Former Pitino assistant Kevin Willard finds success

Iona College coach Kevin Willard has helped turn a team that went 2-28 last season into a competitive MAAC program in his first year. AP

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. -- The look will never leave Kevin Willard.

As the associate head coach to Rick Pitino at Louisville four years ago, Willard walked into his boss' house shortly before 8 a.m. certain his seven-year-tenure working for Pitino was about to end. Five hours earlier he had been arrested for driving under the influence while returning home from a night out with the coaching staff. He registered a .146 blood alcohol level (nearly twice the Kentucky legal limit of .08). "I was done," says Willard, who had been with Pitino since giving up his last year of college eligibility at Pittsburgh to take a $14,000-per-year advance scouting position with Pitino's Celtics in 1997. "There was no way I was being retained."

When Willard entered the kitchen, Pitino's wife, Joanne, approached the 28-year-old and said, "Don't worry, Kevy boy. You'll be all right."

Seated on a sofa to the right where he watches film at home, Pitino gave Willard a sobering stare. "We're going to get through this," Pitino said.

"I thought he'd light me up and that would be the end," says Willard, who was retained. "Sometimes when he doesn't yell it is worse. His look said it all."

For 22 of the next 30 days, Willard -- who had to pay a $200 fine, had his license suspended 30 days, did community service and stood in front of the team to explain his "stupid decision" -- woke up at 5 a.m. to run 10 miles per day, except while on road trips, as ordered by Pitino. "He put me through things that will never let me even think about taking a drink and stepping behind a wheel again," says Willard, who beat Pitino to the office all but three days of his time with him. "There's not an hour that goes by that I don't think about the choice I made."

Two weeks after Willards' arrest, Pitino took a two-day leave of absence from the Cardinals, who were in the midst of a 15-game winning streak, to undergo tests for a throat ailment. In his absence, he left the keys to the program with Willard. "I truly believe he was willing to take a loss to help re-establish me," says Willard, who led the Cardinals to a 64-48 win in the only game Pitino missed.

The DUI did not leave him then, though. In 2006, Willard, who broached the DUI topic in his job interview, was offered the Delaware head coaching position, only to see it rescinded when the school's administration got cold feet. "You have to understand this is a young man, outside of that one incident, has done everything right in his life," Pitino said. "Anybody that gets behind the wheel of an automobile [after drinking], he's dead wrong. But this isn't a person who has a drinking problem. This isn't a person that does things wrong."

Back on Pitino's bench, Willard, whose father, Ralph, had been an assistant under Pitino for two years with the Knicks and one with Kentucky, waited for another head-coaching opportunity. In the suburbs of New York City, Iona College, which had previously enjoyed success under alumnus Jeff Ruland, bottomed out. The Gaels lost their first 22 games, ending the season 2-28 overall and 1-17 in the MAAC, resulting in Ruland's firing. After meeting Willard at the Final Four and then interviewing him on campus, Iona athletic director Pat Lyons offered Willard the position. "Kevin was forthright with us when we interviewed him and we couldn't be happier with the job he's done," Lyons says. "He and his staff are in early and stay late."

"I told him that he couldn't do worse than before," Pitino says. "There's no way he could win just one game."

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