New Maryland men's basketball head coach Buzz Williams on high school recruiting, relationship with Gary Williams, building consistency

One day after officially being introduced as Maryland men’s basketball’s new head coach, Buzz Williams spoke with BTN analyst Mike Hall about how Buzz’s current job differs from the rest, what’s on his to-do list, high school recruiting strategy and the relationship with former head coach Gary Williams:

How the Maryland job differs from his stints at Marquette, VT, Texas A&M

“Well, I've only been here 32 hours, so I don't know all of the answers to that. Obviously, I haven't coached in the Big Ten. I know that Maryland has not always been in the Big Ten. My familiarity with this part of the country obviously stems from our time at Virginia Tech. Populated with really good players, populated with really good coaches as well and so to have this opportunity, my family and I, our staff, were incredibly grateful, but also very excited.”

On building consistency at each stop

“Well, I don't know that all of that has to do with me. I think that it has to do with maybe a portion identifying the right people. You have to be talented – talented coaches, talented players, talented administrators, talented support staff. But I'm not quite old yet, but I'm for sure not young. And I think any organization, whether it's sports related or not, I think it always comes down to the people and the habits and the character and the desire of them on what's important. Our staff and the families that have been associated with the players, we've just always been very truthful and transparent on what we're trying to do, but more importantly, while we're doing it. And I think in the end, that's a big reason for the sustained success that you mentioned.

On the most important item on today’s checklist

“I'm trying to keep up with it, just to be honest. I haven't slept since I accepted the job like most coaches. I was thankful that my family was able to be a part of yesterday and I know the press conference is streamed and that's probably 20 or 30 minutes, but yesterday, I was on campus for about 18 hours with all of the things that they wanted…I'm just trying to meet with our players. Obviously, I have to hire a staff. I want to handle these families that are here, these coaches, the players that are here, the families they represent, trying to meet the administration and all of the people that are going to be part of our daily activities, while at the same time, we also have to sign a team. And so there's a lot of things that are important. First impressions are not only first impressions – they're lasting. And so just trying to make sure that every interaction we go about, we handle in the right way.”

On the style of play expected in College Park

“My most important style is that we want to play really hard. The second thing is, is we want to play together. And the third thing is we want to be fundamentally sound no matter what style that it is. We want to make sure that it fits our players and gives us a chance to have the highest level of success. To be honest with you, Mike, it's been a little different everywhere that we've been. I think that's part of trying to be a good coach is you're not always, in this day and age, going to have exactly the talent that fits your preferred style of play. But it's not about what your preferred style of play [is] philosophically. It's what makes sense and gives those young men a chance to be their absolute best. And so how we played over the last three and actually since the pandemic, has been almost diametrically opposed to how we played at Virginia Tech. And in many respects, years ago, when we were at the Big East, a little different Big East than what it is now, but our style of play then was even different than Virginia Tech. So as we build our roster and we formulate the types of players that we're going to have, I think our style will be, first of all dictated on playing really hard, playing together, and then playing smart, and then we kind of go from there on should it be fast? Should it be slow? What should we do on both sides of the ball? We'll kind of figure some of that out. I'm also looking forward to studying the Big Ten because I would like to have a better context on what is best to have success in this league.”

On why Buzz Williams is the long-term answer for the program

“Obviously, we were in the NCAA Tournament at Texas A&M And I wasn't able to keep up with all that transpired. To be honest with you, I didn't even know it had transpired until all of this began to unfold specific to me at Maryland. And Dr. Pines presented all of it to me, and I didn't even know - I just knew bits and pieces of it. Similar to what I said yesterday, Mike, words are easy. I hope that my actions and my words match up. And the commitment that I gave yesterday is the same commitment that I have tried to live everywhere we've been is you'll get my best. You'll get my best physically, you'll get my best emotionally, you'll get my best mentally and I'll try to make sure that we hire a staff and assimilate a team that will do the same. And we have a lot of mountains to climb in front of us. Incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be here. Actually, this is the first full day. I just walked into my office for the second time. So we've got a lot of stuff to do, and we're excited about what's in front of us, and I think what has transpired. I don't want to judge that, critique that. I was not a part of that. But what I can speak to is my interactions with Terp nation, with Maryland, with Dr. Pines, with Colleen [Sorem]. We're incredibly excited about our future here.”

