Buzz Williams talks 2025-26 Maryland men's basketball roster, non-conference schedule, praises David Coit & Elijah Saunders

Ahmed Ghafir
Jul 3
19 min read

Maryland men’s basketball is three weeks into summer workouts as head coach Buzz Williams and his staff look to mesh 15 new pieces together. It helps leaning on a quartet of Aggie transfers with veterans Pharrel Payne and Solomon Washington leading the way, but Williams has been impressed with another veteran addition to the backcourt.

“I really like Diggy, David Coit. We call him Diggy. I don't know if I'm supposed to say David Coit or Diggy Coit publicly,” Buzz joked in an interview with Jon Rothstein.

“I think there is some value in experience, particularly when you're going into year number one.”

Coit arrives in College Park after one season at Kansas and two at Northern Illinois where the 5-foot-11 lead guard adds stability to a revamped backcourt alongside Myles Rice, Isaiah Watts and Darius Adams. “After three weeks, I just think Diggy has a way about him. I think fast guards are hard to guard no matter what conference they play in, and because this is his last year, he's been around the block forwards and backwards, so I don't think anything's going to catch him off guard.”

Buzz also noted “I've seen how they've changed their bodies, changed their mindsets” when talking about former Aggie redshirts George Turkson and Andre Mills, while Virginia transfer Elijah Saunders has impressed on and off the floor.

“I think Elijah Saunders is really good, yeah, but I also think he's really good because he's a man. He looks like a man but he's a man and how he lives his life. He's a man and how he competes. You can tell he's played in the Final Four. You can tell that he was at UVA with a lot of discipline. You can just tell on and off the floor he's going to play, he's going to impact winning and he's going to allow you to be what you want to be as a coach and coach him the right way, and he will be a great ambassador on and off the floor.”

While it's still early as the staff puts the new pieces together through short drills, Buzz gave an honest early impression of his year one roster.

"I don't know if we're great, because I we played six teams in the Big Ten last year at Texas A&M, so I have some familiarity, but in truth, that's the depth of knowledge that I'm comfortable with competitively speaking. And I haven't studied enough since I've been here on Big Ten because we've been trying to put together our roster. Do I think we're great? I don't know. I would say I don't think we're bad but I don't know if that means that we're great," he said.

"I do think that - we're in week three of the eight weeks that we can work and we're probably utilizing our time differently, and we've always kind of been different in the summer, no matter where we’ve lived, we're probably utilizing these weeks even more uniquely than we ever have just because I think sometimes we probably overestimate talent and we underestimate discipline and I don't want to go so fast that we make all of our decisions based on the talent, but I do want to make sure that we're installing and instilling the things that we want to be aboutI do think that - we're in week three of the eight weeks that we can work and we're probably utilizing our time differently, and we've always kind of been different in the summer, no matter where we’ve lived, we're probably utilizing these weeks even more uniquely than we ever have just because I think sometimes we probably overestimate talent and we underestimate discipline and I don't want to go so fast that we make all of our decisions based on the talent, but I do want to make sure that we're installing and instilling the things that we want to be about."

Everything Buzz Williams said on Maryland’s 2025-26 roster, upcoming season, his transition and what he’s learned along the way:

On why he’s been successful as a head coach

“I think the first thing is really good players, which I think all coaches would say that. I think another thing as I've gotten older that I didn't understand when I was younger, obviously, I was the head coach at the University of New Orleans in my first job, six months after Hurricane Katrina. And there's no way that, no matter how diligent you are as an assistant, there are some things that you never have an opportunity to get reps of until you become a head coach. And then taking the job at New Orleans, my first job after one of the worst natural disasters in our country, I didn't have any choice but to try to discern who was our going to be and what was it going to be about. And after one year, I resigned with a losing record so I never thought, to be honest, that I would ever get another chance period. But I do think, in hindsight, going into year 19, I think the consistency of the staff has been maybe just as important as the character and the talent of the players. Last year on our staff, there was over 107 years that those staff members combined had been with me wherever we had lived and a lot of that had been organic growth. Seven of those staff members were once students within the program that they started in and so I'm kind of on that line, as you know, because you've known me most of my career. I'm not old, I'm not young, I'm somewhere in between. And I think that sometimes a lot of coaches take credit kind of in a subliminal way, but I think it's the players, and all coaches would say that, but I think the consistency of our staffs and the growth of our staffs has been a large part of the consistency of the success.”

