with Pitino as a coaching associate with the Boston Celtics for four years. His duties with the Celtics included game and practice preparation, scouting and assisting the coaching staff in all basketball matters. He provided advance scouting, video tape breakdowns and assisted with individual workouts prior to games.
Willard, 34, was a collegiate basketball point guard, playing his last three years at Pittsburgh. He earned BIG EAST All-Academic honors while appearing in 75 games for the Panthers. He played his freshman season at Western Kentucky, where he played in the Hilltoppers' backcourt and sank over 40 percent of his three-point goals. He played in college for his father Ralph, a former head coach at Western Kentucky, Pittsburgh and Holy Cross and current Associate Head Coach at Louisville.
Willard hails from New York, but played his high school basketball at Bowling Green High School (Ky.) while his father was the head coach at Western Kentucky. He earned Second Team All-State honors as a senior and helped his team to a combined 76-15 record in his final three prep seasons.
Willard is married to the former Julie Wagner and they have two sons, Colin, who was born in August, 2006 and Chase born in June, 2008.