Nothing appeared amiss.

Kevin Willard prowled the sideline with his usual piercing gaze, red tie catching the eye as his Maryland men’s basketball team went toe-to-toe with No. 1 seed Florida in the Sweet 16.

The Terps, assembled by this peppery 49-year-old basketball lifer, had not played so well so deep into March for almost a decade.

There was no dishonor in their ultimate inability to keep up with Florida, perhaps the most complete team in college basketball. Derik Queen did Baltimore proud, going down shooting with 27 points in what was almost certainly his final college game.

It could have been one last occasion to celebrate how far the Terps had progressed since finishing the previous season 16-17. Instead, those who love Maryland basketball were left to wonder if the picture was already crumbling before their eyes.

If Villanova announces Willard as its coach in the next few days — that’s the consensus expectation among those who cover the sport, though the man himself was noncommittal in his postgame remarks Thursday — the last two weeks will go down as a bittersweet chapter in the program’s history, at best. A run that should be remembered for the “Crab Five” and Queen’s exquisitely kissed buzzer-beater against Colorado State could become just as much the tale of a coach who raised a big ruckus, then fled.

Anger at Willard had already advanced from simmer to boil before the Terps tipped off in San Francisco on Thursday evening. Fans and boosters were not prepared to have the program’s most enchanted March Madness in more than two decades overshadowed by a coach making his career power play.

It was one thing for McNeese State to play the round of 32 knowing its coach, Will Wade, was out the door to NC State. That’s life in the big leagues for a mid-major.

But Maryland still fancies itself a cream-of-the-crop basketball school, even if the results haven’t always backed that up. In June 2023, when the university broke ground on a $52 million basketball practice facility, Willard called his job one of the 10 best in the college game. It’s not a program that expects to have a Sweet 16 trip overshadowed by its coach flirting with another suitor.

To make matters touchier, Willard napalmed Maryland’s athletic department in the process, preemptively revealing athletic director Damon Evans’ departure to SMU, airing his dissatisfaction with NIL funding levels, even grumbling about the university’s refusal to pay for his team to stay an extra night in New York to celebrate Christmas.

There was a roguish charm to Willard’s performance when it seemed he was laying bare the money grubbing and leverage games that fuel big-time college sports in 2025. He assured us he was only doing it to help Maryland basketball — his program — chomp its deserved piece of the pie.

But if all that saber rattling was nothing more than a preamble to Willard decamping for Villanova, it comes off as purely selfish.

Of course Willard has every right to take another job where he feels long-term success will be more assured. He talked Thursday night about how the uncertainty over “who my boss is gonna be … worries me a little bit.”

But he might well leave Maryland basketball in ashes. If he departs, not only will an athletic department that’s currently without a leader have to find a new coach and rebuild a roster on the fly. It will do so against the backdrop of an identity crisis Willard stirred.

The issues he raised are real. With revenue sharing and a salary cap for athletes about to become the rule of the day in college sports, Maryland will have to decide how to carve up an estimated $20.5 million pie.

The university has to pour considerable resources into football to field a representative team in a Big 10 dominated by some of the wealthiest and most storied powers in that sport. Coach Mike Locksley’s program will feed from the same $20.5 million as Brenda Frese’s women’s basketball program and the men’s basketball program. In that equation, Willard or the next person in his job, would never be the undisputed big dog on campus.

That’s not the case at Villanova, where men’s basketball is king.

Willard spoke fervently about needing contractual assurances of his program’s share. Maryland has reportedly met his conditions and offered a salary that would make him one of the 10 highest-paid coaches in the country, but it still might not be enough to overcome Villanova’s inherent advantage.

If there’s any silver lining for the Terps, it might be the self-examination Willard’s contract play will provoke. Maryland will hire a new athletic director, and that person will have the chance to decide what kind of department the state’s flagship university should have. Is it chasing glory that will never come by spending what it does on football? Can both basketball programs be funded robustly enough to compete for national championships? Are there new innovations to be found in marketing and building a more active booster community?

These are sweeping, expensive decisions that transcend any one coach or team. But the hope has to be that this Willard mess might force Maryland athletics into its next era.

If he has coached his last game for the Terps, Kevin Willard will not be remembered for his 65 wins or two NCAA Tournament appearances in three years. He won’t be remembered for recruiting a next-generation Baltimore basketball hero in Queen or deftly using the transfer portal to build a championship contender.

He grasps that as well as anyone, though he said Thursday he has no regrets about all he has unleashed with his comments. “I understand fans are going to be pissed because I’m in limbo,” he said when asked about Maryland supporters who booed him as the team departed its hotel for the Florida game. “I get it. I’m kind of pissed, to be honest, because I didn’t expect to be in this situation.”

If he’s coaching Villanova at this time next week, those same people won’t look back on him fondly — not quite Robert Irsay absconding from Baltimore with the Colts, but a turncoat nonetheless.

Willard has, however, brought us face to face with the reality of college sports in 2025.

Maybe the past two weeks should have been entirely about basketball and the young men playing it. That’s just not the way it is.

Have a news tip? Contact Childs Walker at daviwalker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6893 and x.com/ChildsWalker.