Report: All signs pointing to Buzz Williams as next Maryland head coach

All signs reportedly point towards Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams becoming the next head coach at Maryland. Inside MD Sports‘ Jeff Ermann reported the news Tuesday.

Per Jeff Goodman at the Field of 68, Williams was “trying to get involved” with the Terrapins’ job if Kevin Willard were to leave. Willard ended up leaving Maryland for Villanova.

Williams is coming off a four-year run where Texas A&M is 96-49 (.662). It’s a three-year run where the Aggies have been ranked and made the NCAA Tournament in each, including being 23-11 (.676) and earning one of their all-time highest seeds this year as a No. 4 seed. The Aggies could be looking at a rebuild after losing eight key seniors to graduation.

On a similar note, Williams has been on record about roster retention. Back in February, he stressed the difficulties of it and why it’s so valuable in today’s game.

“I think its incredibly hard in what college athletics has become to do what we’re doing,” Williams said. “I think it’s kind of cool that there’s a lot of guys in our program, young adults and old adults that if you still read the media guide — I know that doesn’t matter anymore either — you would see multiple people that you know that have created a niche and created and established themselves in kind of an old-school way.

“And I know this is new school, but in many respects how we’re operating is old school. Just because that’s how my parents raised me. I think that’s kind of cool.”

Buzz Williams likely to replace Kevin Willard at Maryland

Williams will likely take the spot of Willard, who was very unsure about his future following Maryland’s Sweet 16 loss. After the loss, Willard addressed the media and stated that, “I don’t know what I’m doing,” regarding his future with Maryland, or whatever his next step may be. However, he didn’t say that his agent wasn’t working on that for him. “I have an agent, I’m sure he’s talking to people. That’s what agents like to do,” he said.

This past season, the Wildcats finished 18-13 (11-9 Big East) during the regular season to earn the No. 6 seed in the Big East Tournament. Unfortunately, though that tied Kyle Neptune’s win total from a season ago, he still fell just shy of receiving an NCAA Tournament bid.

Prior to Neptune taking over, Villanova had made nine straight NCAA Tournament appearances under Wright. That included national titles in 2016 and 2018 as well as a Final Four finish in 2022. A higher standard is expected inside the Wildcats program, and it remains to be seen if Willard can bring that back to the Wildcats program.