{"id":132240,"date":"2025-04-01T14:29:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T18:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=132240"},"modified":"2025-04-01T14:29:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T18:29:33","slug":"maryland-to-hire-buzz-williams-grading-the-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/01\/maryland-to-hire-buzz-williams-grading-the-move\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland to Hire Buzz Williams: Grading the Move"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Kevin Willard left Maryland<\/a> for the Villanova job<\/a>, one name continued to be the subject of major speculation. It all came to fruition on Tuesday, as sources came out and said that Maryland intends to hire Buzz Williams<\/a> as their next basketball coach. Maryland made the Sweet Sixteen this season, losing to Florida under coach Willard. Williams led Texas A&M to the round of 32, where they lost to Michigan. Is this a good hire for Maryland? Will he provide the Terrapins with stability? What’s the grade for the hire? Let’s dive in.<\/p>\n

Maryland to Hire Buzz Williams: Grading the Move<\/h2>\n

Buzz Williams’ Career<\/h3>\n

Buzz Williams has been around the block, coaching at four schools<\/a>. He began at New Orleans, where he coached for one season, before being hired at Marquette. He immediately made a name for himself, leading the Golden Eagles to the NCAA Tournament in each of his first five seasons. Williams then moved on to Virginia Tech, where he led the Hokies to three more NCAA Tournament appearances. Following his time with the Hokies, he moved to Texas A&M, where he made the NCAA Tournament in each of the last three seasons after missing the tournament in his first three seasons.<\/p>\n

Williams has won 373 games in 18 seasons, averaging more than 20 wins per year. He brings a winning culture to Maryland, but he also provides them with NCAA Tournament experience. He has a record of 12-11 in his NCAA Tournament career, so he can lead the Terrapins to some wins. In a stacked SEC this season, he led the Aggies to a four-seed. They had the ninth-ranked defensive efficiency according to KenPom<\/a>, ranked just behind sixth-ranked Maryland.<\/p>\n

The Need for Stability<\/h3>\n

Since Mark Turgeon left in 2022, Maryland will now be on their third head coach<\/a>. Danny Manning took over before Kevin Willard was hired in 2023. Willard was able to lead them to the NCAA Tournament both seasons, but it seemed like it was nothing more than a stop on his journey<\/a> to a better job. Buzz Williams hasn’t stayed at a school for longer than six seasons, but he has made a longer commitment to each of the programs he coached at. Williams was hired by Maryland to bring some stability to the head coaching position. He may not stay there for the remainder of his career, but Maryland should be able to build their program around him. If he is successful, maybe he will be the next long-tenured coach for the Terrapins.<\/p>\n

Grading Maryland’s Hire of Buzz Williams<\/h3>\n

Williams wasn’t the best coach available, but most of those coaches had already taken a job. Maryland isn’t a premier destination in college basketball by some standards, but they have a storied history. Willard was able to tap into the Maryland\/D.C. area to recruit some strong talent. If Williams can continue that, Maryland will be a threat in the Big Ten. Williams provides stability and experience to the job. He is young enough to keep the job for many years if he chooses.<\/p>\n

His frequent moves could pose issues. Williams may not stay with the program for a long time. However, the bigger issue is his also one of his strongest allies. A hire should elevate a program. Williams hasn’t been able to lead his program deep into the NCAA Tournament since his days at Marquette. Williams could turn it around for Maryland and lead them back to the Sweet Sixteen and beyond. However, his recent history says a first or second-round exit is more likely. Either way, Williams is a good hire for Maryland, but I wouldn’t go as far as saying it’s great.<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Kevin Willard left Maryland for the Villanova job, one name continued to be the subject of major speculation. It all came to fruition on Tuesday, as sources came out and said that Maryland intends to hire Buzz Williams as their next basketball coach. Maryland made the Sweet Sixteen this season, losing to Florida under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5370,"featured_media":132246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773,2],"tags":[2785,852,1506],"class_list":["post-132240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-featured","tag-big-ten-basketball","tag-maryland-terrapins","tag-texas-am-aggies"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132240"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132247,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132240\/revisions\/132247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}