Villanova’s Big East opener is taking Kevin Willard back to a place he loves. The game has big stakes.

The thoughts and feelings facing Kevin Willard this week hadn’t crossed his mind until Sunday, he said.

Villanova, with no classes to rush home for, spent the night in Milwaukee on Friday after finishing its nonconference schedule with an overtime victory over Wisconsin. The Wildcats traveled home Saturday with their 9-2 record and their ascending metrics tucked away with the cargo.

It’s time for Big East play, Willard’s first conference campaign since taking over at Villanova after three years coaching Maryland. Up first: Seton Hall on the road and a return to a place Willard spent 12 years from 2010 to 2022. Credit to the conference schedulers, who probably couldn’t have predicted it would be the 9-2 Wildcats against the 11-1 Pirates. They nailed it nonetheless.

On Sunday, though, Willard and his wife, Julie, started reminiscing. Willard didn’t play Seton Hall in any of his three seasons at Maryland, although he did coach a game at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., Seton Hall’s home court, last season, coincidentally a Maryland victory over Villanova.

Tuesday will be much different. The Willards have numerous family photos that document memories around the Seton Hall program. There are pictures of their children, Colin and Chase, running around on basketball courts at the Prudential Center and on road trips. Willard said he has about 80 people attending Tuesday’s game, a mix of family and friends.

It’s a community he remains connected to. Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway was one of his assistants for eight years and the guy he wanted to succeed him. He still goes on golf trips with Seton Hill alums and stays in touch with former players, like Sandro Mamukelashvili, a Raptors forward who was in Milwaukee on Thursday night playing against the Bucks.

Willard said he imagines he’ll be emotional seeing former staff members and fans Tuesday night.

“There’s a little bit more to this one,” he said Monday. “I love Seton Hall. I raised my kids in Jersey, my kids grew up there, my wife and I spent 12 great years at Seton Hall and in the community. It’s a great fan base, it’s a great alumni base.

“It’s probably going to be a little bit harder for me going back than I think it is.”

That being said …

“It’s obviously a league game, so it’s not like I’m going to be crying at halfcourt,” he said. “But it’s definitely a place that I hold very dearly and will always be the love of my life to be honest with you.”

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That is the balance Willard will need to find Tuesday night. He will surely be cheered, and for good reason. Willard led the Pirates to five NCAA Tournament appearances in his last seven seasons, and a sixth would have happened if not for the COVID-19 pandemic. Seton Hall won 20 games just once in the first decade of this century before Willard hit that mark seven times in 12 seasons.

But whatever fanfare Seton Hall has planned for Willard’s return is only a distraction from what is a critical Big East Conference game.

Villanova entered Monday 29th in the NCAA’s NET rankings while Seton Hall was 36th. At the metrics site KenPom, Villanova was 28th and Seton Hall was 43rd. Meanwhile, ESPN’s bracket guru Joe Lunardi on Saturday had Villanova as a No. 10 seed, the 39th-ranked team in his 68-team field, and Seton Hall was a No. 7 seed, the 28th-ranked team.

It may be a little early for such discussions — the teams are barely one-third of the way through their 2025-26 schedules — but it is surely a game that could be a big deal come March. That is not a reality Willard hides from, a departure from his predecessor at Villanova, who treated every game like the “Super Bowl” and didn’t talk to his players about bubbles and rankings and metrics.

“We talk about where we are, where we’re standing,” Willard said. “We talk about our NET numbers. I let them know everything.”

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When Bryce Lindsay decided to make a layup rather than run the clock out in the waning seconds of Friday’s win, Willard said the guard told him afterward that he was trying to protect Villanova’s NET ranking.

What’s the benefit of keeping his players aware of it all?

“Because you’re going to go through some parts of the season where you struggle,” Willard said. “Everybody does. If the players understand where you are and what your numbers are and what opportunities you have, it’s much easier to get them out of that struggle because they’re sitting there saying, ‘OK we lost a couple games, it’s over.’

“Nope. I lost a game last year on the road and my NET went up. It’s all about your opportunities … and once you get to conference play, as long as you did what you had to do for the most part in the nonconference, you’ve just got to stay focused and keep guys focused."

Villanova did what it had to do in the nonconference portion of its schedule. It is, as Willard said, time to focus on the 20-game Big East schedule. But taking his own advice will be harder Tuesday night than the other 19 contests.