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All of the drama aside, one aspect matters most about Maryland basketball’s coaching change: Did the Terps get a better coach in Buzz Williams than the last one, Kevin Willard? CBS Sports college basketball insiders Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander discussed that question on the coaching carousel recap of the Eye on College Basketball podcast.
“Kevin is obviously great. You can’t win at Seton Hall, win at Maryland, and get the Villanova job unless you’ve got some substance to you. Like, he’s very good,” Parrish said.
“Question I asked him from an honest place — I’m not even sure what the answer is. But if we were to poll 100 basketball people and just ask them, ‘Hey, just let’s rank basketball coaches one through 50.’ Who do you think would finish higher on that list, Kevin Willard or Buzz Williams? I don’t know the answer.”
Norlander responded:
“I think that Buzz Williams would finish higher. Which isn’t to say that Buzz is, like, so, so much better than Willard or whatever. It’s just, you asked the question. My guess? Buzz would finish higher. He has a better career winning percentage, he’s won more games, and Willard just is coming off the first Sweet 16 of his career.”
Given the circumstances — having no athletic director and no expectation they’d be searching for a coach — Maryland got a big name in Williams.
“If I’m a Maryland fan, that’s what I’m grabbing onto. Like, you don’t often lose a coach that you don’t want to lose, and then hire somebody that can reasonably be described as more accomplished and better and all of that stuff — but that is perhaps what has happened here,” Parrish said.
“And so if I’m a Maryland fan, that’s what I’m focusing on. I know a lot of them are focusing on Buzz’s track record of, he’ll get you good and then he’ll bounce on you. And that is certainly what his career has featured.”
Parrish, who recently gave a colorful rundown of the strategy behind Williams’ frequent career moves, thinks he could end his traveling and settle in for a while at Maryland.
“I think there’s a wide range of outcomes here. I believe anything from Buzz is there and gone in three years, to he spends — although he doesn’t have a track record of doing this — maybe this will be finally the job where he spends, you know, 10-plus years there,” he said.
As Parrish pointed out, Maryland’s administration and supporters should have plenty of reason to be motivated to help Williams thrive.
“And oh, by the way, on the way out the door, the guy you’re replacing shit all over everybody. And you don’t think they’re going to be motivated to set you up for success? To prove to that — if nothing else — to prove to that guy you made a mistake thinking you couldn’t win big here, or that you needed — or that you know you needed — to leave to accomplish your goals?”
More from Parrish and Norlander below:
Norlander on Williams’ track record:
“But if you’re a Maryland fan, you got a big name, a guy who has done some winning. But I think it’s worth at least noting that it has been a while since he had consistent, you know, multiple deep runs in the tournament.
From Maryland fans’ perspective, GP, right now they have a coach who is more accomplished than the one that just left for Villanova, so there’s reason for optimism there.”
More Norlander:
“Williams is 52. He has 373 wins, won 62% of his games in his career. He has a 12–11 NCAA Tournament record.
Coached at New Orleans, Marquette, Virginia Tech, and A&M. He was rumored to be looking around last year’s cycle.
Wound up staying at A&M, and then Maryland winds up opening up and gives him a reason to find a new place for another fresh start.
I will note that Buzz Williams never made a Sweet 16 at Texas A&M and actually only has one Sweet 16 run in his past 11 seasons as a head coach.
He’s going to have a bigger budget to work with than Kevin Willard did.
But regardless, considering everyone that was out there and realistic for Maryland, GP, in that spot, you probably couldn’t have gotten a coach with more wins on the résumé than Buzz.”
Parrish on the hire:
“What’s it going to be like in 10 years? I don’t know. But what’s it going to look like over the next five? I would suspect — suspect — pretty good.
And again … ‘Did you get as good of a coach as you probably could have gotten in that circumstance?’ I think the answer is probably yes. It could have been worse if you’re Maryland. Ultimately, you get it done there.”
Norlander on whether Williams can lead Maryland to postseason success:
“Well, big picture on this: Maryland fans have only experienced two Sweet 16s in the past two decades, and one of them was this year.
And that was tainted, as we mentioned on the show in real time, by everything that was happening with Willard.
And so now that you have Buzz Williams, you look and you say, okay, are we going to have a coach that gets us to, you know, multiple Sweet 16s? Can we make a Final Four under Buzz Williams?
I think that is on the table. But there’s no guarantee, ultimately, with the situation that Willard put you in as a program.”
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