{"id":125096,"date":"2026-03-22T11:32:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T15:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/villanova-head-coach-doubles-down-on-joke-he-needs-to-fire-staff-after-ncaa-tournament-loss-125096"},"modified":"2026-03-22T11:32:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T15:32:36","slug":"villanova-head-coach-doubles-down-on-joke-he-needs-to-fire-staff-after-ncaa-tournament-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/villanova-head-coach-doubles-down-on-joke-he-needs-to-fire-staff-after-ncaa-tournament-loss-125096","title":{"rendered":"Villanova head coach doubles down on ‘joke’ he needs to fire staff after NCAA Tournament loss"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Villanova men\u2019s basketball<\/a> head coach Kevin Willard\u2019s in-game joke did not land the way he may have hoped, but he didn\u2019t apologize for it after the Wildcats\u2019 loss to Utah State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Willard was interviewed by CBS Sports\u2019 Lauren Shehadi<\/a> during a timeout, and he ripped into his coaching staff as the Wildcats were struggling against the Aggies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m going to fire my staff,” Willard said in a now-viral moment. “Because we\u2019ve given up eight points on underneath, out-of-bounds defense. The only thing I\u2019m going do is fire them and get a new staff.”<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Willard may have been joking, but his deadpan delivery had others thinking he was serious about it at the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the 86-76 loss to end the season, Willard sat for a post-game interview where he was asked about his in-game comments regarding his staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Again, he may have been joking, but he doubled down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

VILLANOVA COACH TURNS HEADS AFTER \u2018JOKE\u2019 THAT HE WOULD \u2018FIRE MY STAFF\u2019 DURING MARCH MADNESS LOSS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“We gave up a big three-pointer late,” Willard told the pool of reporters, per CBS Sports<\/a>. “I\u2019m probably going to have to make some changes to my staff because of how bad we were.”<\/p>\n

As he was getting another question about his staff, Willard stepped back in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a joke,” he said. “God bless it. \u2026I don\u2019t care. Welcome to my life. It\u2019s a joke.”<\/p>\n

Willard wasn\u2019t pleased with his team\u2019s performance either way. While the in-bound plays were an issue, the Wildcats also blew a 10-point lead in the second half, which he credited to the Aggies\u2019<\/a> relentless pressure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You know, we got up by 10, and then we gave up three offensive rebounds. Give them credit. They\u2019re a veteran team, older guards. They did a great job of getting in late, but we had our opportunities,” he said. “Then, we were up 73-71, and we missed two layups that kind of really hurt us. Give them credit. They capitalized on it.”<\/p>\n

Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun noted, “We did not like our seed,” after his No. 10 squad took down No. 7 Villanova. But they will have to prove it with another upset against top-seeded Arizona on Sunday at 7:50 p.m. ET.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We won 28 games. We won the regular season title, we won the tournament title,” Calhoun said, per CBS Sports. “So when this team has an edge, and they play with a little bit of swagger and a little bit of toughness and resilience, we can cause a lot of problems.”<\/p>\n

Willard was head coach of the Maryland Terrapins last season, where he was able to take his squad to the second round of the NCAA Tournament thanks to a clutch game-winning bucket by Derik Queen to beat Colorado State.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Follow Fox News Digital\u2019s<\/strong><\/i>\u00a0sports coverage on X<\/strong><\/i><\/a>\u00a0and subscribe to<\/strong><\/i>\u00a0the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter<\/strong><\/i><\/a>.<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source – https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/villanova-head-coach-doubles-down-joke-he-needs-fire-staff-after-ncaa-tournament-loss <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Villanova men\u2019s basketball head coach Kevin Willard\u2019s in-game joke did not land the way he may have hoped, but he didn\u2019t apologize for it after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_2902945987_2902945987":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[16563],"tags":[],"stock_ticker":[],"class_list":["post-125096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-news","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVillanova head coach doubles down on 'joke' he needs to fire staff after NCAA Tournament loss - Wall Street PR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/villanova-head-coach-doubles-down-on-joke-he-needs-to-fire-staff-after-ncaa-tournament-loss-125096\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Villanova head coach doubles down on 'joke' he needs to fire staff after NCAA Tournament loss - 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