How different it is taking over Maryland vs. Marquette/Virginia Tech

“I think that's a great question. And I don't look at the internet anymore so I don't really follow this sort of stuff, but I'm sure you've had other coaches that you do this with and that's one thing that I haven't said publicly and it's not because I'm trying to avoid it - it's completely different. It's completely different. And it's completely different not necessarily because of the coaches or the players or the institutions. It's just different because it's a different model that we're now working under. And just like the as I mentioned about the vow renewal, I know that's a specific personal category, but where can we sell a house? Can we buy a house? Where are we going to live? Where are the kids going to go to school? And as a head coach, you have to figure those things out, but you're also trying to figure out those things with your staff. And we're fortunate, nine of our staff members from Texas A&M followed us year and so I'm familiar with their families and the process that they're going through, but when you take a job now relative to your roster and how you're going to build, there's more complexity to it. That's not me complaining about it but you're trying to ascertain, okay, what is right as it relates to our current roster, relative to what's important in how we want to play and who we want to be off the court. So there's more variables now, even than there was six years ago when I took the job at Texas A&M, 11 years ago when I took the job at Virginia Tech, and for that matter, 18 years ago when I took the job at Marquette. And so it's just a lot of different variables that until you do it, you're like, wow, this is happening at warp speed. And I feel like every decision I'm making influences the next decision.”

On the geographical familiarity with Maryland given his experience at Virginia Tech

“That has helped and that has helped maybe a little bit for me, but I think it also speaks just to the relationships with the high school coaches, the grassroots coaches in this part of the country. And transparently, I stayed in somewhat of a consistent contact with a lot of those people during our time in College Station, but they've been tremendous. The former players at Maryland have been through the roof. Good to all of us within the program, but then all of the coaches, whether they coach in the academic year or in the summer, we've been well received, and I'm very thankful for that because it has to your point, given us some traction, not necessarily in the portal when we took the job in April but just as we get into the ‘26 class and the ‘27 class, not every single call that I make or our staff makes are cold calls. Like we know you or we know of you and you know somebody six degrees removed. So that has been helpful.”

On his first perspective of former Maryland HC Gary Williams

“In that vein, for whatever reason, just because I knew that I always wanted to be a coach. I was reverent in the little country town where I grew up of every coach. Not just the ones that coached me every sport because I wanted to learn. I just wanted to be a coach. I didn't know, as we mentioned earlier, that it was going to be basketball, for that matter, or it would turn into all of this. My high school football coach, I didn't play football, and AD, he wrote me a letter yesterday, 75 years old. Coach [Gary] Williams was here yesterday for a couple hours spending time, he's 80 now. This morning, I talked to Coach Ravling. He'll turn 88 tomorrow. And similar to Coach [Lefty] Driesell, I mentioned it the day of my press conference, I was writing coach Driesell when I was a kid. And then as I got older, so to say, and became a coach, I was still writing him when he was the head coach at Georgia State. And I never mentioned that in the transaction of becoming the coach at Maryland. I didn't mention my relationship with Coach Driesell. I didn't mention my relationship with Coach Williams, because I never start those relationships to use them to my advantage. I start them just to be reverent, as you said, to honor them, to honor the game. And I do that with ten former coaches either retired or fired every month. And then when I was young, I was doing it in a more consistent way. But I know the world moves fast now, but I still think, when you think of all of the lives that they've impacted and what they have given to the game to create opportunities like this for me, and without being disrespectful to your industry, even opportunities like this for you. I think a lot of that goes to what was happening when me and you went, I guess, when I was young and before you were born. And like to me, I just think that's the appropriate way and maybe someday, when I'm old and fired and/or retired, somebody will at least give me an hour of their time and empower me to feel important.”

