By Tobias Bass, Seth Emerson and Scott Dochterman
Maryland is hiring Buzz Williams as its new men’s basketball coach, the school announced Tuesday.
Williams, 52, was the coach at New Orleans, Marquette and Virginia Tech before taking the head job at Texas A&M in the spring of 2019.
College Park is buzzing!
Maryland welcomes Buzz Williams as its new Head Coach.
Full release: https://t.co/rFMcr74GSW pic.twitter.com/6heoIalX6G
— Maryland Men’s Basketball (@TerrapinHoops) April 1, 2025
In three of his stops as head coach, he’s had a winning percentage of 59 percent or better. He is a two-time SEC coach of the year, winning the award after the 2019-20 and 2022-23 seasons. In his 18 years as a head coach, Williams’ programs have made the NCAA Tournament 11 times.
“We are thrilled to bring a coach of the caliber of Buzz Williams to the University of Maryland,” interim Maryland athletic director Colleen Sorem said in a statement. “His incredible record of success at three prominent basketball programs speaks for itself, but we were equally impressed with his tireless work ethic and his dedication to building a program the right way. He embraces the high expectations here at Maryland, and we are all excited to get started on this new era in Maryland basketball.”
Williams’ hiring comes two days after Kevin Willard left Maryland and agreed to become Villanova’s next coach after the Terrapins lost to Florida in the Sweet 16.
What this does for Maryland
This stops the bleeding in Maryland’s athletic department, which just lost its athletic director to SMU and its men’s basketball coach to Villanova. Being able to hire away an SEC coach shows the Terps still have some luster in the basketball industry and should be a pick-me-up to a fan base that was growing demoralized.
Is it an inspiring hire?
Williams has never been to the Final Four and is known more as a program builder, having taken Virginia Tech and then Texas A&M and turned them from struggling programs into perennial NCAA Tournament teams. However, Maryland is coming off a Sweet 16 season. Ideally, the Terps would be looking for someone to take things further. But with the way things are going in College Park, the school might not have been willing to risk that.
The roster might need to be overhauled with Derik Queen expected to turn pro, its only high school recruit already de-committing and the coaching change probably leading to a busy transfer portal. But Williams should be able to put a good roster together and stabilize the program.
But does he have a ceiling as a coach? He last took a team to the Elite Eight in 2013 with Marquette. However, Maryland fans should be happy to have a proven veteran coach, and one with the energy to (perhaps) bring in enough NIL money to compete. — Seth Emerson
Track record of success at football-first schools
Without an athletic director and the way now-former coach Willard shredded Maryland’s image during the NCAA Tournament availability, the Terrapins needed to make a hire that allows the program to stay afloat. The Williams hire does that for Maryland.
Williams brings instant credibility in replacing Willard based on his track record. Although he’s known as a job hopper with none of his last three stops lasting more than six years, Williams also spent at least five years at those schools (Marquette, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M). He won at least 20 games in 13 of the 17 seasons at those schools.
This is the first time Williams will take over a basketball-first power-conference program with football. At both Virginia Tech and Texas A&M, football is the top sport. Maryland athletics has some revenue challenges, but it has a passionate basketball fan base that ranks among the Big Ten’s upper tier. The key for Williams is to acquire talent and maintain what Willard built, which had a second-place Big Ten finish this season.
For Texas A&M, this is the second time a men’s basketball coach has left for Maryland; Mark Turgeon bolted for the DMV in 2011. After making real headway this season in the nation’s deepest conference, it’s going to be a challenge to remain among the top half of the SEC. But Texas A&M has a bottomless well of resources, so it’s all about hiring the right replacement. — Scott Dochterman
(Photo: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)
