Tempers and temperatures run high duringMarch Madness, with the elevated stakes and every game being a win or go home battle.
Often, especially for big programs, success or failure in March can be the difference between a head coach keeping his job or heading to the chopping block. Usually, those staffing decisions come from the athletic director or administration. Sometimes, it's at the behest of fans or donors upset with the macro direction of the program.
But it's pretty rare, bordering on unprecedented, to see a head coach threaten to fire his entire staff at halftime of anNCAA tournamentgame. That's exactly what the #8 seededVillanova Wildcatshead coach Kevin Willard said he would do in his on-court interview after the first half of his team's game against the #9 seeded Utah State Aggies.
And it doesn't seem like he was kidding.
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Villanova Wildcats guard Acaden Lewis talks with head coach Kevin Willard. (Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)
Willard joined Lauren Shehadi on the court after the first half, and she brought up Utah State's big advantage with points in the paint, asking, "Coach, 16 paint points for Utah State, how do you keep them out?"
He immediately responded, "I'm going to fire my staff," he said, before Shehadi interjected, "Not Now!"
But Willard was serious, continuing, "Well yeah, I am, because we've given up eight points on underneath out-of-bounds defense, so the only thing I'm going to do is fire them and get a new staff."
Shehadi, clearly surprised, said, "All right, go do that now," before sending it back to the studio.
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