On the 2025-26 non-conference schedule is an exampl8e of a traditional Buzz Williams non-conf slate

“Since my diatribe on not making the NCAA Tournament four years ago, I guess five years ago now, I have differing thoughts. I have differing thoughts on I understand the NET even though the algorithm has never been published, but it's the most important thing we're judged by. Some of these games were kind of in talks when I was hired, some had already been scheduled. The Players Era was part of the relationships that we had built from last year and the first one when we were at A&M so we're thankful for that. But another piece to this, which is probably too much information and you know this, I've never played in a conference that's played 20 games. And so that, in my opinion, not acting as if I have the answers, I personally believe that changes the math of the NET. But then because you don't know who your two-play teams are going to be right away when you're hired, you're having to make decisions on the non-conference schedule prior to knowing who your two-play games are. So I would say in year number one, we've probably in truth, over-scheduled. But I do think in some ways, according to how the committee is supposed to decide, there's more risk in under scheduling than there is risk in over scheduling, right? Even though, on the internet they may say your win-loss record is not what it's supposed to be. That's really not how we're judged anymore. It's the quality of it, and so all coaches are, at least I do, I kind of fight back and forth internally on, okay, what's the right thing to do, and when should we do it? How should we do it? And also, the turnover of rosters are happening so much that sometimes you schedule who you think is going to be Quad One game and they end up being a Quad Three game. And there's been some situations, even in the last few years, specific to who we played when we played them, they were Quad One and by the time the season was over, because they had a crazy injury or something went out of sorts, it ended up being a Quad Three. And then last year, we got into a lot of Quad One-A scenarios and I understand that's why 14 teams in the SEC went to the tournament. But I think we've probably over scheduled to be truthful, but I understand that if you're willing to take a ‘good loss’, then long term, it's probably the right thing.”

On his return matchup vs. Marquette

“I say no to all of this sort of stuff. This is the first time - I've known you for a decade - and this is the first time I've ever done this with you. I wanted to do everything possible not to play Marquette. That's probably a little too personal. And it's not because I have any problems - they shouldn't have hired me. And if they don't hire me, we don't go to three Sweet Sixteens. We don't do some of the things. It doesn't lead to Virginia Tech. It doesn't lead to even this. And so like a lot of really good relationships even now, with people in Wisconsin associated with basketball, associated with Marquette, associated with the relationships, like the people that did all of the work for the vow renewal for my wife and I, they're from Wisconsin. That was in the folder, like day number one. Hey Buzz, you got to meet with 22 people and here's what we're going to talk about. Like meeting number seven was the file folder that had the UVA contract without a date, the Marquette contract without a date. Colleen Sorem, who is going to SMU with Damon Evans, who was the AD here. She was the interim AD and she was in that meeting with at that time sport administrator, and they're going through all this. And I go, I know I'm older than you guys, but you think that we have to play Marquette? And do you think that we have to play at Marquette? And they're like, Well, you know coach, we played them last year, and I'm like, Oh, well, we're gonna have a hard time getting out of that. So we'll deal with it when it gets there. There's been so much emotion over the last couple of months with everything, and I'll handle it the right way. And even just talking about it - all of it is good feelings. It's all good thoughts, just humbled by all of it. So however, it turns out, the game won't be about me. Coach Shaka [Smart] has done an unbelievable job there and Coach Wojo did a great job as well. So it'll end up being fun.”

On his impressions of the roster

“I kind of go back and forth, you know. I think some of it, I don't know if we're great, because I we played six teams in the Big Ten last year at Texas A&M, so I have some familiarity, but in truth, that's the depth of knowledge that I'm comfortable with competitively speaking. And I haven't studied enough since I've been here on Big Ten because we've been trying to put together our roster. Do I think we're great? I don't know. I would say I don't think we're bad but I don't know if that means that we're great. I do think that - we're in week three of the eight weeks that we can work and we're probably utilizing our time differently, and we've always kind of been different in the summer, no matter where we’ve lived, we're probably utilizing these weeks even more uniquely than we ever have just because I think sometimes we probably overestimate talent and we underestimate discipline and I don't want to go so fast that we make all of our decisions based on the talent, but I do want to make sure that we're installing and instilling the things that we want to be about, no matter who's on the team. Whether that's in year one or in our future and so we've utilized these three weeks in the mornings and the afternoons a little different while making sure we're investing not only in their lives, but in their gains. I'm not the one that wants to have practice in June and let's get everybody on the court - we're not at that point. And that's not us blaming or complaining. That's us wanting to make sure that we're discerning that we're going to utilize each of the skill sets we have to be the best that we can be as a unit, but while we're trying to problem solve that so to say, we're going to invest in helping their skill set be the best they can while also making sure that we're teaching them how we want to work, the pace at which we want to work, and the discipline in which we want to live on and off the court.”

