Basketball
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Maryland Basketball Coaching Staff
Last Game
Penn State
Mar 10, 2024
State College
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TBA
To Be Announced
Kevin Willard
Head Coach
Willard was named the new head coach of the Maryland Men’s Basketball program as announced by Damon Evans, Barry P. Gossett Director of Athletics, on March 21. Willard recently coached Seton Hall to its fifth NCAA Tournament appearance in the last six events that were played. Having won a regular-season conference championship, conference tournament championship and earning conference coach of the year, Willard is one of 10 active head coaches in the Power 6 conferences to achieve each of the accomplishments in the last six seasons.
In his career as a head coach, his teams have 28 wins over Associated Press Top-25 teams including 18 wins over Top-15 teams, 14 wins over Top-10 teams and six wins over Top-5 teams.
He has been one of the winningest coaches in terms of NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) Quad 1 victories over the last four seasons. He also has the most non-conference wins of any coach in the nation against Big Ten teams since 2014-15.
“We are thrilled to welcome Kevin to the Terrapin family,” said Damon Evans, Barry P. Gossett Director of Athletics. “We are excited about the future of Maryland basketball with Kevin leading the way. Known for his gritty, hard-working teams, Kevin has had tremendous success, winning conference championships and leading his teams to NCAA Tournaments. He has made a habit of scheduling challenging opponents and winning in those games as evidenced by his record against Big Ten teams in recent years. He has familiarity with the region, being a native New Yorker and having spent much of his life in the Northeast corridor. We welcome Kevin, his wife Julie, and their sons Colin and Chase to the Maryland family and we look forward to the next great chapter in Terrapin basketball history.”
“On behalf of the entire University of Maryland community, it is my honor to welcome Coach Kevin Willard and his family to College Park,” said Darryll J. Pines, President of the University of Maryland. “As a leader, coach, mentor, and teacher, Coach Willard is a tremendous choice to lead our men’s basketball program into its next era of distinction.”
“Growing up and coaching in the region, I have always admired the Maryland basketball program and being named the new head coach of one of the biggest brands in college basketball is a tremendous honor,” said Willard. “Thank you to President Pines and Damon Evans for trusting me to reenergize this proud program as we look to galvanize our passionate fanbase with a gritty, hard-working style of basketball. Having coached against Maryland several times and at XFINITY Center, I know how Terp fans feel about their team and understand their expectations. Skill development and a dedication to academic success will be cornerstones of our program and I can promise Terp Nation we will work to make them proud of this basketball team as we build winners on the court and in the classroom. Julie and our boys are excited to join the Terrapin family.”
Willard served as the head coach at Seton Hall from 2010-22 where he helped the Pirates to the 2020 Big East Regular Season Championship and the 2016 Big East Tournament Championship. He coached the Pirates to five NCAA berths and what would have been six in the last seven seasons when you include the COVID-shortened season, when Seton Hall was assured of a berth in the tournament after winning the Big East title in 2020.
His teams have posted .500 or better records in the last nine consecutive seasons. He has a 225-161 overall record at Seton Hall in 12 seasons. He is second all-time in victories (225) in Seton Hall basketball history and has the most wins in conference play in program history (110). He is also the 11th all-time winningest coach in Big East history, dating to the conference’s inception in 1979. Including three seasons as the head coach Iona, Willard’s career record is 270-210.
The past season, Willard led Seton Hall to a 21-11 overall record and an 11-8 mark in conference play. That included wins over No. 4 Michigan and No. 7 Texas as part of six NET Quad 1 victories.
He has claimed prestigious coaching honors including the USBWA District II Coach of the Year in 2020, the NABC District 5 Coach of the Year in 2019, the Peter A. Carlesimo Metropolitan Writers Coach of the Year in 2016, 2017 and 2019 and Big East Coach of the Year in 2016. He was also named one of Forbes Top 10 NCAA Basketball Coaches for the Next 10 Years in 2017. His teams won the prestigious NABC Team Academic Excellence Award for five straight years (2016-20) and earned three NCAA Academic Progress Rate Public Recognition Awards.
With Seton Hall, he posted seven 20-win seasons with six coming in the last seven years. He also finished in the top-four in the Big East on six occasions. In 2018, he led the Pirates to their first victory in an NCAA Tournament since 2004.
His teams at Seton Hall have been ranked in the Top 25 in five of the last eight seasons with a high ranking of No. 8 in the 2019-20 season. This past season the Pirates were ranked as high as No. 15 and spent eight weeks in the polls.
