DJ Wagner knows Buzz Williams "lets guards rock" ahead of lone season with Maryland men's basketball

Ahmed Ghafir
1 day ago
4 min read

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n6CcqFDD-0

Nearly one month before a painful 2025-26 season came to a close, Maryland men's basketball head coach Buzz Williams detailed what he looks for in a point guard.

"Can he run your team? Is he a quarterback? Is he vocal? Does he impact winning whether he has the ball or doesn't have the ball? Can he guard a guard, not necessarily the point guard? Can he make good decisions that impact the team relative to time, score, momentum? Does he have an innate sense for what is right, whether it involves him or somebody on his team? Does he make the other four guys on the floor better, or is it only for him? And personally, I would like you to play with at least a 2.5, 3.5 assist-to-turnover ratio, and I would like 18-to-22% of your points to come from the free throw line."

While Maryland lacked that in 2025-26, former Arkansas guard DJ Wagner will look to prove he fits the profile in his first season in the Big Ten. The senior point guard may fall slightly outside of Buzz's preferred scoring distribution with nearly 1/6th of his career points coming from the charity stripe, though he's coming off a season posting a 3.4 assist-to-turnover ratio despite averaging single digit scoring and starting in just over half of Arkansas' 35 games in 2025-26.

Yet just as returning guard Andre Mills highlighted, head coach Buzz Williams pointed to Wagner's downhill and passing ability as traits that stuck out during the portal pursuit.

"He lets guards rock. He gives his guards a lot of freedom to play, as long as we're working," Wagner said. "And I can see that just from playing against them in the past, I could tell. He lets his guards rock, he let his team rock in general, he likes his teams to be player-led. The main thing is just playing hard no matter how skilled you are, how talented you are, he wants you to play hard, no matter what."

While at Kentucky then Arkansas, Wagner won just one of his four meetings against Buzz Williams and Texas A&M as he remembered the Aggies as "high intensity" opponents, a staple trait under now Maryland's head coach. That familiarity with the play style helped in the portal, but a connection between Wagner and assistant Steve Roccaforte also carried weight early in the chase.

Former Memphis guard Dajuan Wagner, father of DJ, starred for the Tigers while Steve Roccaforte served as an assistant on the staff, giving Maryland familiarity in DJ's recruitment 20 years later. Wagner noted it was Roccaforte who spearheaded the initial contact, then, "after that, I came to visit and after that, I committed."

"It was surreal knowing my dad played for him, just to be able to come here now and talk to him. He was telling me old stories and stuff like that so it was fun and it’s been fun," Wagner added.

Wagner was quick to note he's "very happy with the decision I made and I'm happy to be here" while noting the pitch for his fit in College Park.

"It was just that they believe in me, and they know the player I could be. And most importantly, they love to win, and I gotta win. I can just tell they're very genuine, they love to win and they like to make people better players on and off the court too. That was the biggest thing for me, was just believing in me and being able to come here and win."

Wagner is also coming off a season where he posted a career-low 7.4 points despite notching career-highs after shooting 42.9% from the field and 34.6% from three last season, the latter a metric he's steadily improved through his three seasons. While Wagner will look to become part of the solution to improve Maryland's perimeter shooting next season, he and Tennessee transfer Bishop Boswell will be able to capitlize as the downhill guards paired with an experienced tandem in the frontcourt and five-star in Baba Oladotun on the wing.

The presence of Tomislav Buljan and Pharrel Payne, whose waiver was officially approved last month, adds to the confidence in an upgraded starting five anchored by a pair of complementary big men.

"I feel like that's gonna make it easier for us on both ends. On defense, they're gonna be able to block shots, get rebounds. I feel like that's going to make us more confident on defense just knowing we got them behind us, because if anybody gets past us, they're right there to block it. And on the offensive end as well, I mean, they're very skilled, they can pass, score, I mean, whatever you want to name, they make it easier."

While 2026-27 will also mark Wagner's final season of college basketball, it marks his first under a head coach not named John Calipari. After committing to Kentucky over Louisville as the top-ranked overall recruit in the 2023 class, Wagner became an instant starter during what ended up being his one and only season with the Wildcats before following Calipari to Arkansas, then starting in all 36 games in 2024-25. With the chance to prove himself in new territory, Wagner admitted Calipari. "impacted my career in a very positive way.”

“I'm thankful for everything he taught me, everything he did for me, honestly, just to have those experiences is amazing. Just to be able to say I was able to play for him, he's a legend.”

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