SEATTLE — Kevin Willard wishes Sunday had come sooner.

The Maryland men’s basketball coach felt his then-Seton Hall teams had chances to make tournament runs, but early exits defined his tenure.

“It haunted me, to be honest with you,” Willard said.

He went 1-5 with the Pirates in the NCAA tournament and had no Sweet 16 appearances. Willard knows it’s been a “stigma,” something outside observers were quick to knock him for.

The 18-year head coach finally broke through on Sunday with Maryland’s 72-71 win against Colorado State, earning his first second weekend NCAA tournament appearance.

“It’s always been on my back,” Willard said. “But I knew, I had confidence in myself that eventually if you keep getting to this tournament — which my teams keep getting to this tournament — that I was eventually going to knock the door down.”

Willard wishes his first came at Seton Hall, he said, where he coached from 2010 to 2022. It’s a place he still loves and a school he said was “really good to me.”

Maybe Seton Hall and Maryland could’ve earned the feat in 2020 had the tournament not been canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the Terps’ Sweet 16 berth this season is only their second since 2003.

[Derik Queen sends Maryland men’s basketball to first Sweet 16 since 2016 with 72-71 win]

Willard didn’t want the moment to be about him. He said he still has double-digit years left in his coaching career. Asked earlier in the weekend about being the face of the Maryland program, he joked that “nobody wants to see this face anywhere.”

Perhaps against his wishes, Willard’s players celebrated him as much as they celebrated themselves.

Just a few minutes after Derik Queen’s game-winner, about 50 feet from the spot where the freshman made the shot, Willard’s players walked up from behind as CBS’ Andy Katz interviewed him. They all clapped and shouted, with Julian Reese having the most animated reaction.

The typically-mild-mannered senior grabbed Willard’s shoulders and shook him before putting his arms around the 49-year-old and shouting “that’s our coach,” into the camera.

It was Queen’s turn to be interviewed when Willard finished. After they high-fived, the 6-foot-10 freshman suffocated Willard with a hug.

Willard — who’s been joked to never smile — was grinning ear-to-ear throughout the entire interaction.

Willard’s personality isn’t for everybody. He knows that, and doesn’t really care. He told The Athletic, “I’m anal and I’m an a-hole.”

At the very least, Willard is blunt. In the span of just a few days, while rumors about him and the Villanova job floated around, Willard not only said his former athletic director Damon Evans was “probably going to SMU” before an official announcement but added that his program needed more Name, Image and Likeness and revenue-sharing money to sign a new deal with Maryland.

He even explained how the athletic department didn’t let him stay an extra night in New York City because it was “too expensive,” which pitted some fans against Evans.

[Kevin Willard is playing ‘the game’ with candid March Madness press conferences]

Many coaches across the country likely feel the same about wanting more resources, but few are willing to say it aloud.

“I feel like everybody wants their coach to just be honest,” sophomore guard DeShawn Harris-Smith said at a Saturday press conference. “Coach Willard is the same guy y’all see when he gets up here [to do press conferences]. That’s the same way he is with us.”

That demeanor is part of what makes his players comfortable with him. Many of them — perhaps none more than Queen — return the same energy to Willard.

“‘I want the MF ball,’” Willard recalled the freshman saying in the team’s final huddle before making the buzzer beater. So naturally, after sending his coach to his first Sweet 16, Queen had to embarrass him when a reporter asked why players trust Willard.

“First, he do pay us the money,” Queen said before diving into a more serious answer, calling Willard “a player coach.”

Willard put his face in his hands as he turned red and couldn’t hold back laughter.

The coach’s joy was understandable given he just removed the biggest blemish on his resume.

When Maryland hired Willard in 2022, it knew he could make it to March. The question was if he could win deep into it.

Some Maryland fans think a Sweet 16 should be the annual expectation. To a degree, Willard may agree. He wants to compete for national championships — it’s why he’s been so vocal fighting for his program.

So if the Terps lose next weekend, he’ll surely be disappointed. But for now, the coach will enjoy what he’s done.

“It’s nice,” Willard said. “I’m not going to lie.”