Broadcast mentioned that Buzz, in his 6 years at A&M, has as many road ranked wins as A&M has in the preceding 37 years combined.

Part of that is obviously that the SEC is getting better relative to the rest of the country. But it's hard to argue that he hasn't run a program that can win hard games. I'm sure glad he's on our bus.

But I thought he spent too much time reading books to be a good coach ?!?!

He's definitely had more opportunities than his predecessors, but lots of credit to him for winning them.

"Buzz ball"

And this doesn't even count the neutral site games like our win over Purdue and wins in the SEC tourney.

Per @tom_hart on the broadcast:

Buzz Williams has as many ranked road wins in his 6 seasons as the previous 37 seasons in Aggie basketball history.

Unbelievable stat.

— Luke Evangelist (@lukeevangelist_) January 23, 2025

What's shocking is our fanbase still seems to be holding the Covid years and a ridiculous snub 3 years ago against him. He's been a great coach here pretty much the whole way.

16 Ranked W's in the Buzz era! Let the good times roll!
Buzz Era Top 25 AP/Coaches Poll Wins
Season | AP Poll|Coaches Poll | Opponent
2019-2020 | @ | #17|#15 | Auburn
2021-2022 | @ | #25|#24 | Alabama
2021-2022 | SECT | #4|#4 | Auburn
2021-2022 | SECT | #15|#16 | Arkansas
2022-2023 | #20|#20 | Missouri
2022-2023 | @ | #15|#16 | Auburn
2022-2023 | #11|#13 | Tennessee
2022-2023 | #2|#2 | Alabama
2023-2024 | #6|#6 | Kentucky
2023-2024 | #6|#6 | Tennessee
2023-2024 | SECT | #9|#9 | Kentucky
2024-2025 | #21|#22 | Ohio State
2024-2025 | vs. | #21|#19 | Creighton
2024-2025 | vs. | #11|#11 | Purdue
2024-2025 | @ | #17|#16 | Oklahoma
2024-2025 | @ | #16|#16 | Ole Miss

He aint made the sweet sixteen pawl!

Buzz's time at A&M is interesting. On one hand you have a stat like this where it's obvious he's done well and we have improved yr over yr( besides 20). On the other hand he has no Sweet 16 appearances to date and only made the tourney twice while being paid top 15 money. I'm hoping this year he breaks through and we consistently make the tourney now.

NorthTexasAg22 said:

---

Buzz's time at A&M is interesting. On one hand you have a stat like this where it's obvious he's done well and we have improved yr over yr( besides 20). On the other hand he has no Sweet 16 appearances to date and only made the tourney twice while being paid top 15 money. I'm hoping this year he breaks through and we consistently make the tourney now.

---

I can't hold his first two years against him. He needed to clean house in the worst way. And I don't just mean players on the roster - I also mean everything related to the program's culture.

t - cam said:

---

What's shocking is our fanbase still seems to be holding the Covid years and a ridiculous snub 3 years ago against him. He's been a great coach here pretty much the whole way.

---

and now that seems to have switched somewhat to 'it's an ugly brand of basketball' and insinuations that we somehow are lucky to win these games.

As long as the goal posts are moving a certain way I'm fine with it.

PJYoung said:

---

t - cam said:

---

What's shocking is our fanbase still seems to be holding the Covid years and a ridiculous snub 3 years ago against him. He's been a great coach here pretty much the whole way.

---

and now that seems to have switched somewhat to 'it's an ugly brand of basketball' and insinuations that we somehow are lucky to win these games.

As long as the goal posts are moving a certain way I'm fine with it.

---

I think this is more than fair statement.
For someone who knows basketball, this style will grate on you for a while. It's not pretty, not meant to be pretty, it is meant to be effective.
Buzzball = Moneyball ; most of the decisions are analytically delivered by a thoughtful, emotional guy.

The best metric I can think of for a coach is "does his players like playing for him?"

Did anyone else see after the game during the handshake exchange that Coach was talking to Jace, Zuric, Solo, and Manny? It wasn't "Great game!", he was talking into them something individual.

"Does the guy win? Does the guy get us to the Final Four? Because I haven't seen it!!"… wish these guys would go away. There are plenty of GREAT coaches that don't have a championship. Lots and lots have never made it to the Final Four… and yes we are indeed winning.

Wish the Aggie Football Fans would start being just Aggie Fans.

AggByMarriage said:

---

PJYoung said:

---

t - cam said:

---

What's shocking is our fanbase still seems to be holding the Covid years and a ridiculous snub 3 years ago against him. He's been a great coach here pretty much the whole way.

---

and now that seems to have switched somewhat to 'it's an ugly brand of basketball' and insinuations that we somehow are lucky to win these games.

As long as the goal posts are moving a certain way I'm fine with it.

---

I think this is more than fair statement.
For someone who knows basketball, this style will grate on you for a while. It's not pretty, not meant to be pretty, it is meant to be effective.
Buzzball = Moneyball ; most of the decisions are analytically delivered by a thoughtful, emotional guy.

The best metric I can think of for a coach is "does his players like playing for him?"

Did anyone else see after the game during the handshake exchange that Coach was talking to Jace, Zuric, Solo, and Manny? It wasn't "Great game!", he was talking into them something individual.

"Does the guy win? Does the guy get us to the Final Four? Because I haven't seen it!!"… wish these guys would go away. There are plenty of GREAT coaches that don't have a championship. Lots and lots have never made it to the Final Four… and yes we are indeed winning.