Willard’s Seton Hall teams have posted 26 Quad 1 wins over the last four seasons since the NET tool started being used by the NCAA. The 26 Q1 wins are among the Top 15 among all coaches in the nation since the 2018-19 season.
His teams have also posted an 11-5 record against Big Ten teams over the last eight seasons, which includes wins over Maryland in 2018 and 2019. Willard’s teams also won road games at Michigan, Iowa, Penn State and Rutgers and beat Indiana at home. Willard has the most non-conference wins over Big Ten teams of any coach since 2014-15.
The Pirates have 82 combined wins between the Big East regular-season and postseason, second only to Villanova in the conference since the 2015-16 season.
Willard coached the Big East Player of the Year in two of the last three years in Myles Powell (2020) and Sandro Mamukelashvili (2021). He mentored two of the last five Big East Most Improved Players of the Year in Powell (2018) and Romaro Gill (2020). He coached the Big East Tournament MVP, Isaiah Whitehead (2016); the Big East Defensive Player of the Year, Fuquan Edwin (2014) and Gill (2020); the Big East Rookie of the Year, Angel Delgado (2015) and the Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Michael Nzei (2019) and Ike Obiagu (2021).
Whitehead, Delgado, Powell and Mamukelashvili all earned All-American honors and Consensus First-Team All-Big East honors, and all in the last seven years. All four went on to play in the NBA with Powell playing for the Philadelphia 76ers this season and Mamukelashvili playing for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Powell was Seton Hall’s first Consensus First-Team All-American since 1953. This past season, Jared Rhoden was named to the All-Big East First Team marking the sixth time in seven years that Willard coached a first-team all-conference honoree. Overall, he mentored 15 All-Big East selections and three Big East All-Rookie Team honorees.
Making a huge emphasis on effort in the classroom, Willard’s student-athletes combined for 72 BIG EAST All-Academic team selections, and the program has boasted a perfect single-year academic progress rate in six of the nine NCAA reports since he became head coach as well as perfect multi-year APR scores in 2016 and 2017. The NCAA has also recognized Seton Hall with NCAA APR Public Recognition awards for boasting an APR in the top 10 percent in the country three consecutive years from 2015-17. The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) has given the program the Team Academic Excellence Award five consecutive years from 2016-20 for finishing the academic year with a grade point average above 3.0.
Willard has proven to be a strong evaluator and recruiter of talent, as he brought in a consensus top-15 national recruiting class in 2014, led by Whitehead, the program’s first McDonald’s All-American since 2001 and just the fifth all-time. His 2021-22 recruiting class was also rated in the top 25 by 247Sports.
The 2020-21 season marked Seton Hall and Willard's sixth consecutive top-four finish in the Big East Conference, one of the best basketball conferences in the country. Only Villanova also completed six straight top-four finishes in the same span.
Willard was named head coach of the Seton Hall men's basketball program on March 29, 2010. He became the 19th head coach in Seton Hall history joining the Pirates after three years serving as the head coach at Iona. In 2007, he had inherited a Gaels team that had won just two games the prior season. In his first year at the helm, the Gaels had a 10-win improvement, ranking as one of the top turnarounds in NCAA Div. I. Then in year three in 2009-10, Willard guided Iona to a 21-10 overall record, and he was named MAAC Coach of the Year.
Prior to the start of his career as a head coach, Willard was an assistant and associate head coach for six years at Louisville, where he was mentored by Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Rick Pitino. Willard also credits his father, Ralph, as one of his coaching influences. Ralph Willard enjoyed a successful 19-year run as the head coach at Western Kentucky, Pittsburgh and Holy Cross, winning 336 games and advancing to six NCAA Tournaments.
At Louisville, Willard was responsible for assisting with the Cardinals' game preparations, scouting and preparing game plans. He also served as chief recruiting coordinator. During his tenure, Louisville was ranked in the Top 25 for five seasons and reached the postseason 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 postseason. In his six seasons at Louisville, the Cardinals posted a phenomenal 142-58 record averaging nearly 24 wins per season.
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 facets of basketball operations. He also provided advance scouting, videotape breakdowns and assisted with individual workouts prior to games.
A basketball lifer, Willard played point guard on the Division I level for four years; the last three coming at the University of Pittsburgh. He earned Big East All-Academic honors while appearing in 60 games for the Panthers. He spent his freshman season at Western Kentucky, where he played in the backcourt and sank over 40 percent of his three-point field goal attempts.
