PHILADELPHIA — Three days after officially becoming Villanova’s head coach, Kevin Willard spoke Wednesday with reporters on Zoom.

Willard has had a busy few days. He traveled Monday to Indianapolis to watch the women’s team play in a WBIT semifinal, then flew to Las Vegas to meet with Villanova donors and his new team as it prepared to start its run in the College Basketball Crown on Tuesday night. He spent Wednesday at Villanova walking around campus, doing the necessary HR requirements, and working the transfer portal.

Willard’s official introduction will come next week, but his first public words as the Villanova men’s basketball coach were said Tuesday night on the FS1 telecast and on Wednesday afternoon.

Here are five takeaways from Willard’s first media session:

Time to ‘move on’ from his Maryland exit

Willard’s departure from Maryland wasn’t quiet. Here’s the short version for the uninitiated: Willard was linked to the Villanova opening while his team prepared for the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. He was public about wanting Maryland to commit more resources to its basketball program, the difficulties of negotiating a new deal without an athletic director, and more. It wasn’t received well by Maryland fans, who assumed he was on his way out and were unhappy with the way Willard handled himself.

“Obviously I think some of my comments during the NCAA Tournament could have been a little bit less abrasive,” Willard said. “But unfortunately sometimes my passion for my program and my passion for my players comes out.

“Normal fans just don’t understand what went on. … The timeline, no one knows it. No one understands it. I can’t change that and I’m not worried about that. Maryland just got a great coach in Buzz [Williams], and I’m really happy for them and I’m super excited to be at a great basketball conference here and I just think it’s time that everyone move on.”

Was he posturing?

“Everything I said during the press conference was because I love Maryland,” Willard said. “All I want to do is try to get the best for my players and the best for my program. I’m going to do the same thing here at Villanova. My comments were just about having an opportunity to try to make Maryland the best program we could make it. I’m always going to try to make our programs better. I’m very passionate about my job. I’m very passionate about my players. That’s as simple as it was.”

The advantage of the Big East

The Big East is home for Willard. It’s the easiest explanation for why he would leave Maryland. Willard played at Pittsburgh when it was in the Big East and he coached for 12 seasons at Seton Hall. He’s a Long Island native, and the northeast is home.

But beyond that — and this part relates to what he was talking about during his controversial press conferences — the conference is set up to be successful in the new world. The upcoming House v. NCAA settlement will install a salary cap of sorts, expected to be around $20.5 million per school, and conferences with big football programs will be spending a large chunk of that on football. Villanova will spend more on its basketball roster next season than Maryland planned to.

“I think the Big East is really situated in a unique situation where they’re probably never going to have to worry about the cap,” Willard said. “Football-centric conferences, basketball schools are going to run into the fact that if you give $16 million to football, you only have about $3 million in cap, where in the Big East you just don’t have that issue.”

It’s a big reason Willard thinks Villanova, which missed three consecutive NCAA Tournaments under Kyle Neptune, can get back to its winning ways.

“Coming back into this league and seeing what they’ve done over the last eight, nine years in college basketball, this is a place that I believe we can get back to winning championships,” he said.

No updates on staff or transfers

Willard said he didn’t want to talk about the makeup of his coaching staff or how many players he expected to return.

“They’re trying to win a championship,” Willard said of the current team playing in the Crown. “I think Mike [Nardi] was phenomenal last night. I know all those guys. I respect all those guys. I think everyone needs to respect what they’re doing right now. They’re still playing.”

Willard said he plans to hold a meeting Monday after the event.

Roster philosophy

It is the “magical question,” Willard said. What’s the right balance between building in the transfer portal vs. recruiting high school kids?

With the extra years of eligibility from the pandemic nearly gone from the sport (see Dixon, Eric), and the expectation that the House settlement could bring some stability, Willard said he expects the portal “will shrink dramatically in the next couple years.”

He wants to get back to recruiting and developing high school players, something he admired about Villanova when he was the school’s rival.

“High school kids help you keep your culture year over year,” Willard said. “I think it’s very hard to bring transfers in every year and keep a culture. There has to be a balance.

“I don’t think it’s the same year in, year out. Some years you might have a four-man freshman class. Some years you might only have two. It just depends on, in all honesty, who transfers and who stays.”

That’s in line with the program Villanova wants to be.

Willard for the first time has a general manager, Baker Dunleavy. He did not have one at Maryland.

“It’s kind of nice that he’s been kind of doing this for two years and understand the agent side, dealing with the money side,” Willard said. “I think we’re going to continue to evolve.”

Wright’s blessing, and his own spin on the Villanova Way

Putting on a Villanova shirt for the first time was a bit awkward, Willard admitted. But he has long admired Jay Wright and said he spoke to Wright Saturday night after meeting with Villanova president Rev. Peter M. Donohue and athletic director Eric Roedl.

“He sold me on Villanova,” Willard said. “I would not have even thought about taking this job if I had not talked to Jay and he had not sold Villanova the way he did.”

Willard made one thing clear Wednesday: “No one’s ever going to be Jay.”

The old Villanova Way might be dead. The new world won’t allow for it. But Willard said he plans to embrace the basketball culture at Villanova, which he called “the best basketball culture in the country.” He said he talked to Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson and obviously was in touch with Wright.

“My job is now to — in the new world of NIL and the transfer portal — put what I’ve learned on that with how we play offensively and defensively and adapt to the new style of college basketball," Willard said. “As much as I’m going to embrace the culture, the Villanova Way, I have to now get Villanova to kind of adapt now to a new era of college basketball, and that’s really where my spin has to come to this program.”

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