Ashley Howard to remain at Villanova as Kevin Willard’s coaching staff takes shape
Interim head coach Mike Nardi is among those on the Wildcats coaching staff who will not return.
One after another, Villanova’s assistant coaches said goodbye in social media posts on Monday, two days after the Wildcats’ season officially ended in the semifinals of the College Basketball Crown tournament in Las Vegas.
Interim coach Mike Nardi said “Villanova will always hold a special place in my heart” in a video posted to Instagram. Fellow former Villanova player and assistant coach Dwayne Anderson wrote that “Villanova made me into the man I am today.” Jamie Young, who joined Kyle Neptune’s coaching staff before this season, also announced his departure.
Missing from the farewell posts was one Ashley Howard, who will remain on the Villanova coaching staff under new coach Kevin Willard, a source told The Inquirer.
The rest of Willard’s coaching staff will follow him from the University of Maryland. Joining Howard as assistant coaches are David Cox, who was the associate head coach under Willard; Kevin Norris, who joined Willard’s staff before this season after stints at Central Florida and Southern California; and Greg Manning Jr., who started as a video coordinator at Maryland in 2018 and was kept on staff by Willard.
Among that group of four assistants are two former head coaches in Cox (Rhode Island) and Howard (La Salle), who is a Philadelphia native and played at Drexel.
The rest of Willard’s support personnel also will be from his staff at Maryland.
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Willard’s introductory press conference is Wednesday on campus. Villanova held an initial Zoom media availability with Willard last week, but the new coach said he wanted to wait until after the Crown to discuss the staff and the roster out of respect for the players and coaches in Vegas.
Nardi joined Jay Wright’s staff in 2015 in a support role and was elevated to assistant coach in 2018. Anderson joined the Villanova staff in 2018 after beginning his coaching career at Penn State. It is not abnormal for new coaches like Willard to bring in their own assistants, leading to turnover like Villanova will see.
In the transfer portal era, players fit that mold, too.
The Wildcats received two commitments Sunday night with Maryland ties. One is freshman Malachi Palmer, who joins Villanova as a reserve wing with three years of eligibility remaining, and the other is incoming freshman combo guard Chris Jeffrey, who is ranked 70th nationally by 247Sports.
Willard and his staff, along with general manager Baker Dunleavy, still have a lot of holes to fill for next season’s roster. Villanova is losing all five of its starters to exhausted eligibility, and it remains to be seen how many remaining players will enter the transfer portal. As of late Tuesday afternoon there were two: Nnanna Njoku, who was ruled out for the season in January with an injury and entered the portal in late March, and reserve forward Kris Parker, who entered Tuesday.