“All I’m going to say is that Maryland just got a great coach in Buzz [Williams],” Willard said at the same time Williams was being introduced at a live press conference on campus. “I’m really happy for them, and I’m super excited to be in a great basketball conference here [in the Big East]. And I just think it’s time that everyone moved on.”

Every step of Kevin Willard’s journey to Villanova from Maryland should be instructive and sobering. It should strip away any remaining sentimentality about the world of college basketball and how Villanova’s leaders view the Wildcats’ place in it.