Wish the Aggie Football Fans would start being just Aggie Fans.

---

I agree with this. Especially the metric for a coach. We saw the nucleus of this team all return because they like playing for Buzz and believe in what he is doing. In this new world of NIL and portal, I think that speaks volumes.

The haters are in hiding. Give it another conference loss or two and they'll pop right back out. Either that or just wait until March and the same spill "Fire Buzz!" will be on this board regardless of end of season result. Some Ags just love to be miserable.

NorthTexasAg22 said:

---

Buzz's time at A&M is interesting. On one hand you have a stat like this where it's obvious he's done well and we have improved yr over yr( besides 20). On the other hand he has no Sweet 16 appearances to date and only made the tourney twice while being paid top 15 money. I'm hoping this year he breaks through and we consistently make the tourney now.

---

This is not directed at you specifically, but the Sweet 16 criticism is seen a lot on here, and you have to realize only three coaches in this program's history have taken us to the Sweet 16. Just two if you're only looking at the 64+ team era. Do we want to be making the Sweet 16? Hell yeah of course we do, but I wouldn't say that is the bar for success at A&M. He's going to make the tournament for a third straight year this season, something only Turgeon was able to pull off previously.

Judging most programs that aren't Kentucky, Duke, etc by March success is not really realistic because it takes a bit of luck once you're there to keep advancing. Getting to the tournament with the highest seed possible on a consistent basis is the goal, then just hope things fall your way once you're there. In that regard he's done a good job the last few years and is on track to do a great job this year. Once he righted the ship after a rocky first couple of years, he's had our program at a level we have rarely consistently reached, we just haven't hit those peaks yet, with this season remaining to be seen. If the floor with Buzz is a Top 35 level of consistency, then the peaks will come.

Topher17 said:

---

NorthTexasAg22 said:

---

Buzz's time at A&M is interesting. On one hand you have a stat like this where it's obvious he's done well and we have improved yr over yr( besides 20). On the other hand he has no Sweet 16 appearances to date and only made the tourney twice while being paid top 15 money. I'm hoping this year he breaks through and we consistently make the tourney now.

---

This is not directed at you specifically, but the Sweet 16 criticism is seen a lot on here, and you have to realize only three coaches in this program's history have taken us to the Sweet 16. Just two if you're only looking at the 64+ team era. Do we want to be making the Sweet 16? Hell yeah of course we do, but I wouldn't say that is the bar for success at A&M. He's going to make the tournament for a third straight year this season, something only Turgeon was able to pull off previously.

Judging most programs that aren't Kentucky, Duke, etc by March success is not really realistic because it takes a bit of luck once you're there to keep advancing. Getting to the tournament with the highest seed possible on a consistent basis is the goal, then just hope things fall your way once you're there. In that regard he's done a good job the last few years and is on track to do a great job this year. Once he righted the ship after a rocky first couple of years, he's had our program at a level we have rarely consistently reached, we just haven't hit those peaks yet, with this season remaining to be seen. If the floor with Buzz is a Top 35 level of consistency, then the peaks will come.

---

It's also just an absolutely lame measurement of success and is only being used for those who are married to the idea that, despite all other evidence, we were somehow better under Billy Kennedy.
The fact that our team has never made it past there shows that no coach has had any real tournament success so claiming the sweet 16 as a benchmark just feels super targeted.

wacarnolds said:

---

It's also not an unfair or unrealistic measure of success.

Buzz not making a Sweet 16 so far is a black mark on his record, imo. Just like it is for Turgeon.

Buzz needs to do better than he has in the past, and he's on track for that this year.

---

But if you think BK making the sweet 16 makes him a more successful coach than Buzz or Turgeon than I would strongly disagree with that.

He's our Bob Huggins/John Cheney/Bo Ryan/Gene Keady/Norm Stewart...

He may win it all someday, or he may not. But he should retire here, because his guys play their guts out every night, and he makes all of us proud of the program. Any opponent, any place, and they battle. And, honest question, give me a list of coaches who evaluated the portal better this year.

It's what I thought we were getting with Gillispie.

a.froman said:

---

In my opinion the Sweet 16 is about equal to making the 12 team football playoff. In a time of NIL, transfer portal and our resources we certainly expect our football coach to make the playoffs in his first 6 years, why wouldn't we have the same expectations for our basketball coach?

---

I think the difference here is you have to win two tournament games to make the sweet 16, you don't have to do that just to make the CFP.

At the same time, you can't be a mediocre team and just creep into the CFP, just making it means you had a really good season overall. In CBB, you could limp your way to a tournament bid and then get lucky for a couple of nights and boom you're in the Sweet 16, so it's not really an apples to apples comparison.

I would say that actually making the Sweet 16 isn't nearly as important and being favored to make the Sweet 16.

A basketball equivalent to making the CFP would be getting a top four seed. And we're on track for that this season so far, just have to keep winning and get there. But getting bounced by an upset in the second round doesn't make it a bad season any more than the 2018 team deciding to finally play basketball for a couple of games doesn't completely salvage the disaster that most of the season was.

And at least someone in our admin, at least then, hopefully still, understands that. I never thought we'd fire a coach a year removed from a Sweet 16 appearance but we did.

wacarnolds said:

---

Our coach makes Top 10-ish money. We're majorly invested in college basketball, albeit not at the highest tier (or two)

---

Money whipping a coach is about the cheapest part of the process nowadays.