On the familiarity of having Aggie transfers Solomon Washington & Pharrel Payne

“I really like Diggy, David Coit. We call him Diggy. I don't know if I'm supposed to say David Coit or Diggy Coit publicly. This is my first interview since the press conference. But I think there is some value in experience, particularly when you're going into year number one. I love the two redshirts that came with us from Texas A&M. I know who they are. I've seen how they've changed their bodies, changed their mindsets. When we were putting together the roster, I don't know that this is right per se, but I didn't want everybody to be from the portal. Because I think when you join that train at the very beginning, you end up maybe staying on it, whether you want to or not. So we tried to balance the talent. We tried to balance the depth chart. But we also - and you can try but you can't control it - we also tried to make sure from a depth as it relates to classes that we weren't going to be too top heavy. Now, do I think that we batted so to say, 100% in each class or within the roster makeup as it relates to talent? No. I think Elijah Saunders is really good, yeah, but I also think he's really good because he's a man. He looks like a man but he's a man and how he lives his life. He's a man and how he competes. You can tell he's played in the Final Four. You can tell that he was at UVA with a lot of discipline. You can just tell on and off the floor he's going to play, he's going to impact winning and he's going to allow you to be what you want to be as a coach and coach him the right way, and he will be a great ambassador on and off the floor. But we didn't want all seniors, and we didn't want all freshmen. I think Rakease Passmore, who was highly touted coming out of high school, he didn't play a lot last year. There's a lot of those guys, which are why sometimes - do you want to take a talented freshman and he doesn't play enough and he's in the portal? Darius Adams is an ultra-talented player from [New] Jersey who we're very fortunate to have great family, great thus far in his career has been very successful. So like there's bits and pieces of their character, of their talent, of their size, of their age, we just tried to make sure that we didn't get kind of overloaded in one area or another. But after three weeks, I just think Diggy has a way about him. I think fast guards are hard to guard no matter what conference they play in, and because this is his last year, he's been around the block forwards and backwards, so I don't think anything's going to catch him off guard.”

On balancing basketball & family

“Well, my wife has been through the roof good. She was a really good player, that was long before I met her, and so I think in some ways she kind of knew what this life was going to be. That was slightly before I became a head coach. I was an assistant coach I think for five years in our married life before I became a head coach. I guess, actually, it was six basketball seasons before I became a head coach, and so that press conference was the only press conference of the five times that there's been one that all of my kids were there. So that was like really cool to me. I know you probably saw it or saw clips of it. I even mentioned it like we moved trains, planes and automobiles to figure out how they could all get here because that was so important to me. I remember those conversations. I remember the people that were in those conversations, transparently, some of those literary agents, some of those media agents, some of the publishing companies that I've talked to over the last decade. That's still very interesting to me. I like learning from others and seeing if I can translate that into the world that I live in, whether I stay living in the world of coaching or not. I'm somewhat convicted to be honest. Next month, hopefully my oldest son will graduate, and my oldest daughter has already graduated and now my youngest son is in college and playing DIII. And so now we're moving again, and there's only one child left at home. Babies are only child left. And so, you know, it's almost backwards. I think sometimes, if you really wanted to be a good assistant coach, I think the way to do that is be a head coach first and then be an assistant and then you would understand how to be a better assistant. And I think it's almost reverse - I can still hear so many people when you start talking about the elder state statesman, like Coach Rabb knows my kids, writes my kids, they write him. I can remember Eddie Sutton saying it to me. Just countless coaches - Buzz, you're never going to get this time back. Be a good dad. And I can remember my kids not being in school, going, Yeah, I'm going to get to it, I'm going to get to it. And I don't necessarily think that I've been a bad dad, but now that I'm 52 going into year 32 and coaching and 19 as a head coach and three of my children don't live at home, I find myself going on a walk going, well, let me just call all of them. Let me text all of them, right? Because my heart is convicted that in some ways, I've given a lot to other people's children and probably not done as good a job giving my best to my own children because in a very immature way, I thought my children would always be in the house. And so I'm not an empty nester yet, but I can for sure see signs of it. And so I think that has probably allowed me to morph and evolve as some of these changes in college athletics, probably coach a little different. One of the guys that I coached in my year at New Orleans spent a few days with us last week, and he was like, coach, you're so soft. Yeah, you're right. I'm like, butter soft relative to who I was when I coached you. And the next day he came to practice or individuals, and he goes, coach, like, you would have kicked me out of the gym. And I go, and you should have been kicked out of the gym. And he was like, I know, but what about this? And I go, I can't do that now, Parlo, what you're missing is there is some level of I'm still employed. I wouldn't be employed if I coach these guys the way I coached you. Some of that is because you allowed it and you were tough. Some of that is I'm a little more mature than I was when I was 31 coaching you. And so things have just evolved and changed but I probably been okay as a dad, but in hindsight, I wish I could have been even better.”

