Buzz Williams on year one as Maryland men's basketball's head coach, portal recruiting, evaluating his evaluations

Ahmed Ghafir
8 minutes ago
9 min read

Maryland men’s basketball is set to take the floor for the final home game of the 2025-26 season when 11th-ranked Illinois heads to College Park. While Maryland will look to close out its home slate with a win on Senior Day, Maryland will also look to avoid the program’s first sub-.500 record at home since the 1988-89 season. Head coach Buzz Williams reviews his first season in College Park, evaluates his offseason evaluations and looks ahead at year two:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7R2a2MGj8g

On early outlook for next season’s roster

“Every day since the day I was hired. I think that's one thing in the era that we're living in, any coach would say that. The ones that are winning, the ones that are not doing as well as they want. Your responsibilities within this model have changed. And it's changed the skill set required. So any coach that would say that they're not recruiting every day relative to roster construction, they're just not telling you the truth. We do it every day. And not because it's March 6th. We were doing it January 6th, December 6th. I mean, it's it's ever changing, and so you have to study it constantly.”

Whether Buzz second guesses any moves from last offseason

“Within the system that you're working from, what analytics are important that you've learned from going through the Big Ten season? You study their analytics. You study their rosters. How are their rosters constructed? You don't have all of the information because this model is not transparent, so you don't know necessarily how many guys are getting paid or how much guys are getting paid. But as you start studying - we do it actually, we were doing it per opponent, not just within the league. We've spent more time this year, because we're all new to the Big Ten and kind of studying the construction.

I think, from a hindsight view, it's hard to know with the data. I've never taken a job with 15 scholarships available. I've never taken a job late in the portal season. I think even this year, the portal is opening later than it ever has, and the window is shorter than it's ever been. Whereas last season, the portal opened the day after Selection Sunday. Where I was coaching, we were still playing, and the University of Maryland was still playing. So some of the data points are not usable going forward. I think 31 days from now is when the portal opens, and so you don't exactly know who's going to be in the portal. All of that is kind of just discovery and being prepared. But I do think that you look at all decisions that you make, the good ones and the bad ones. Tom Brady's drafted 195th and that's on [Scott] Pioli’s desk the rest of his career. I think there's things to learn, whether the decision was good or bad.”

Theme of the month of March

“That's a good question. Thanks for asking. I didn't give March a name initially. We had two days to end February going into March. February was the first February you had lived, or I had lived with four true weeks - four Sundays, four Mondays, four Tuesdays, etc. And so I think when we played, I think we played eight games through the first 26 days of the month. And the kids were asking me, Coach, what do we call in March? And so we played on March 1st and I didn't give it a name going into March. And so we have since named it ‘Monumental March.’ Underline mental and monumental, so that we can do monumental things and also make sure that mentally, we're doing the things on the floor and off the floor that we should do in the month of March.”

On avoiding outcome-based results

“I think I've learned some of that as I've gotten older. I'm not saying that everybody subscribes to that. I think early in my head coaching career, I was too result based in my decisions, how I went about things. I think as I've matured as a person, that somewhat changed. Trying to make sure that the process is appropriate, similar to my question with Ed. Like we recruit every day, and I've learned from some of the changes, it's really the process. And within the process, what are you doing as a head coach, your staff, your team? How can you make amendments and adjustments in the process that will lead to the results that you're wanting? And so any category, like some of the questions that you guys have asked throughout the season. Why did you start Collin? Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? The things that you should ask. That's coming from the process of, like I told you about Collin, we have many deficiencies. Rebounding was intertwined with both. So can we salvage something from that standpoint? So it's a result generated industry, but I think from a sustainability standpoint, we want to be process oriented.”

On Senior Day, the impact of this class

“Thanks for asking. Very kind. I've prayed a lot about this on what I'm going to say to the team in ten minutes. And I still don't have discernment exactly on what I think is right. But to your point, that's why I want to handle this right. This is the last home game. Diggy [Coit] has been to multiple schools. Elijah [Saunders] has been to multiple schools. Collin [Metcalf] has only been to two schools, and Solo [Washington] has been to two schools. And I love all of them the same, but I have known Solo the longest and I'm thankful that Solo followed us here. But Solo would have already graduated if he wouldn't have followed us here. And I know that talent is important. I understand winning is important. I actually understand to some degree, money is a priority in certain decisions. But I have spent the last three weeks talking to Solo and his family on the importance of him being here this summer so that he can finish school. And so there's a lot of stories untold within how things have unfolded, not at Maryland, just in general. And I think one thing that I'm trying to make sure that I'm hypersensitive to and aware of is letting our players tell their stories more so that their voice can be heard within our organization. Because whenever the season is over, regardless of the results, it has been a year in their life and some of those college eligibility lives are over. And so making sure that I give them an opportunity to share their heart over the next couple of days. Senior Day [is] a little different over the last five years. And sometimes those seniors were only there when they were seniors. And so some of the rooted in growth, rooted in development stories of guys like you covering kids for four and five years, that doesn't take place. And so the coronation of a senior somewhat has been lost, but their story and their life experience while with you, I don't ever want to lose that.”