Willard hails from New York and was born in Huntington on Long Island, 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.
Highlights
5 NCAA Tournament Appearances (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020* (COVID), 2022)
2020 Big East Conference Regular-Season Championship
2016 Big East Conference Tournament Championship
2016 Big East Coach of the Year
2020 USBWA District II Coach of the Year
2016, 2017, 2019 Peter A. Carlesimo Met Writers Coach of the Year
2019 NABC District 5 Coach of the Year
2017 Forbes Top 10 NCAA Basketball Coaches For The Next 10 Years
9 Consecutive seasons of .500 or better record
8 20-win seasons
7 Consecutive Top-5 Big East finishes
6 seasons ranked in the AP Top 25
72 All-Big East Academic Team selections
15 All-Big East First-Team selections
4 Haggerty Metropolitan Players of the Year
2 Big East Players of the Year
2 Big East Defensive Players of the Year
2 Big East Most Improved Players of the Year
2 Big East Scholar-Athletes of the Year
Active Head Coaches To Win A Regular-Season Conference Championship, Conference Tournament Championship and Earn Conference Coach of the Year In Power 6 since 2015-16
Dana Altman, Oregon
Rick Barnes, Tennessee
Tony Bennett, Virginia
John Calipari, Kentucky
Tommy Lloyd, Arizona
Nate Oats, Alabama
Bruce Pearl, Auburn
Bill Self, Kansas
Kevin Willard, Seton Hall
Jay Wright, Villanova
Most Non-Conference Wins Against The Big Ten Since 2014-15*
Kevin Willard, Seton Hall 11 (5 on the road)
Greg McDermott, Creighton 10 (4)
Mike Krzyzewski, Duke 9 (3)
Tony Bennett, Virginia 8 (3)
Mike Brey, Notre Dame 8 (1)
Jim Larranaga, Miami 7 (4)
Leonard Hamilton, Florida State 6 (1)
Roy Williams, North Carolina 6 (0)
Bill Self, Kansas 5 (0)
*When Maryland joined the Big Ten
Most NET Quad 1 Wins Since 2018-19*
Bill Self, Kansas 42
Scott Drew, Baylor 39
Greg Gard, Wisconsin 35
Mark Few, Gonzaga 34
Tom Izzo, Michigan State 34
John Calipari, Kentucky 33
Rick Barnes, Tennessee 30
Tony Bennett, Virginia 30
Fran McCaffery, Iowa 28
Jay Wright, Villanova 28
Greg McDermott, Creighton 27
Matt Painter, Purdue 27
Kevin Willard, Seton Hall 26
Mike Krzyzewski, Duke 26
Chris Beard, Texas Tech/Texas 26
Chris Holtmann, Ohio State 26
*When NET was introduced
Wins Over Ranked AP Teams
vs. Top 25: 28 wins
vs. Top 20: 22 wins
vs. Top 15: 18 wins
vs. Top 10: 14 wins
vs. Top 5: 6 wins
Notable Teams Kevin Willard Has Beaten
#3 Villanova in 2014
#3 Villanova in 2016
#4 Michigan in 2021
#5 Xavier in 2016
#5 Butler in 2020
#6 Villanova in 2015
#7 Maryland in 2019
#7 Texas in 2021
#8 UConn in 2012
#9 Kentucky in 2018
#9 Georgetown in 2012
#10 Villanova in 2020
#13 Butler in 2017
#16 South Carolina in 2016
#17 Louisville in 2017
#22 Texas Tech in 2017
Greg Manning
Assistant Coach
Greg Manning Jr. enters his sixth season with the Maryland basketball program having served the Terps in a number of roles during his tenure. Manning was named assistant coach in April 2023 after having previously served as the Director of Operations (2021-23) and video coordinator (2018-21). Additionally, he was an interim assistant coach during much of the 2021-22 season under Danny Manning.
In his five seasons with the Terps, Maryland has advanced to four NCAA Tournaments (including 2019-20 which was cut short due to the pandemic).
In 2019-20, Manning was part of a staff that led Maryland to its first Big Ten Championship since joining the conference and was a lock for the NCAA Tournament before the season was cut short (no postseason) due to the coronavirus pandemic. In three of Manning’s other four seasons, the Terps reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
As video coordinator, Manning was charged with coordinating the internal video needs of the program, including advanced scouting, film, edits and recruiting materials.
