He definitely shouldn't be whining about the schedule. Especially since, I assume, he had a part in scheduling it (this tournament was announced earlier this year wasn't it?).
Still, it doesn't really matter. Win and none of this matters. No one cared about "upward rising arc" or "not quite ready to win the division" or whatever it was in October. We hang on the words of the people involved with our teams, but that's always way secondary to the on field/court product.
FWIW, the tournament was scheduled by Turgeon a few years back so Willard had no part in that. But that obviously doesn't excuse losses to two bad teams.