On specific things Buzz could have done better in portal recruiting last offseason

“I think that I will always say that I could do better. When you asked me this when we get back together in October before we've played a game, I think I will already be thinking about how it could be better. And I think one of the ways that I've tried to reprogram my thinking - like we had a recruiting meeting this morning. That's a common occurrence, just like we just finished a defensive staff meeting specific to Illinois. It's happening all of the time. Some of those decisions that you want to be better at. How can you get better intel before arrival on the fit? How can we as a staff do a better job explaining to those that were involved in recruiting? How can we do a cleaner, better job of explaining what their life experience is going to be here? Because I think what I've learned is like you're trying to gain traction as fast as possible because you want to have the best team you can have. But there is also another side of - I think you also want to have a sustainable program, and how do you balance that financially? How do you balance that from a roster standpoint? How do you balance that relative to a talent standpoint? Are these guys going to be able to help you win multiple road games in the Big Ten now? Or is there a developmental plan for a portion of those guys on your roster that can help grow into becoming that. And does that fit what they're looking for in their experience? Or are you wasting time and wasting money and wasting developmental energy because they're going to be in the portal in nine months? And so I don't think that it's just me. I think - maybe I'm a little too transparent publicly about this - it is the system that we're working in. And I don't want to bemoan what it has become, but I am trying to make sure that as a staff, we have an insatiable desire on how can we figure out how to do better? And if we were 15-4, not 4-15, if you ever catch me not having a learner spirit and I'm content as if, yeah, we've got it figured out. I don't ever think that I want to be the smartest guy in the room. I want to be in the room with smart people, but I think that there's - you're constantly trying to figure out how to improve.”

On whether Buzz’s portal recruiting was a continuation of Texas A&M’s board or new slate

“One thing I did learn in this - you need to be prepared when the portal opens, relative to your roster and financially relative to what you're trying to construct. But the market changes within the portal window. And if the portal window is 40 days long and you're catching it mid stride, some of the intel we had translated. But we weren't necessarily preparing as if we were going to sign 15 players like I was going to take another job. So was there information that we had that we utilized from on the way here? Yes, sir. Were we prepared midstream? No, we were recruiting for Texas A&M because the portal was open, yet we were still playing. And so I do think it applies, but not all of it is translatable, if that makes sense.”

On the impact of relationships in portal window

“Yeah, we could do a podcast on that. I'll try to be as succinct as I can. I think that's a very well thought out question. It's very much speed dating. And your hit rate, no matter what anybody says, there is a portion of luck that's involved. There's a portion of luck because you may be getting the wrong information on who they are. There's a portion of luck on, in my opinion, we have a really good player who played nine games. That really good player is a portion of the salary cap at Maryland. And so there's elements that you can somewhat control and there's elements that you have no control over. I think the hardest adjustment in the skillset of - I think this is my 32nd year as a college coach - you used to recruit. Harrison if Harrison could play. I saw Harrison play 12 times in person - summer team, high school team. I went and watched Harrison practice. I saw how he handled his teammates. I saw how he handled coaching. And I was constantly evaluating Harrison, his sphere of influence. I was building relationships with all of those people, and transparently, there wasn't any money involved. And so the conversation and the depth of things that mattered for Harrison and his family or those in his sphere, some of those priorities have now changed. But some of the decisions that we make now have changed too. And so you want to make the best decision you can with the most accurate and reliable information possible, but there is an element of pace involved in knowing when to hold them, knowing when to fold them, knowing when to go all-in, knowing when to pass and understanding the rhythm of that. And that's why you have to recruit every day, whether you're good or bad, because categorically, you're going to have a new team every year. And so you're recruiting everybody every day, trying to get information, many of which the relationships that were built in the first 25 years of my career, some of those relationships still are important. And now it's building - it's a new job, it's a new industry. So it's a new grouping of relationships.

Closing statement on Illinois

“Thanks for the questions about Illinois. Top five team. They're pretty good, if you want to add that.”

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