First Look: Buzz Williams

New basketball coach Buzz Williams stopped by 12th Man Studios on his first full day in Aggieland and in advance of his welcome event at 4 p.m. Thursday inside Reed Arena.

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Texas A&M has its head basketball coach, it's Buzz Williams. He comes to us from Virginia Tech, however he's a native Texan from North Texas in Van Alstyne. So we have him in studio with us right now, and I think an appropriate way to start is to say welcome home, sir.
 
"Howdy, thank you."
 
(laughter) You got that down.
 
"I remember that. I'm very thankful to be here."
 
And like you say you remember that because you've been at Texas A&M before, 2004 to 2006, Yourself, Billy Gillispie, Acie Law. You produced one of the miracle turnarounds in college basketball. What are your fondest memories from your first time at A&M?
 
"Just the people, right? Those experiences you'll remember for life. It's easy to remember Coach, it's easy to remember the really good players, but I remember the managers. I remember the walk-ons. I remember all the people that sacrificed so much for the turnaround. I think when we came the previous season, they were winless in the Big 12 and in year number one when we were here, we were 8-8, and that was the largest turnaround by a power five team in conference play only. And so I remember bits and pieces of games and opponents, but mostly I remember the people. And I remember all of the work that went into what it became over the next six years."
 
When you got to Blacksburg, wins were hard to come by there. And a tough first year, but you got Virginia Tech where annually they're in the tournament, now you're just coming off a Sweet 16 run. Keys to what you produced with the Hokies?
 
"Similar to maybe to what I was able to watch when I was here as an assistant. I think anytime when the margins are as thin as they are at this level, it's not one thing, it's a lot of things that lead to success. You could also say that in a counter way. It's not one thing it's a lot of things that lead to failure. And so the support of the administration at Virginia Tech,  our staff did a phenomenal job, but all credit goes to those kids and how they were raised by their parents. Because to change something from...we were 2-16 in year number one and then obviously as you mentioned we just were in the Sweet 16. To go from 2-16 to Sweet 16, that's a long journey and that's a lot of work, and it's always in the end about the people and the character of those people."
 
So you have that program on really good ground. Why decide to make the change and come to Aggieland?
 
"Sure. Excited for the opportunity, humbled by it to be honest with you. Overwhelmed with emotion. Hard for me to even answer the question. There's never one factor, there's never just one decision point when it's a life change. I have four children. It will be hard on them.  Only one of the four was born in Texas. My wife is from Texas, obviously I'm from Texas, so all of that sounds good but again the relationships that we built In Virginia, we'll have those relationships for life.  But incredibly excited for the opportunity here and very aware of the work that's going to be involved in order to get this going back the way it deserves to be."
 
And you've used the 'Get Better' mantra for quite a while with your teams, your programs, where does that stem from, it is that kind of the identity you take into A&M?
 
"Absolutely. It's more than just a hashtag. It works on twitter, but it's more of a lifestyle. It's more of how you go about your daily activities. We need to do a good job on the floor and I think that's important, but maybe what's more important is what we do off the floor and the things that we do off the floor will impact what we do on the floor. And so I don't think that I was hired at Texas A&M because I'm a good coach. I think I'm okay, but I think what's really important is the development of everyone in the program and that they're getting better in each facet of their life. Not just the...not just the athletic piece, my staff, the coaching piece, it's how can we get better in every category and that's what I want to be best at. I want to help the energy, and the passion, and getting better on a daily basis in everything that we do."
 
Real name is Brent?
 
"Yup."
 
When's the last time you heard Brent, where did Buzz start and is it a basketball, stemming from that?
 
"Yeah, I was a manager, thanks for asking, I was a manager at Navarro College, that's in Corsicana. And Coach Orr was the head coach at that time. Coach is in the Hall of Fame, the National Junior College Hall of fame, he turned 82 years old 10 days ago. And he's been with me my entire career as a head coach at Marquette, at Virginia Tech, and he may be more excited than anybody that I took the job cause it's a lot easier to get from Corsicana to College Station than anywhere else I've been employed. So he gave me that name my first semester as a manager for him my freshman year. And for whatever reason it's just kind of stuck. My mom occasionally will say Brent, my dad will say it occasionally, my wife does if I'm in trouble. But for the most part everybody just calls me Coach or Buzz."
 
Well finally this coach. You've had a meeting or two with the A&M players since your arrival. What's the first message you want to send them or a recruit that's going to play in your program? What do they first need to know about Buzz Williams?
 
"We landed last night and Scott, Justin and Stephanie immediately took me to meet the team. They already had it arranged, all of the players, all the managers, all the support staff were there. We met for probably longer than they anticipated and then we started work when it was dark outside this morning. And I'll try to connect with them again today before the press conference. So I think whether you're a recruit or you're a senior or a freshman, I think change is hard. Change is hard for them. Change is hard for everybody involved, and so the first thing is in order to build a trustful relationship it has to be built on love. So I wanted to make sure that whether they stayed, whether they left, whether they were old or whether they were young,  that my responsibility in the chair that I sit in is to help them. And sometimes you get caught up in this world thinking that I'll help you if you help me. And that means there's an agenda attached.  There's no agenda. We know that we've got lot of work to do. And any way that we can help those kids that are currently here, that's what we will do.  And anybody that joins us that's what they'll know upon arrival. I trust coach. He loves me. I trust his staff. They love me. And they're going to help me get better in every facet of what I'm about."
 
Well said, congratulations.
 
"Yeah. Pleasure to meet you, I'm grateful."