The University of Maryland hired Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams as its men’s basketball coach on April 1, two days after former coach Kevin Willard officially left for Villanova.
Willard’s departure had been rumored for two-plus weeks before it became a reality, a situation compounded by athletic director Damon Evans leaving for the same position at SMU and Willard publicly sharing his frustrations about the resources available for the men’s basketball program at Maryland.
Shortly after the hire of the 52-year-old Williams was announced, Maryland fans shared a clip of A&M’s news conference following its loss to Michigan in the second round of this year’s NCAA Tournament. Senior guard Manny Obaseki offered a passionate endorsement of Williams.
“One of the greatest people you will ever meet,” Obaseki said. “He’s one of the greatest coaches of all time in basketball in general. He’s changed my life. He’s changed each and every one of our lives. I’m so thankful for him. Coach Buzz, you mean everything to me. I love you. No matter what, I know you’re going to be one call away, one text away. No matter what anybody says, he’s one of the greatest.”
Obaseki played for Williams at A&M from 2021-2025, averaging 5.6 points and shooting 35.0 percent from 3-point range. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound guard started 17 games as a freshman, then mostly came off the bench the following two years before starting 15 contests as a senior.
Obaseki explained his postgame remarks to Glenn Clark Radio April 3.
“Buzz has been my rock since I was 18, 19 years old,” Obaseki said. “He’s been there for me. He’s taught me so much, so many lessons. He always believed in me and allowed me to be myself. He loved me unconditionally through the good and the bad. He didn’t care how many points I scored, how many rebounds or assists I had. He just always wanted to make sure that I was on time for everything and that I gave my all at whatever I did. You don’t really see that in a lot of coaches nowadays in college basketball.”
Obaseski originally met Williams at an Under Armour Association AAU stop in Atlanta. Obaseki admitted to being a little “star-struck” when he saw Williams in a hotel lobby, but that quickly turned into surprise when Williams knew who Obaseki was. Williams told Obaseki he’d watch him play the following day. Obaseki performed well and Williams offered him a scholarship.
Obaseski and Williams soon followed up on their chance meeting.
“Fast forward a couple months later, they’re recruiting me really hard,” Obaseki said. “I’m from Allen, Texas, so he pulls up to Allen in front of a Chick-fil-A and we talk for a good hour, good hour and a half. He’s just telling me what he’s about, what this program’s about, what he’s trying to build, what he wants out of it for his players.”
Obaseki committed to A&M in March 2020. The Aggies went 96-49 with three NCAA Tournament appearances during Obaseki’s time in College Station. Obaseki explained that he meshed with Williams in a way that allowed him to grow on and off the hardwood.
“He’s taught me so much about the business of basketball, the work that’s required,” Obaseki said. “I had a front-row seat to watch him do it every day — wake up every day in the morning, get to lifting, have his meetings with his coaches. He’s so disciplined. All he cares about is just staying in a narrow lane and I’m the same way. Me being able to watch him do that over the course of these four years helped me a lot as a person and player and has allowed me to improve myself and be in the position that I want to be in.”
Williams went 120-73 at A&M from 2019-2025. He was a head coach at three other schools prior to that: New Orleans (14-17 in 2006-07), Marquette (139-69 from 2008-2014) and Virginia Tech (100-69 from 2014-2019).
In 2016-17, Williams led Tech to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 10 years. One of the players who helped the Hokies get back to the Big Dance was Seth Allen, who played at Maryland from 2012-2014 before transferring to Tech. Allen had to sit out the 2014-15 season due to transfer rules at the time, but averaged 14.0 points and 2.9 assists per game from 2015-2017.
Allen told “Reeta and Glenn” on 105.7 The Fan that Maryland fans should be excited about the hire of Williams.
“Any program in the country should be grateful to have the opportunity to have him as a head coach,” Allen said. “He’s won everywhere he’s been. He’s got a proven track record. He gets the best out of his players and his coaches. You won’t find one person to say a bad thing about him because everybody who’s been around him knows what type of person he is — just a hard worker from early morning to early morning. He just doesn’t stop.”
Allen wasn’t around in 2017-18, when Williams led Tech to the Sweet 16 for the first and only time since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams. That squad was led by Canadian guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, now with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“Other than that, it was just a bunch of put-your-nose-to-the-ground, hard-working guys, and that’s kind of what he recruits,” Allen said. “With this day and age, with being able to have better players, which Maryland has the accessibility to do, the sky’s the limit for what he’s going to be able to do there.”
Williams is a native of Van Alstyne, Texas, and has no obvious connections to the D.C.-Baltimore area outside of coaching at Tech, which is a four-plus-hour drive from the nation’s capital. That gave some observers pause about Williams’ fit at Maryland, but Allen does not share those concerns.
Allen says local hoopers will relate to Williams.
“Every person in the DMV — from the best ones like Kevin Durant or whoever you want to name — everybody plays with that chip on their shoulder. That’s how Buzz is. Buzz started as a manager,” Allen said. “… He knows what he’s done in the past and he knows what he’s able to do, but he works like he’s still a manager. He coaches and he walks in his day-to-day life like he has a chip on his shoulder.”
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics and Virginia Tech Athletics