Everything Buzz Williams said at his Maryland men's basketball introductory press conference

In a search that led to over 30 candidates being evaluated, interim AD Colleen Sorem said, Maryland athletics officially kicked off a new era of men’s basketball with Buzz Williams introduced as the program’s new head coach.

“It's a decision that comes with intense scrutiny and media attention. Donors and supporters voice their print opinions, privately and publicly. Blogs and message boards explode with rumors and suggestions. But this is what athletic directors do. This is the mantle we bear, and though I've held this title for just a short period of time, we were ready for this from the beginning,” Sorem said on Wednesday.

“One name immediately rose to the top, a man that checked all of our boxes during that same time, some of our most valued and trusted supporters suggested names for our consideration, and from all of those lists, only one name was on everyone's list, and it was the same name that was already sitting on the very top of our list. That man, that coach, was Buzz Williams.”

“It's rare that everybody claps for a coach,” Williams said to kick off his press conference. Everything Williams said at the podium:

On Williams’ vision for the 2025-26 roster

“As soon as I can figure out who's on the roster, that would be the first place to start. I met with the team this morning. They were great. Colleen set that up. Not to share locker room things, but I think it's a volatile change that coaches always speak of, that sometimes players don't have the opportunity to speak of. And so without revealing anything that was said, nothing was wrong. I just wanted to give them a platform to give me advice. That was my question. They've been here. They've been through a lot of success and the last few days, it's very unsettling. It's unstable. And so I gave them the commitment that I just mentioned. If I can help you, I'll help you. And if that means it's here, we'll figure that out. If that means it's somewhere else, that's okay, too. I think any coach would tell you that roster construction now happens daily, not just the day of the press conference. And I don't want to make light of other press conferences on where things are at. That's what this has become and change is going to be daily. I need to evaluate who's on the team. I need to hire a staff but we need to be very thoughtful about who joins our team, not only for this year's team, but does it make sense for now and in the future, and does it fit what we want our program to be about, and does it fit how we want to play? And so it's, transparently the last 32 hours, I've done no recruiting. And some would say that there's been 700 people go in the portal since that time, so I don't know the latest. And at some point, maybe today, I can get to it.”

On what influenced Williams to take the Maryland job

“All of that is emotional, very emotional now, which is why I was so slow when it was my turn to speak. I'm a lot more comfortable in the locker room than I am the clips and the stats. What I would say without going into play by play, I was very impressed with Dr. Pines. And that's not to take away from Colleen, but it was a very unique and tight process and I'm probably best when I understand exactly what it is and the parameters. And that was very attractive to me because this exposure of what all of this has become, it kind of gets loose. And I thought Dr. Pines was very direct from the get-go and that was very attractive to my family and I.”

On whether Williams got any commitments/assurances on resources & NIL, whether there were concerns

“Just to answer the front part of the question, we were playing for a portion of the time Maryland was playing. And I'm somewhat removed from civilization in general, but during the basketball season, even more so, and so I really didn't even know what had transpired. And I think that was what caught me off guard in my interaction with Dr. Pines, and he told me what had transpired. And I think that that's not to speak ill towards coach [Kevin] Willard or the team. I didn't hear all of it nor do I think all of it's important. But relative to what I thought was important, on the commitment going forward, on what is needed to be successful at the highest level. There was never any question to from them on the commitment for us, me, the staff, NIL, the players, the resources, the [Barry] Gosset center. I saw that this morning with a hard hat on. Like I don't know how many of those will be available in August. That's going to be the best in the country. So I'm not trying to be argumentative on anything, but I'm at peace with all of it.”

On whether Williams has a staff in place at Maryland

“Sorry, my answers are so long, I always want to be respectful of all of the families represented. So on my staff this past season, there were 110 years of experience with me. Obviously, not all of those years were at Texas A&M, that was from the beginning of my career at the University of New Orleans. I know that's never mentioned. I kind of like all those schools that have hyphens and directions because that's been most of my career. 110 years is the most years of service, so to say, with any head coach in the country. I have tried to handle all 13 of my staff members and their families in a timely and respectful matter relative to what this process was and it moves really fast. And so before I got on the plane, everybody knew, but the process of hiring, background checks, when, who's here, what's important, what fits? Is it right for their family? Is it right for their children? So we're going through all of that, but I would like to get as many here as fast as possible. I had 1,189 texts on my cell phone as this press conference started.”

On Williams’ ideal play style in College Park

“What I think I'm supposed to say at a press conference is we want to play really fast. We want to score more points than the other team. We all want to clap and give great hugs and dap. I think what I've learned as a coach is in this ever-changing model, you have to have skill to be able to coach a lot of different ways. And I think the coaches that I've studied, that are married to their style, I don't know that that's sustainable and what this model has become. And so similar to Gene's question, who's on the team? I don't know, but what's important from an intangible standpoint, on being in our locker room and the pace at which we work and the carrot, which is intended for the process, we've adapted our style of play at each institution. We haven't been great, but we've been fairly consistent and we have walked into scenarios where you were starting from ground zero and somewhat created and manufactured a way to be okay. And we always want to do better, but like how we played at Texas A&M was completely different than how we played at Virginia Tech. Different league, different scheduling, the NET wasn't involved, the pace. All of those things are different. But I also think that what we've done a little bit, some of the smart people on my staff the last 30 hours is I want to make a good decision on how the league what's important in the Big Ten. We've never coached in the Big Ten, so I want to have some context on what that is. I think the coach's job is to get the best players that fit the people you want to be around and then figure out how to put them in a position to be as successful as they can be.”