On how he got the nickname ‘Buzz’

“That happened when I was a freshman in college. I attended a junior college in Texas, and the coach is now 88 and he's been a part of our program the last 17 years that I've been a head coach. Coach said I was always buzzing around that I had so much energy, and so everybody just started calling me Buzz. Obviously, that was a long, long time ago. And to be honest, I think most people think it's my name, other than my wife and my parents. And so it's been Buzz since I was a freshman in college in 1990 and that's how I sign my name now. It's just kind of become that.”

On his relationships with current Big Ten coaches

“Obviously, I know coach [Dusty] May. We just lost to him a couple of weeks ago. I have known coach [Brad] Underwood since he was a junior college head coach when I was a junior college manager. I absolutely love coach [Tom] Izzo and who he is and what he's about. I've known Niko [Medved] since he was at Furman, maybe even before Furman, maybe when he was at Drake. Obviously, I was an assistant at Colorado State a long time ago. I do not know Coach DeVries very well. I met him when he was an assistant at Creighton under Coach Altmann, which would have been, I don't know, 15 years ago. I'm trying to catalog my mind through everybody…I don't know how many I've mentioned. I would say I have some level of relationship with most of them. But as far as studying them and knowing their team, I would say I know most of them, but maybe not all of them. I love Mike [Rhodes] at Penn State. Knew him when he was a DIII coach before he ever went to Rice so I would say I know most of them.”

On his energy drink of choice

“Currently, it's an Alani peach that I'm so addicted to that I packed it in my suitcase when the plane came and picked my family up.”

On the high school recruiting strategy

“I don't think that any coach has the exact right answer. This continues to evolve. The rules continue to change, and I personally think it's going to continue to change. What we've tried to do since all of this started is make independent decisions, not try to make wholesale decisions on we're only going to do it like this, or we're going to do it opposite of that. We've had the lowest transfer rate among the lowest transfer rates in the country at this level when we were at Texas A&M and we did it through a variety of ways. Redshirting guys, which nobody talks about for development. Through the portal, specific to exactly what our roster needed in hopes that it would advance us to the next level of success. Through high school, guys with a planned vision on their development on and off the floor, relative to their vision of what they would like to accomplish, academically, what they would like to accomplish relative to their body. And having a distinct plan and vision for each person associated with the program. So we've had players that have graduated in three years that were seniors at Texas A&M this year. We had two players on our team that were in their fifth-year because of COVID. 20% of the population in college athletics changed going into this year because there will not be any COVID seniors in the upcoming year. And so I think that's going to alter some of the landscape. We just tried not to make decisions for the entire group. You've tried to make decisions independent for that young man and his family, but also for the current roster, so that what we create and what they feel is important in the partnership, that we're always aligned specific to that vision. So I understand how coaches say those things and believe those things completely, but it continues to change, and I think it's going to continue to change over the next three to six years. And so we'll continue to adapt. We'll continue to study the ever-changing landscape and make decisions for those people specific to this institution and what we want to do that we think, give us the greatest chance for success.”

On his relationship with Gary Williams

“I've written him letters since I was a kid, including coach Lefty Driesell. I have the utmost respect. There's only one Coach Williams here - his name's on the court. I anticipate I'll be Buzz to everybody around here and should be. He was sitting on the front row yesterday. He was the first call that I had in this process. I never told anyone in the process of my relationship with Coach. I have the utmost respect for him during his time here, but also his career at all four schools that he was the head coach at and what I've done pales in comparison to what he has done, but I sure hope that we can have a trajectory similar to what he had when he was the coach here.”

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