WORCESTER, Mass. -- For the second consecutive year, the Patriot League is losing one its of most recognizable men's basketball coaches.
Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard is walking away after a decade on the bench at his alma mater and will rejoin Rick Pitino as the associate head coach at Louisville.
The pair has worked together twice before when Pitino was at Kentucky and with the Knicks in the NBA.
"I've been pursuing Ralph for the last 10 years," Pitino said in a statement. "I can't tell you how excited we are that he has joined our staff and we are back together again. Ralph is truly one of the best minds in our game."
Since returning to Worcester in 1999, Willard led Holy Cross to five 20-win seasons and four Patriot League crowns, earning trips to the NCAA tournament from 2001-2003 and 2007, and the National Invitational Tournament in 2005.
Willard was the league's coach of the year three times.
In his 10 seasons, he was 192-117, including a 95-33 mark in the Patriot League.
"This is obviously one of the most difficult decisions I've had to make in my career, but after much thought and examination it is best for the program going forward and for me personally," Willard said. "I'm tremendously proud of the student-athletes I have had the privilege to coach here, all they have accomplished and the way they have represented themselves and the school.
"This has been a special decade not only in my career, but in my life."
Willard and former Bucknell coach Pat Flannery -- who resigned a year ago -- took the Patriot League to knew heights in the past decade.
Bucknell and Holy Cross hooked up in some memorable battles, including three consecutive seasons when they met in the conference title game from 2005-2007 and in the league tournament six consecutive times from 2002 to 2007. In 2005, the two schools became the only two Patriot League schools to ever win a postseason game when Bucknell stunned Kansas in the NCAA tournament and Holy Cross toppled Notre Dame in the NIT.
"Ralph has contributed greatly to the competitiveness and advancement of Patriot League men's basketball as a coach, teacher and mentor throughout his 10 years at Holy Cross," Patriot League Executive Director Carolyn Schlie Femovich said. "His commitment to the scholar-athlete model of excellence in academics and high athletic achievement has been evident in all of his teams. He has left a legacy of success that will be difficult to match. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors."
Prior to his time at Holy Cross, Willard spent five seasons as the head coach at Pittsburgh, and four years as head coach at Western Kentucky. He led Western Kentucky to the NCAA Tournament during each of his final two seasons, and his overall career record stands at 336-241.
Willard is a 1967 graduate of Holy Cross, and was a three-year letterwinner for the Crusaders.
One of the first hires Holy Cross athletic director Richard M. Regan Jr. made was Willard.
"If one had told me at the time (when Willard was hired) that Ralph would stay for 10 years and take us to the postseason five times, I would have been ecstatic," Regan said in a statement from Holy Cross. "Having said that, I had hoped he would retire here, and I am disappointed that it won't end that way."
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