I am not going to play the hate Kevin Willard game. Clearly, he gamed Maryland and moved to a better environment for his goals. At Villanova, he’ll have no football program to butt heads with regarding the piece of the revenue-sharing pie he’ll get. At Villanova, basketball is king.
After the Mark Turgeon years, I’d rather give Willard credit for resurrecting the passion for Maryland basketball that existed from the time Lefty Driesell came to College Park all the way through the Bob Wade era and Gary Williams’ 22-year run at his alma mater.
Before I move on to the business of the future of men’s basketball in College Park, let me put a bow on the past couple of weeks by explaining what was most disappointing to me as a longtime Terps fan. From the snap of our fingers, we went from the headline that Maryland was giving Willard an extension to make him one of the 10 highest-paid head coaches in college basketball to watching that self-serving presser to losing the biggest game of the past decade to Willard walking out the door.
Damon Evans? Don’t get me started.
Everything that occurred in the past two weeks set in motion a chaotic situation that could have sucked the men’s basketball program down a sinkhole from which it could have taken years to recover.
You have to give school president Darryll Pines and interim athletic director Colleen Sorem credit for addressing the vacuum so quickly with the appropriate urgency in hiring Buzz Williams. Williams’ eagerness to immediately leak his interest in the opening in College Park seemed at the outset to match Pines and Sorem’s desire to meet the moment.
So, what do the Terps have in the man who is taking over the helm of a team without many players at the moment? Clearly, Williams has always been in demand. After a 14-17 record during his one season as a head coach at New Orleans in 2006-07, Williams became an assistant to Tom Crean at Marquette. When Crean bolted for the Indiana job, Williams took over and went 122-54 in his first five seasons leading the Golden Eagles (2008-2013). He went to the NCAA Tournament each season.
After a 17-15 season in Milwaukee in 2013-14, he left for the ACC and took over at Virginia Tech. His first season at the helm in Blacksburg was a little bumpy, going just 11-22. He went 89-47 in his next four seasons, making the NCAA Tournament in 2017-2019.
Williams’ success at Virginia Tech propelled him to Texas A&M, where he had a bumpy start. He went just 24-24 in his first two seasons (2019-2021). Williams’ teams bounced back during his last four seasons as the Aggies’ head man. He compiled a 96-49 record during that time, making the NCAA Tournament his last three years.
The headline says Williams is not a sexy choice, but he had to do a lot of heavy lifting in building up Virginia Tech and Texas A&M. The Hokies had never been where Williams took them in terms of a good, solid run.
At Maryland, he finally comes to a place with a true basketball tradition, a reinvigorated fan base and a renewed sense of commitment to the program after this past season’s uplifting run.
Williams will have a mighty tough challenge in Year 1, as his roster looks barren at the moment. After that, there appears to be no reason he can’t quickly bring the Terps back to being more than just competitive.
Williams may not be the perfect coach for Maryland men’s basketball, but it is the perfect time to have a coach who wants to lay his head down on a pillow in College Park for a while.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics