I'd say Buzz's first two years being Covid years can basically be lumped into one. The next 3 years have been where he started getting his team in place and almost won the NIT, dominated through SEC play and ran into a hot three-point shooting team in the tournament, and almost beat a good Houston team to make it to the sweet 16. This year we are set up for a strong season as a contender. 4 years of solid teams that can compete.

Next year will no doubt be a rebuild year. That's okay, having one rebuild year and then 3-4 years as a solid team is great given our level of support for basketball. We don't support basketball like Kentucky to expect a strong contender every year, there will be tough rebuild years mixed in unless we up our NIL and support for basketball which I hope we do.

The key will be limiting the rough rebuild year to one every 3-4 years. Even in our 3-4 year windows we can't always expect deep runs because it's basketball and anything can happen in the tournament.

Given our level of support for basketball, Buzz has been great. He does more with less for sure. I hope we as a program up our support for basketball.

Dominated through SEC play was specifically referring to the 2022-2023 season where he went 15-3 in conference play.

jc1402 said:

---

tcamp1111 said:

---

dominated through SEC play

---

If we lump the Covid years together, we've had one season with a winning record in conference. Granted that one season was good, but let's not act like Buzz has been consistently good in his tenure here as this thread seems to be suggesting. He's barely over .500 in conference play. We've had to make magical runs in the SEC tournament to make the NCAAs twice. He's been mediocre at best. (which for us seems to be good enough)

---

There's a lot battlefield for exactly how good Buzz has been here but this is a pretty one-sided way of looking at things.

We didn't have to make "magical runs" in the SEC Tournament either year. In 2023 we were in the field even if we lose our first game at the SECT. You don't jump from "out" to a seven seed by beating Arkansas and Vanderbilt. And last year we were probably in once we beat Ole Miss. Nothing magical about beating a team you just beat four days earlier on their own court. Beating Kentucky sealed the deal, as proof we ended up a 9 seed, not an 11 in the play-in games, but that was also a team we'd already beaten, not exactly a miracle needed. And we didn't even make the championship game or anything.

But this is a topic to revisit after this season because you're right that this is a peak season, and we need to see what a peak season looks like.

jc1402 said:

---

tcamp1111 said:

---

dominated through SEC play

---

If we lump the Covid years together, we've had one season with a winning record in conference. Granted that one season was good, but let's not act like Buzz has been consistently good in his tenure here as this thread seems to be suggesting. He's barely over .500 in conference play. We've had to make magical runs in the SEC tournament to make the NCAAs twice. He's been mediocre at best. (which for us seems to be good enough)

He needs a deep tourney run this season in order to have "arrived" in terms of bringing A&M to a place of prominence at a national level. But like others have mentioned, next year we lose a ton of talent. If he can't replace that and we are rebuilding next year anyway, how is that an arrival?

---

LOL WTF is this horse****?

We've played 4 full SEC regular seasons under Buzz Williams and our records are 10-8, 9-9, 15-3, and 9-9. "We've had one season with a winning record in conferece" is an INSANE level of twisting the facts,

If you get us to the tournament three straight seasons it doesn't matter how you did it or if you were the last team in the field all three years and it would take a monumental collapse for us to miss it this year.

Only two coaches have ever even gotten us into the tournament twice in a row, one of them was immediately hired by Kentucky, and the only coach that's ever gotten us to the tournament three (and four) times a in a row was hired by Maryland.

Whether we like it or not long-term, that's really the benchmark here at A&M.

Maybe that's mediocre nationally, but mediocre nationally over the course of several seasons makes you one of the best coaches in A&M history.

Buzz Williams "arrived" metaphorically, like, 15 years ago...and then almost 6 years ago he literally "arrived" here when we hired a legitimate established basketball coach for the first time...I dunno ever?

jc1402 said:

---

That's kind of my point- Buzz "arrived" nationally quite some time ago... he's been here for a while and our program under him has certainly not "arrived" in any meaningful way yet. I'd like to think this season will tell, but folks are already gearing up for a rebuild next season.... so idk that isn't sustained success compared to a Tennessee program like you mentioned..

---

You have to make sure your expectations meet that of the athletic department he coaches under. We give buz limited resources of which I feel he overachieves.

I mean the whole thread is kind of ridiculous. If we want to pick a specific date, the Buzz A&M basketball program probably "arrived" when we beat Tennessee in February of '22. Any time the student section is coordinating _______-outs (in that case black) and people are lining up hours before games you've arrived.

What Buzz has done that BK didn't do was establish a solid floor. We're onto four seasons in a row now of being at least a bubble team. That's no small feat here.

But what BK did that only BCG had ever done was put together a truly special season, and we'll see if this year is one of those.