Prior to Maryland, Manning served as an assistant coach under Jimmy Patsos at Siena beginning in 2013. Manning helped guide the Saints to the program’s first MAAC Championship Game appearance in seven years during the 2016-17 campaign. Siena won 13 of its final 19 contests to amass a 17-17 overall record and finish tied for third in the MAAC with a 12-8 league mark.
Manning played a key role in the development of four 1,000-point scorers in Brett Bisping, Lavon Long, Javion Ogunyemi, and Marquis Wright. Siena’s decorated senior class, which also included walk-on Jimmy Merrill, combined to finish with 5,787 career points, and the Saints were one of just two Division I programs along with National Champion North Carolina to feature four 1,000-point scorers on their 2016-17 roster.
In 2015-16, Manning helped guide Siena to a 21-13 overall record and third place finish in the conference with a 13-7 league mark as Siena advanced to the MAAC Semifinals. The 21 wins marked the program’s most in six years as the Saints posted a 10-win improvement from the previous season, which was tied for the 12th best nationally, and earned the program’s second College Basketball Invitational appearance in three years.
In his first season, Manning helped Patsos orchestrate a 12-win improvement which was tied for the second best in all of Division I. Siena won 20 games and earned a berth to the College Basketball Invitational, which the Saints captured by taking the best-of-three series against Fresno State to earn the program’s first Division I national postseason tournament championship.
Manning was an integral part of the revival of Loyola basketball under Patsos, a process that began during his playing career from 2004-08. The Greyhounds went 52-40 in Manning’s last three years in the Green and Grey after posting just seven victories in the previous two seasons combined.
As a member of the coaching staff, Manning helped complete the transformation as the program took off. The Greyhounds went 47-21 the last two seasons, reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 18 years in 2012, and advancing to the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament in 2013.
Manning’s Maryland connections run deep, as his father Greg Sr. played four seasons under Lefty Driesell from 1977-81. Manning Sr. remains one of the most prolific shooters in Maryland history, ranking third in career field goal percentage (.583) and second in career free throw percentage (.858). The elder Manning also spent 15 seasons as an analyst for the Maryland Sports Radio Network.
Manning coached an 11-player team of top college players against international competition in Belgium and Germany in the summer of 2012. In the summer of 2014 he again took a team of college all stars that included Siena’s Lavon Long and Javion Ogunyemi on a European tour of Belgium, England and France, and in the summer of 2015 he brought a team that included Maryland forward Ivan Bender and Marquis Wright to Croatia.
A native of Alpharetta, Ga., Manning graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications/public relations from Loyola in 2008. He spent the summer following graduation attending camps across the country, including the Eastern Invitational in New Jersey and the camps at the University of Maryland and West Virginia University, before joining the Greyhounds’ staff full-time.
David Cox
Assistant Coach
A Landover, Maryland native with head coaching experience and vast DMV connections, David Cox joined Kevin Willard’s staff March 28.
Cox comes to Maryland after serving as the head coach at Rhode Island for four seasons. Before that, Cox was an associate head coach at Rhode Island and Rutgers, assistant coach at Georgetown and director of operations at Pittsburgh.
The DMV native has also coached both high school and AAU basketball in the local area and arrives in College Park with deep local recruiting ties.
“We are thrilled that David is joining our staff at Maryland,” said Willard. “He grew up right near our campus and has tons of connections to the DMV. He brings a wealth of experience as a head coach and more than 20 years on the sidelines in the Northeast. He has developed some of the best players in the Big East and Atlantic 10 and we are excited for him to make a major impact with the Terrapin basketball program. It's great that we get to welcome him and his family home to Maryland.”
“I am humbled and honored to be able to come home to Maryland and be a part of the Terp family,” said Cox. “I grew up in Landover, Len Bias’ hometown. I went to games at Cole and Comcast Center and coached many future Terps over the years. I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the staff with Kevin. This is a great fit and we can’t wait to get to work recruiting and developing the future stars of Maryland basketball.”
Cox won 64 games as head coach of the Rams from 2018-22 and was one of 20 coaches included on HereSports.com’s list of candidates for National Coach of the Year in 2020. With a record of 13-5 in league play in the 2019-20 season, Cox tied for the third-most conference wins in a season in Rhode Island history. Future Terp, then-Ram Fatts Russell earned Atlantic 10 First Team All-Conference and All-Defensive Team honors, while senior Jeff Dowtin was a third-team selection. Dowtin also earned Academic All-Conference honors for the third straight season.
