Maryland men's basketball assistant Aki Collins talks decision to reunite with Buzz Williams, NIL era

Ahmed Ghafir
15 minutes ago
4 min read

When Buzz Williams was announced as head coach, it became a matter of who wasn't following the former Aggies head coach from Texas A&M to Maryland. Lyle Wolf, Steve Roccaforte and Devin Johnson quickly rounded out the staff to begin filling out the roster, yet one outside assistant coach vacancy didn't materialize until the summer after Aki Collins was announced by the program as the newest assistant coach and director of player personnel.

Collins previously served as an assistant coach on Buzz's staff at Marquette before moving onto an assistant position at Memphis in 2012, moving into a scouting role with the Oklahoma City Thunder followed by director of basketball ops at University of New Mexico. His most recent college job was at Penn State where he served as an assistant for two seasons under Micah Shrewsberry before moving on to oversee recruiting at Overtime Elite.

Yet according to Collins, the chance to reunite with Buzz Williams in College Park came after a previous attempt by Buzz to bring him aboard after revealing the former Texas A&M head coach tried to hire him onto the Aggies' coaching staff while Collins still worked at Overtime Elite.

"He's like, ‘well, I need you to come to A&M and be my GM.' Alright, we'll talk about it. I had no desire to take that job at that point in time," Collins said on a radio appearance on 92.9 ESPN radio. "I just left Penn State where I had to drive an hour and a half down to Harrisburg to catch a Delta flight to Atlanta for an hour 20 minute flight. My kids are getting older, they're playing. So I was like if I take another job in college, it's going to be someplace I could get there within an hour and a half, see them, whatever."

The interest in a possible fit with the Aggies died after that conversation after Collins admitted that was the last of the conversation - until he reached back out to Buzz Williams as buzz grew about him leaving College Station to become the next head coach at Maryland.

"Beginning in April, I heard he was getting the Maryland job, so I texted him and was like, ‘hey, man, congratulations,’ not even thinking I was trying to go to Maryland, just saying congratulations. He goes, ‘don't forget what we talked about.’ He goes, "By the way, how did you know?’ I do this for a living coach," Collins added.

Overtime Elite offered Collins a VP position, but instead his interest in the path back to an NBA front office role helped steer him to take the position on Buzz's staff as the final assistant ahead of the 2025-26 season.

"I want to get back in the NBA because that was a great time. I want to be in the front office, so essentially going to Maryland, doing what I'm doing, is exactly the path that I needed to be on," he added.

Collins added he didn't take the job at Maryland until July "because I wanted to watch my kids play," yet his impact has been felt on the recruiting trail where he's spearheaded efforts with several recruits in the 2026 class and beyond. His relationships from his two-year stint at Overtime Elite as the director of recruiting and retension helped position Maryland in the mix for several top prospects in both the 2027 and 2028 class, yet Collins noted the relationships are only part of the equation now.

"I've been fortunate because of my time at Overtime Elite, like some of the elite of the elite players, I have relationships with them prior to me getting to the University of Maryland. Being at Maryland, it does sell itself. You can win a national championship there, it's everything you want from a basketball perspective. I think the relationship gets you in the door," Collins said. "But if you don't have the relationship, you're wasting your time, right?"

"For us, how we approach it, and maybe it's me, because of my relationships. I'll go and I'll recruit certain guys that I have relationships from my past, but then I know I can stay involved with them because I have the money or don't have the money. We're one of those schools that, yeah, we can generate a little bit, but we need more."

Collins was among the Maryland coaches in attendance for Wednesday's donor event held in New York City where Joe Smith and Shawne Merriman were announced as the newest entries into the University of Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame. While he noted the new era of NIL takes time for some to grasp, the power of the dollar rules all with athletic director Jim Smith putting a premium on fundraising through his first year with the university.

"The level of your voice depends on the number of zeros after the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. If you're given $100, alright, thank you, we need that. But if I'm giving you $10,000, I probably have more of a voice than you do. You have more of an impact because it's now a money game, and every dollar counts, so I don't want to minimize that for the fans whether it be Memphis, Maryland, doesn't matter, but that's the reality of the situation nowadays."

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