Buzz gives me all the warm and fuzzies.

Please do highlight this specifically:

"He was very convincing," says Layer, now a Texas A&M special assistant who, 19 years since that first meeting, has called Williams his boss at three different schools. "Best hire I've ever made."'

greg.w.h said:

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Please do highlight this specifically:

"He was very convincing," says Layer, now a Texas A&M special assistant who, 19 years since that first meeting, has called Williams his boss at three different schools. "Best hire I've ever made."'

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Trying to find something official to confirm this... need to update his wiki entry if so.

Well he was with the team in Costa Rica and his Twitter Bio says he's on the staff, that's about as official as anything from the basketball team since Buzz was hired.

***BCG reference warning***

I seem to remember similar stories about BCG's first meeting with Bill Self, back when he was a no-name assistant, and how impressed Self was with Gillispie's ability to map out an approach to success.

The fire and passion Buzz is bringing to the program is exactly what the fanbase needs right now.

I've read I think three articles by different writers that emphasize different particular techniques to being organized that taken together speak a lot to how Buzz approaches success. I'll try to re-dig up the other ones if I have time.

Quote:

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McNeal says he trusts Williams today because of one conversation they had at the Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee following the 2007-08 season, when McNeal was thinking about entering the NBA draft.

Williams asked McNeal to list his best qualities. McNeal, then 20 years old and with Big East Defensive Player of the Year and other honors on his rsum, had a long list of talents he believed would lead him to success at the next level. Williams told him he was wrong.

"He looked me in my eyes and he said, 'You're really not that talented, and you ain't that athletic like some of these other NBA guys,'" McNeal says.

McNeal stayed in college for his senior year, establishing a Marquette career scoring record that still stands. He played briefly in the NBA and has forged a long professional career overseas, crediting Williams with giving him the honest assessment he needed to make him a better and more serviceable player.

"That changed our relationship as well, because he was one of the first people who cared wholeheartedly about me to tell me the honest truth," McNeal says. "He'll take you in an empty room, look you in the eye and tell you what he thinks, even if it makes you want to beat him up. I've heard him say it before: 'You can probably kick my ass, but so what?' Those are the ones that truly care."

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The other two:

2013
'You never forget the first time you meet Buzz Williams. He was that young, eager, small-time assistant coach in the off-the-rack suit who handed you a resume in a hotel lobby teeming with big-time head coaches, then called to follow up 15 times and the next day showed up at your front door. He was that charming but flat-broke admirer whose idea of a first date was frozen yogurt and deep-talking until 4 a.m. He was that one recruiter, alone among all the coaches trying to get your signature on that letter-of-intent, who never once talked to you about basketball, only about life.'

AND

'"If you only see me on game day," Williams, 40, said Wednesday, "probably what you think of me is I don't want to say diametrically opposed, but it's distinctly different" than reality.

Would someone who is crazy, for example, be able to come up the following formula for in-game success: less than 13 points allowed in transition, at least 72 percent of offensive possessions resulting in the ball getting into the paint, at least 19 free throws made, more free throws made than the opponent has attempted, less than 10 turnovers, at least 13 forced turnovers, at least a plus-3.5 rebounding advantage and an opponents' field goal percentage worse than than 39 percent?

What Williams is, is relentless. The story of his landing that first Division I job is the stuff of legend, except it's 100 percent true. He really did finagle a $1,200 "emergency" student loan at Oklahoma City University, an NAIA school where he was a student assistant preparing to graduate. He really did use the money to buy a suit and a plane ticket. He really did show up at the Adams Mark Hotel in Charlotte for the 1994 Final Four, penniless, and hand out his resume, printed on colored pieces of construction paper, to anyone who would take one. He really did bum snacks off the bartenders for sustenance and wash up in the morning in the lobby restroom, then go back to working the lobby, wearing the same suit.'

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/marquette-coach-buzz-williams-has-found-a-method-to-march-madness/2013/03/27/49da8898-970d-11e2-814b-063623d80a60_story.html

2017

'Williams, who keeps a daily diary and organizes every detail of his life, brought six years' worth of notes to the meeting with Babcock covering all of his prior contract negotiations with Marquette, serving as a blueprint for what he would need to transform Virginia Tech from doormat to winning program in the nation's toughest conference. Every detail was covered from recruiting budgets to staff salaries to the number of tickets he would get at Hokies football games. By the third day, even as Babcock put a deadline on the negotiations, Williams insisted they push through to the end, just to make sure nothing was left in the gray area before he decided to take the job.

"We had a high limit, and we went to that with Buzz where we didn't feel like we could do more, and we were very transparent about it," said Babcock. "He actually took a pay cut to come here. We have different levels of investment we can make (in different sports), but with Buzz we stretched it as far as we could go."'

https://painttouches.com/2017/03/29/why-buzz-williams-left-marquette-2017-edition/

greg.w.h said:

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'Williams, who keeps a daily diary and organizes every detail of his life..."

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I just can't imagine the time management and energy this requires. I'm not lazy, but this guy makes me feel that way.