Maryland basketball: Buzz Williams hires former Big Ten guard, Marquette rematch date released, full 2025-26 roster announced

Ahmed Ghafir
Jun 20
2 min read

Notebook on the latest news surrounding Maryland men’s basketball:

HC Buzz Williams hires former Big Ten guard

With year one of the Buzz Williams era approaching with a finalized roster in place, head coach Buzz Williams took to Instagram to announce his latest staff addition with former Nebraska guard CJ Wilcher shifting from college basketball player to coach beginning in 2025-26.

“💺 change on ‘Team 🚌 #1️⃣’: from ⛹🏾 to coach‼️🙌🏿,” Williams wrote on Instagram.

After beginning his college career at Xavier and spending three seasons at Nebraska, Wilcher transferred to Texas A&M under Buzz Williams in 2024-25 where he averaged 4.3 points per game and shot over 40% both from the field and three-point. While at Nebraska, Wilcher was also a two-time Academic All-Big Ten selection as he emerged as a key rotational piece, starting in 28 games, appearing in 96 games and averaging eight points per game over his three seasons.

"I think it was definitely the culture. And when I came on my visit, just being around here I tell everybody, 'If you want to get a glimpse of who coach Buzz is, walk around the facility' and that's kind of what I got," Wilcher said last year about his decision to transfer and play for Buzz Williams.

Wilcher wouldn’t be the first player-turned-coach under Buzz Williams as Wabissa Bede, who played under Buzz at Virginia Tech, enters his first season as an assistant. Bede also spent four seasons at Texas A&M as the program aide under Buzz to kick off his coaching career.

Return date vs. Marquette announced

Marquette released their 2025-26 non-conference schedule on Friday morning, announcing the return date against Maryland is set for Nov. 15 in Milwaukee. This marks the second and final matchup in the home-and-home that was announced last May.

Marquette handed Maryland one of its two losses at home in 2024-25, walking out of the Red Out in College Park with a 78-74 win.

The return game will also mark a homecoming for Buzz Williams, who took over as Marquette’s head coach in 2008 after serving as an assistant the season prior. In his six seasons with the Golden Eagles, Williams registered one Elite Eight and two Sweet 16 appearances as he led the program to a 139-69 overall record.

Last roster additions officially announced

Maryland also announced the last two portal additions of the offseason with former Northeastern center Collin Metcalf and former Kansas guard Rakease Passmore officially in the program.

Metcalf averaged four points, five rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game in 2024-25 while Passmore averaged 0.7 points in 23 games in his lone season with the Jayhawks.

Maryland also announced the last three unsigned high school commits with Aleks Alston, Jaziah Harper and Nick Blake officially in the program.

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