Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams leaving for Maryland

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Buzz Williams arrived at Texas A&M ahead of the 2019-20 season and has led the Aggies to three NCAA tournament appearances. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
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Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams is leaving one NCAA tournament team for another.

Williams is heading to Maryland to coach the Terrapins after Kevin Willard left for Villanova. Williams has been the head coach at Texas A&M since 2019.

“We would like to thank Buzz for his years of service heading up our men’s basketball program,” Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts said in a statement. “We wish he and Corey and their family all the best moving forward.”

“We are excited about the future of Aggie basketball, and we will find the right leader for our program.”

Both the Aggies and Terrapins were No. 4 seeds in the 2025 NCAA tournament. A&M lost in the second round to No. 5 Michigan while Maryland advanced to the Sweet 16 before losing to No. 1 Florida. The Gators won the West region to make the Final Four.

Texas A&M has posted winning seasons in all five of its full seasons in Williams’ tenure. The school has made the NCAA tournament in each of the past three seasons and has lost in the second round of the tournament in both 2024 and 2025. In 2023, A&M lost as a No. 7 seed in the first round to No. 10 Penn State.

Overall, the Aggies are 120-73 in Williams’ time and 56-44 in the SEC.



Williams came to College Station from Virginia Tech, where the Hokies were 100-69 over five seasons and made the NCAA tournament in his final three years. Williams took the job at Virginia Tech after he coached at Marquette for six seasons and led the Golden Eagles to the Elite Eight in 2013.

Williams heads to Maryland after Texas A&M’s roster in 2024-25 featured eight seniors, including star guard Wade Taylor IV. Per ESPN's Pete Thamel, Buzz Williams’ buyout to leave Texas A&M dropped from $10 million to $1 million today. Additionally, Maryland will receive $2 million from Villanova for Kevin Willard’s departure.

Willard groused about the lack of financial support at Maryland in his final days as the team’s coach even as he was in negotiations with the school for a contract extension. Maryland athletic director Damon Evans left to take the same position at SMU in March. In a statement after Willard's departure, Maryland president Darryll Pines said the school had promised Willard more resources for the basketball program.

That same commitment is likely being made to Williams, who has no previous ties to the school. His hire comes a day after former player and college basketball television analyst Len Elmore said in an open letter that the school's next coach should be someone with direct ties to the school.

“The quest by fans, media types and donor influencers to merely win the press conference by taking a ‘big swing’ and hiring an outsider who leaves one program to coach the Terps only to leave after a few years is maddening,” Elmore wrote.

“When these hires leave their former program for us, they are telling you who they are, and we need to believe them. Since our full blooded Terp in coach Gary Williams retired, it’s been inconsistency after inconsistency after inconsistency. The common thread: outsiders.”

Willard was Maryland’s second full-time coach since Gary Williams’ retirement in 2011. Mark Turgeon coached for over 10 seasons before he stepped down eight games into the 2021-22 season. Danny Manning served as the team’s interim coach for the rest of the season before Willard was hired. The 2024-25 season was Maryland’s seventh NCAA tournament appearance and second Sweet 16 appearance since Williams departed.

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