Is the Aggies’ head coach a contender to take over in Bloomington?
Buzz Williams’ name keeps coming up for the impending Indiana men’s basketball job opening.
From a column in the Indianapolis Star to countless candidate lists and hot boards, a lot of people seem to think Williams is an option for the program, moreso than a few other names treated as longshots. At this point, with an entire search ahead, it’s worth at least considering the possibility.
Williams is a bit of a mainstay in college basketball at this point. He’s been a division-I head coach since 2006 with a gap of one year after resigning from his first head coaching stint at New Orleans after just one year with the program.
He’s built programs at Marquette, Virginia Tech and now Texas A&M. The move from Marquette to Tech in 2014 was panned given that Williams was coming off of his worst season leading the Golden Eagles, left a bit of an empty cupboard in Milwaukee and took over at a place that wasn’t considered a step up.
It took time, but Williams eventually got the Hokies to be a consistent tournament team, reaching the Sweet Sixteen in 2019 before jumping for the Texas A&M job.
Texas A&M, like Tech before it, also took a built to get going. Williams’ Aggies missed the tournament during his first three years in College Station, which included the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, A&M has made the previous two tournaments and is firmly on track to make this year’s Big Dance.
So what’s to like and not to like about Williams? Well.
As far as positives, Williams has turned his past two stops into tournament teams, it’s just taken a while. That at least shows he knows how to build something. As for what comes next? Well, he’s been to just one Sweet Sixteen since 2015, that aforementioned year with Tech.
One thing Indiana fans are not going to want to see is shooting numbers for Williams’ teams. Even the good A&M groups have shot the ball pretty terribly from beyond the arc, this group and last year’s are both sub-300 in 3-point percentage.
Which is… weird. Williams’ last three Tech teams were 31st nationally at worst in that category. His Aggies just cannot shoot, they’ve never been able to.
Will fans tolerate even more poor shooting if it means winning basketball? It’ll be a lingering gripe but ultimately be something that could be accepted so long as those wins actually happen, which isn’t a guarantee.
Williams also has some charisma to him, he’s done well in pressers and would no doubt do himself favors with the fanbase and Indiana’s media with his words. He’s also pretty animated on the sidelines, which could be seen as a welcome contrast.
But… still gotta win.
Overall, Williams is an interesting name to consider. Not sure I see it happening but I get why his name is brought up.