Two years ago, the Iona Gaels were in the NCAA Tournament. Last year, they started the season 0-22 and finished out 2-28. They played mostly all freshmen, but they were still shocked by the amazing drop off from one year to the next. Enter new head coach Kevin Willard.

Kevin Willard was hired yesterday as the basketball coach at Iona, which hopes the former Rick Pitino assistant can revive a team that began the season 0-22 and finished with the worst record in the program’s 62-year history.

Willard spent the past six seasons at Louisville as an assistant and is a head coach for the first time. He succeeds Jeff Ruland, who was bought out of the final two years of his contract.

Willard is a former Pitt player (1995-97), having played for his father, Ralph Willard.

“Last year doesn’t concern me,” Willard said at a campus news conference. “I know they went through a hard time, but this is a clean slate.”

So now the older and younger Willard’s take their Pitt connection to different schools in NCAA hoops as head coaches.

(OK so that sentence didn’t completely make sense but hey, it’s only 5:00 in the morning. Cut me a little break…)