“Throughout the process, Coach Willard demonstrated that he has the vision and experience to guide Villanova Basketball in the changing world of college athletics,” declared Villanova president Rev. Peter M. Donohue, practically beaming as he welcomed the Wildcats’ new savior. Finally, some fresh blood to hoist the team back onto its pedestal after Hall of Famer Jay Wright’s 2022 exit left them scrambling for a worthy successor. Unfortunately, to join the Wildcats, Willard had to bid adieu to the Maryland Terrapins, which he had led for 3 years—a move that didn’t sit well with everyone. Just ask Derik Queen.
Villanova didn’t waste time rolling out the red carpet for their new kingpin. At a recent press conference, Kevin Willard was announced as the Wildcats’ head coach, complete with the ceremonial jersey pose—despite not being a player. The official X account of the Villanova men’s basketball team hyped it up, writing, “Introducing the 10th Head Coach in Villanova Men’s Basketball history, @KevinWillard! ”. The post caught the attention of Queen, who fired back with a wordless, emoji-laden jab: “”. Ouch. That’s not the face of a guy wishing his ex-coach well.
There may be more than one reason the Maryland player put out the following tweet on X. The jersey Willard clutched in that photo might hold a clue—it’s stamped with the number 25, marking his 2025 arrival at Villanova. Coincidence or not, 25 is also the number Queen rocks whenever he is on the court for Maryland. Therefore, either Queen was upset with seeing his former coach move on, or with seeing Willard repping a Nova jersey with his number on it, or both.
— derik queen (@derikqueen1) April 9, 2025
This isn’t Queen’s first social media meltdown over Willard’s departure. Around 4 and a half hours after ESPN broke the news of Willard’s new signing, Queen took to X, leaving no words, but only emojis: “”. Later, the 20-year-old probably spoke for all the Maryland fans when he wrote “This doesn’t look right”, as Willard posted his first rah-rah message to Villanova fans ahead of their clash against USC, during the College Basketball Crown tournament. So, fair to say that Queen’s not being subtle at all.
The rumors about Kevin Willard’s exit from Maryland started swirling in late March. CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein spilled that Maryland had dangled “over $5 million” a year to keep him. He added that “Kevin Willard is going to weigh the offer to stay at Maryland… or he’s going to go be the next head coach at Villanova”.
Before the big leap, Willard had been quite open with the media about calling for a fundamental change within Maryland’s basketball program. From NIL to revenue sharing, he highlighted what he needed from the College Park folks to get them to keep him with the Terrapins. In Willard’s own words, “I want this program to be great. I want it to be the best in the country, I want to win a national championship, but there’s things that need to change. … I need to make sure that where we are with (name, image and likeness) and revenue share is not where we’ve been with NIL over the past two years. We’ve been one of the worst, if not lowest, in the NIL in the last two years. So that’s first and foremost.”
In the end, it seems like when Maryland didn’t budge, Willard jumped ship. And no one’s feeling the sting more than Derik Queen. After all, if history is an indication, he holds Kevin Willard in high regard.
Derik Queen once poked fun at Kevin Willard over ‘real’ reason why players respect him: “he did pay us the money”
Back in March, the Maryland Terrapins secured a narrow 72-71 win against Colorado State in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament. Derik Queen had led the scoring effort for his team by scoring 17 points, and accompanying it with 6 rebounds and 1 assist. However, even in victory, after the player made an impressive buzzer beater to secure the win for his team, he still deflected the spotlight, heaping love on his teammates and coach.
When Queen was asked what it was about Maryland head coach, Kevin Willard, that helped keep the team together. “First, he did pay us the money,” said Queen, sparking laughs from the crowd. “So we’ve gotta listen to him.” However, Queen later kept the joke aside and gave a sincere appreciation to his head coach, stating, “We all trust him. He wants nothing but the best for us. He coaches hard. He talks to us [about things] other than basketball. He’s just always there, and just wants us to win.”
Derik Queen on why Kevin Willard is a head coach players can listen to:
“First, he did pay us the money…” pic.twitter.com/0rcVJiKydx
— Wesley Brown (@W_Brown21) March 24, 2025
Willard also returned the love, gushing over Queen’s old-school flair. “I mean, I think what makes Derik so unique is the fact that he has an old school feel to the way he plays basketball,” said Willard. “He just has a great – he knows when he’s got a smaller guy on him, he can go down low and post up. He knows when he’s got a bigger guy and we can take him off the dribble. He has been, he’s worked really hard at his body. And I think the biggest thing, he loves the game of basketball, he’s a great teammate, and it’s been such a pleasure to coach them, even though I’m not going to coach him much longer because I’m going to be watching him hopefully with the Wizards.”
Well, that prediction came true. However, instead of Queen, it was the coach who switched teams. Whether Kevin Willard will ever choose to respond to Queen’s emoji outbursts is something that remains to be seen.
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