During mid-game interview, coach says he plans to fire his whole staff

Villanova trailed Utah State 22-16 in the first half of Friday's NCAA Tournament first round game, and Wildcats head coach Kevin Willard had a plan to get his club out of the whole. He was going to fire his entire coaching staff.

"I'm gonna fire my staff," Willard told TNT's Lauren Shehadi when asked about Villanova's 16-2 deficit in points in the paint.

"Not now," Shehadi deadpanned.

"Yeah, I am," Willard insisted, "because we've given up 8 points on underneath out-of-bounds defense. The only thing I'm gonna do is fire them and get a new staff."

In a tight 8 vs. 9 game, Villanova led 73-71 with six minutes to play but surrendered a 15-3 run from there, losing 86-76. In a game where Villanova surrendered eight points on baseline out-of-bounds plays within the first nine minutes, the Wildcats lost by 10.

One wondered if this was deadpan gallows humor, similar to when Brian Kelly, echoing Jim McKay, joked that he planned to execute his entire team. 

After the loss, Willard was asked what Villanova did to plug the leak on BLOB plays. "I don't think we did," he said. "We gave up a big three late. I'm probably going to have to make some changes to my staff just because of how bad we were." 

Or was he?

Asked later about the mid-game interview, which instantly went viral with the internet community coming down harshly against Willard, the coach said, "I don't care. Welcome to my life. It's a joke." 

After watching the press conference, I honestly can't tell you if Willard plans to fire one, or all, of his assistants for the club's catastrophic BLOB defense. One thing I can say is that basketball is not like football; Willard has five full-time assistants, and all five simply have the title of "assistant coach." 

Time will tell if all five still hold that job in the future.