Opening Statement

“I appreciate you guys being nice to me. I'm humbled. I'm really thankful and I want to go a little slower than I normally do because I want to make sure that I articulate all of the emotions that have transpired over the last 48 hours. Dr. Pines, Colleen, Coach [Gary] Williams, all of the departmental staff members, other coaches, distinguished alums, the people that I know, the people that I don't know, I appreciate you taking time to be here. You guys have heard this before. Life is often measured in time, but it's remembered in moments and so in a genuine way, in a humble way, I am grateful that my family has an opportunity to be a part of this moment. And I know Colleen has already introduced them, but I've spent most of my adult life studying greats like Coach, watching every press conference like this, every postgame press conference, reading every newspaper article when that was important. I've studied coaches my whole life, not ever thinking that my name would be in that mix. Nor am I deserving but part of what has happened over the last 25 years that I've been married, press conferences by my wife are judged relative to the timeline of when the coach introduces their wife. So I may fail the rest of this seven minutes. I'm not going to fail on this time. I was married, June the 10th, 2000. This is my wife, Corey. We will have been married 25 years. We have four children. Zera is just graduated from James Madison and works in the Ministry of Young Life in Virginia. Calvin is a senior in college at Texas A&M. It's potentially likely that he could graduate with a college diploma from Texas A&M in June. Mason is a freshman in college playing DIII basketball at East Texas Baptist University. If you haven't heard of it, it's in Texas, in East Texas. And Addyson is our youngest. She's a sophomore in high school. And so we moved plane, trains, automobiles, and had a couple of boats involved for all of us to be here since this all went down. So thank you guys for giving us this moment to remember the rest of our life.

“It's you guys know differing pieces and differing levels of this, and everybody has different opinions on what's right, what's wrong, what it should be like, but it's known that everything has changed. And I'm not talking about who now sits in this seat, just talking about the business of college athletics. It has been rapid change at a rate that none of us have ever seen, whether we were once in it or currently in it. And I think change is going to stay. That's the one thing that is constant, is change. The one thing that we've tried to focus on, wherever we have been on, are the things that don't change. And most of us, if not all of us, know the value of being on a team. And how team, whether it's basketball, whether it's football with Coach Locksley, whether it's women's basketball with Coach Frese, being on a team, there's something that doesn't change. There's something that's life changing about being on a team. And so to have the opportunity to be on this team means the world to me, but I also understand the magnitude and the mantle that it is to be the steward of that team and I do not take any portion of it on the floor off the floor in any sort of arrogant way. Teams change us. Teams grow us up. We have to learn how to be a great teammate. We have to learn how to help win. There's different measurements on winning. It's easy to figure it out when there's a scoreboard, but not everything in life has a scoreboard. And everybody believes winning is a little different as it relates to when there's not one. But we all know that being on a team grows us up. Being on a team helps flush out selfishness. Being on a team helps us to learn how to lead ourselves and lead others better. And so of all of the change that's happening in college athletics, some of which we have good things to say, some of which we may have differing thoughts on, we can spend ad nauseam time on that, but to talk about what has been created for all of the teams we've been on, those are some of the fondest memories we ever have had. And so teams can be a basketball team. Team can be men's basketball within the athletic department. Teams can be men's basketball within this institution, this team, relative to this state, there's a lot of lenses, in my opinion, in how you can view a team.”

“And as best I can understand as of this moment in time, whatever it's been – four and a half hours since I've been on this campus – I understand the magnitude and the responsibility that comes with it. And I can assure you that, from the intent of my heart and the best way that I can will represent all of those teams in a way that will be honoring and respectful and show great reverence to the former players, the former coaches, The things that have been created. Nor do I think that it's because that's how I got the job. I am not deserving of any of those things that Colleen mentioned, but I have great care and love for all of the former players, all of the former coaches, all of the former administrators, all the former presidents, all the former ADs, all the former donors, all of those teams that I was able to be a part of, I also want to honor them because I know that that's what led to this moment for my family. And to have an ego and think that look at this, I don't think that's the type of team that represents this institution or this program in the right way. And so it's a delicate act on how to be honoring and respectful of what has been created and show respect to those teams, while at the same time, I know the teams that I have been a part of and those young men and women that have given their best to allow those teams to maybe be over achievers and win on the scoreboard in the arena, but also win on the scoreboard win there's not a scoreboard. So all I can tell you is I understand. And all I can give to you is not the word culture that everybody says, not how are we going to play? I understand all of that, and I'm not even trying to dismiss the importance of all of that but I think what's important is for you to know that anybody associated with the team that we'll be a part of now will give their best. And we'll give our best from early in the morning until we can't go anymore. And all of us will have an insatiable desire to figure out how to change our best, because staying status quo, we know is never good enough. And so we'll give our best, and we need every opportunity for our newest team to learn about the former teams. And we need to develop growth and trust and life changing relationships on the new team so we can be the best team. And I understand that there are a lot of positions on a team, and I've kind of got lost in all of the new titles in athletic administration and I've gotten lost in all of the new titles even on my staff that I don't know what they're called anymore. But I do know that regardless of what you're called, whether you came here as a freshman, whether you came here from the portal, whether you're the director or the deputy or the starter or the sub, you have a role on the team. And we want to do our best to play a role on the team represented in this arena, represented on this campus, represented in this department, represented in this institution. And all of the boring press conferences that you've listened to, all I can tell you is I'll try real hard, and the intent of my heart will not be selfish. And the intent of my heart will be to be the best that we can be to represent all of the teams. So thanks for changing the itinerary of your day. Thanks for caring about the program otherwise you wouldn't be here. Thank you for allowing us to have a seat on team bus one on what this new team is going to be and feeling as though what we believe in allows the next team to grow and be our best.”

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