Buzz Williams, Texas A&M are riding small-ball to success in year three

Texas A&M’s hire of Buzz Williams came with a lot of sizzle in the summer of 2019. He was leaving behind a successful run at Virginia Tech and was coming off his best season with the Hokies, qualifying as a four-seed in the NCAA Tournament that nearly upset Duke in the Sweet Sixteen.

Instead of building on the momentum in Blacksburg, Williams migrated south to his home state of Texas to take over A&M in College Station. After two seasons, the progress was very small. During the COVID-19 year last season, A&M won just two SEC games and finished 8-10 overall.

However, Williams’ third year is proving to be his best so far. And he’s winning the way he did at Virginia Tech: with super-small-ball lineups, toughness at guard and athleticism all over the roster.

His 2018 and 2019 teams at Virginia Tech occupied a similar identity. During those two years, Tech went a combined 47-21 and made consecutive NCAA Tournaments as a nine-seed and four-seed, and they had one player taller than 6-foot-6. Former Kentucky transfer target Kerry Blackshear Jr. was Williams’ only big at 6-foot-10 — and he was All-ACC worthy.

Tech enlisted undersized players at every other position and played Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s cousin — the 6-foot-5 Nickeil Alexander-Walker — at the four and five. He wound up getting picked in the first round of the NBA Draft and regularly plays point guard at the next level.

On this 2021-22 Aggies squad, Quenton Jackson plays that role as a lengthy and explosive 6-foot-5 athlete. He’s the leading scorer at nearly 13 points a game, followed by Duke import Henry Coleman, the only player taller than Jackson to play more than 20 minutes a night.

Their leading rebounder is 6-foot-2 Tyrece Radford, a snarling bulldog of a wing who followed Williams from VA Tech. With guys like Jackson and Radford regularly occupying forward spots, A&M is giving just 22% of its minutes to guys taller than 6-foot-6 — a group that only includes three players.

It’s cliche to call this undersized group “scrappy,” but that’s what they’ve had to be in order to win games. Frankly, they aren’t really that good. Although I’m sure I’ve just jinxed them into a 20-point win vs. Kentucky.

This team is undefeated in the SEC but has beaten up on the bottom half of the conference. Analytical measures like KenPom and Bart Torvik barely think the Aggies are top-50. None of their nonconference wins are very impressive, either. Even though they actually beat Notre Dame.

At the end of the day, 15-2 and 4-0 in league play is nothing to scoff at. A&M’s talent isn’t worthy of that record, but they’ve won a lot of close games on the edges; using their fight and energy to take care of business against everyone except No. 8 Wisconsin and TCU (their only losses).

Of course, College Station will prove a raucous environment with Kentucky visiting. At their peak with Billy Kennedy, that place got LOUD. The ‘Cats should overwhelm them with talent, but that won’t matter if they don’t match Texas A&M’s energy.