- September 15, 2025
- More articles By Annie Krakower
- Photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics
AS THE FINAL GAME clock was ticking toward zero during last season’s March Madness, Buzz Williams was warming up for a different kind of hoops whirlwind.
Announced as the new University of Maryland men’s basketball head coach in early April, he had to fast-break into building a new Terps team. In this new era of the transfer portal and student-athletes getting paid, they’re bouncing between schools far more frequently to score the best opportunities.
“It’s been incredibly busy—in a good way,” Williams says. “This is my first time as a coach that we’ve had to construct an entire roster. ... That’s just how the model of college athletics has changed. Our staff has been exceptional trying to find the right people.”
Williams replaces three-year coach Kevin Willard, who decamped to Villanova just after the Terps’ March Madness run ended in the Sweet 16. Coming to College Park after six seasons at Texas A&M and prior stints at Virginia Tech, Marquette and New Orleans, Williams guided programs to 11 NCAA Tournaments, including four Sweet 16 appearances and one Elite Eight.
A father of four, he applies a family-first mentality to the role and embraces the communities he’s part of. That’s exemplified by his Buzz’s Bunch initiative, which offers a summer basketball camp and fall game to local children with special needs.
“Finding the right person to lead Maryland men’s basketball was critical to the continued success of our program, both on and off the court,” UMD President Darryll J. Pines says. “With an exemplary record of competitive success and a demonstrated commitment to providing leadership and development to our student-athletes, Coach Buzz Williams is the ideal coach to lead us forward.”
Hot on the recruiting trail this spring, Williams looked for not only talent but intangibles like emotional intelligence, then worked with his newly assembled crew to set the team’s tone ahead of the season opener in November.
Williams, who earned the nickname Buzz as an energetic student assistant at Navarro College, gave Terp a glimpse of the gameplan by sharing a few of his “Buzzwords.”
Issue
Fall 2025Types
Campus Life
John Langton
21 days ago