Buzz Williams on Tyrece Radford's reaction to making NCAA Tournament: 'He couldn't even talk'

For the second straight year Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams has helped lead the Aggies to an NCAA Tournament appearance. Which also means that he’ll be able to send his seniors off on a high note for their final season with the program, participating in the most infamous basketball tournament for their last collegiate season.

Senior guard Tyrece Radford has a particularly close relationship with Williams, and following the Aggies’ NCAA Tournament bid, Williams was asked what Radford’s reaction was to making it to March Madness in his final year with Texas A&M.

“He couldn’t even talk, he couldn’t even talk,” Williams repeated. “His Dad and his Stepmom, they’re literally standing at the elevator prior to every game in Nashville waiting on me to come down with my family to give me a hug and say I love you. They’re just such good people.”

Williams recruited Radford when he was the head coach at Virginia Tech, leading to Radford signing with the Hokies and playing under Williams in Blacksburg for his redshirt freshman season.

The following season Williams would become the head coach at Texas A&M, and after two more seasons of sticking it out at Virginia Tech, Radford decided to transfer to College Station to play for his first college coach yet again. Creating a special bond between Radford, his family, and Williams in the process.

“And not one time, not one instance, not one question ever when we have lived in Texas or when we have lived in Virginia about style of play, about minutes, about shots, about NIL,” Williams said about Radford’s family. “Literally never even broached the subject, and the Dad is giving me a real hug and the Stepmom is giving me a real hug.”

Texas A&M’s run in the SEC Tournament was clearly special for the Radford family and for the Aggies’ NCAA Tournament hopes, advancing to the semifinal round as a seven-seed with Radford averaging 19.6 points per game in tournament play.

“That level of relationship, that level of story will not happen in my career again,” Williams admitted. “The kids know it because the last time I snapped on them was two days before the Mississippi State game.”

Williams shared some funny stories about Senior Night in College Station, the final home game of Radford’s career. With Williams using his intuition and adjusting the standing order of Radford’s senior photo with parents and even posing a threat to his players to incentivize a senior night win.

“And I said, ‘Hey guys, I’m going to turn your water off if we don’t win on Wednesday.’ And I’ve never told a player that, I said I’m gonna turn every one of y’all’s water off if we don’t win. Wildens [Leveque] is important, Eli [Lawrence] is important, and I don’t love them any less than I love Boots, but we’re gonna win for Boots,” Williams said referring to Radford. “And if we don’t I’m turning all y’alls water off.”

The Aggies’ senior night win was one of five consecutive victories for Texas A&M before falling in the conference tournament, helping propel them to the NCAA Tournament where they’ll face Nebraska this Friday in what’s hopefully not the last game for Boots in an Aggies’ uniform.