Russell, who transferred to and played for the Terps in 2021-22, was a two-time All-Atlantic 10 selection under Cox and established himself as one of the best players in Rhode Island history. Russell is 13th in scoring all-time with 1,594 points and holds the Rams program steals record with 213.
Despite inheriting a team that had lost six seniors who went on to play professional basketball. Cox led Rhode Island to an 18-15 record, including a 9-9 mark in Atlantic 10 action in 2018-19. He was named as one of 12 national finalists for the 2019 Joe B. Hall Award, which is presented annually to the top first-year coach in Division I. The Rams advanced to the A-10 semifinals, upsetting top-seeded VCU in the quarterfinals. Junior forward Cyril Langevine earned Second Team All-Conference honors and a spot on the league’s All-Defensive Team. Junior Jeff Dowtin was named to the Academic All-Conference Team.
Cox was named as head coach in 2018 after four seasons as an assistant coach on Dan Hurley’s staff with URI. The final two of those seasons were spent as the team’s associate head coach. Cox joined the Rhode Island staff in May, 2014 after spending the previous four seasons as an associate head coach at Rutgers.
The Rams made two NCAA Championship appearances and one NIT appearance with Cox as an assistant coach, advancing to the second round all three times. Rhode Island also claimed the program’s first Atlantic 10 regular-season title in 2018 and its second conference tournament title in 2017.
In November of 2017, Cox was ranked as the No. 23 assistant coach in the country by LockDraft.com. Over his first three seasons with the Rams, the team had gone 65-35 with a pair of postseason appearances. In 2016-17, Rhode Island made its first NCAA Championship appearance since 1999, upsetting Creighton in the opening round before falling just short against eventual Final Four participant Oregon in the second round. In Cox’ first season in Rhode Island, the Rams went to the 2015 NIT and made it to the second round.
During his time at URI, Cox was instrumental in the recruitment of Indiana transfer Stanford Robinson, Jeff Dowtin, Michael Tertsea and Russell. He was the primary recruiter for the 2018 class, which was ranked as a Top-25 class nationally.
While at Rutgers from 2010-14, Cox was the Scarlet Knights’ associate head coach, helping the program recruit the 15th-best class in 2011. He served as the interim head coach for a three-game stint in December 2012, leading Rutgers to a 3-0 record.
From 2007-10, Cox served as an assistant at Georgetown, helping to guide the Hoyas to a trio of post-season appearances. In 2007-08, Georgetown compiled a 28-6 overall record en route to winning the Big East Championship and earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The 2009-10 Hoya squad also won 28 games and en route to an NCAA Tournament appearance. Cox entered the college ranks as the director of basketball operations at Pittsburgh for the 2006-07 season and was part of the Panthers’ staff that went 29-8 and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
Cox first coached at the high school level at Archbishop Carroll in Washington, D.C. from 1996-99. He spent the next seven years as an assistant principal at his alma mater, St. John’s Prep in Washington, D.C. from 1999-2006, where he oversaw the school’s athletic department, supervised all extra-curricular activities and served as the school’s head of discipline.
Cox began his coaching career as an assistant coach with the Washington D.C. Assault AAU program. He helped guide the team to the under-16 national championship in 2004. Several of his players earned college scholarships, including Tre Kelley (South Carolina), Chris McCray (Maryland), Michael Beasley (Kansas State/Miami Heat), Nolan Smith (Duke), Dante Cunningham (Villanova/Portland Trail Blazers), Arinze Onuaku (Syracuse) and Adrian Bowie (Maryland).
A 1995 graduate of William & Mary with a degree in sociology, Cox was a four-year letterwinner and three-year starter at point guard for the Tribe for head coaches Chuck Swenson and Charlie Woollum. He finished his collegiate career with 670 points, 216 rebounds, 336 assists and a .352 3-point field goal percentage and his name is located throughout the Tribe’s record book. Cox still ranks among school leaders in several statistical categories, including 3-point field goals made (sixth, 137), total assists (eighth, 336); and 3-point field goal percentage (ninth, .352). His career-high 12 assists against George Mason in 1995 still ranks third among all-time single-game performances in W&M basketball history.
In 1996, Cox earned his master’s degree in education from William & Mary. He and his wife Tasha have two children, Leila and Jacob.