On what he wants to accomplish in 2025-26 season

“Can we figure out how to play hard? Can we figure out how to play unselfish? Can we figure out what the priorities are on what leads to winning and what leads to losing? Can we play with incredible care for one another and passion for the institution in honor of the history that this program has had? That's what I would say it's deserving of. And I think we've got to continue to head in that direction as we go through the rest of the summer and get into the fall, exactly what esthetically is it going to look like? I don't know. But as it relates to our effort and all of the intangibles, I for sure hope that those things are evident when we compete in the public space.”

On the Xfinity Center atmosphere

“Obviously at different places along the way, whether it's been where I've worked, or whether it's been when we've played a road game. I do think that there is, I don't know how you quantify the impact of it, but it for sure does have an effect on the game. And similar to what you just said, I bet I've been told that 400 times. I've never experienced it but not only have coaches told me that, donors told me that students have told me that, but also other players have told me that. Like Coach, it's hype in there, it's jumping. And I'm like, I'm looking forward to it. I haven't seen it. I've watched some clips, but I've never experienced it. And so I do think, a lot of these genres of conversations, it seems like not only is Maryland one of those places in the Big Ten, but it seems as though there are several other places in this league that have that same sort of it's a really big deal. The place is shutting down. Everybody's in the arena. So I'm looking forward to the opportunity to be able to experience that specifically here, of course.”

On overcoming the unfamiliarity of Big Ten conference play

“I don't know. A little bit, actually, before we're taping this, what I've tried to do is, like anybody else, what are you trading your time for? And in what this has become, you can argue that when I was hired, it was somewhat late. Is it somewhat late because coach Willard and Maryland went to the Sweet 16? Yes, is it a week later? Because I was at Texas A&M and we were advancing in the tournament? Like there are variables that are good variables, right? But as it relates to the portal, and some of the things that transpire by the time you interview, by the time you get there, by the time you have the press conference, by the time you do the initial thrust of things that you have to do, and you realize, okay, we need to have a team. That takes time. I lived in a hotel across the street for 74 days. I think that was right. My wife is my best friend and there is some level of I'm probably a little better when I have some routine in my life. We now have lived here 11 days, but I've got to find the box that has my socks and boxers in it soon because I've wore every pair of Under Armor socks and boxers that Ben, our equipment guy, has given us and I'm exhausted from just that. But what I've tried to do as it relates to our league is I don't want to completely pass or delegate every part of the league to the staff and me not be a part. So all of us are brand new to the Big Ten. And so what we've tried to do is kind of divide up different things to study. I know there's four new coaches, so study their previous team, but how can we get familiar with at least the paradigm in which they play on both ends of the floor? And with that, as we're trying to discover this month, what is best for our brand new roster, what is the best way for us to play, is some of what we would learn from studying the Big Ten would that make adjustments on how we want to play. And so we're probably behind, to be honest on that understanding just because of the transition. But over the next six weeks, we're going to have to give an inordinate amount of time just to catch up and kind of have a base foundational level of what that is.”

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