While the NCAA Tournament isn’t over, the Transfer Portal has been open for more than a week and the coaching carousel is in full swing. After Villanova’s decision to hire former Maryland coach Kevin Willard, the Terrapins acted somewhat quickly in hiring Buzz Williams away from Texas A&M just over a week after the Aggies season came to a close.
Williams is a Texas native who’s had quite the adventure in his coaching career, now taking over his fifth different D1 program as head coach. He had several assistant coaching stints early in his career, including at Texas A&M before starting his career at New Orleans. He was there for just one year before becoming Tom Crean’s top assistant at Marquette before eventually succeeding him.
Even though he’s bounced around a lot, Williams has won everywhere he’s been. He took Marquette to an Elite Eight and two more Sweet Sixteen’s, then led Virginia Tech to their first ever Sweet Sixteen before leading Texas A&M to three straight NCAA Tournaments, albeit with just a pair of Tourney wins.
With his latest decision, Texas A&M now sits in a very unenviable position at the beginning of April. With the Portal already open for a significant amount of time, the Aggies need to act fast to find their new head coach so that the staff can build a team for next season. We’ll take a few moments to look at some initial candidates for the job, keeping in mind that some are far more realistic than others right now.
Chris Beard
Swinging big is important, and Beard is a native Texan who’s worked wonders at several different schools in the state. The longtime Texas Tech assistant and Texas alum did wonders with Little Rock, Texas Tech, and Texas even before taking Ole Miss to the Sweet Sixteen this season. Beard comes with baggage relating to his firing from the Longhorns just over two years ago and you have to wonder if he’d actually be interested in a different SEC post after not pursuing bigger jobs in recent weeks.
Bryce Drew
Perhaps most famous for his NCAA Tournament buzzer beater in 1998, there’s been a lot to like about Drew’s head coaching career. After playing for Valparaiso, he later led them to a pair of NCAA Tournaments, and has done wonders at Grand Canyon, taking the Antelopes on their first four Tourney trips, including an upset win last season. However, the red flag is his previous work in the SEC, as Drew faltered at Vanderbilt, including a winless season in conference play in 2019. Whether or not he’s earned a second chance at a power conference school, would he really want to leave Grand Canyon right now?
Steve Forbes
Forbes is another coach with an eventful past, bouncing around at a number of schools during his career. He’s been a junior college coach, an assistant under the likes of Bruce Pearl, Gregg Marshall, and Porter Moser, and actually worked at Texas A&M two decades ago under Billy Gillispie. At the D1 level, he won 130 games in an incredible half decade leading East Tennessee State and has been entrenched at Wake Forest since 2020. Unfortunately, Forbes hasn’t gotten the Demon Deacons to the Big Dance yet, though they did tie for 4th in the ACC this season.
Fred Hoiberg
Who knows how realistic a move would be, but Hoiberg could be a name to watch down at Texas A&M if the price is right. He starred at Iowa State and spent a decade in the NBA before getting his coaching career started the same way, taking Iowa State to great success before a stint leading the Chicago Bulls. Hoiberg has bounced back nicely at Nebraska, with his slow rebuild paying off with a Tournament appearance last season. He was born in Lincoln and has connections to the area, but with the right support in place perhaps he could make the move to the SEC.
Alan Huss
Hiring an established head coach isn’t always the move and Huss is certainly one of the up and comers on the rise. A former player at Creighton, Huss was a successful high school coach before transitioning into the college game just over a decade ago. He did solid work on staff at both New Mexico and Creighton before landing his first head coaching gig at High Point. Huss just took the Panthers to their first ever trip to the Big Dance and boasts 56 wins in two seasons. It’s a significant jump up from the Big South but this is the kind of job Huss is going to have some day down the line.
Chris Jans
The early success for Jans was at the junior college level, including a few years coaching in Texas two decades ago. After good work on a few D1 staffs, including a long stint during Wichita State’s heyday, Jans faltered at Bowling Green before maintaining success leading New Mexico State and Mississippi State. He won an NCAA Tournament game over UConn and had consistency with the Aggies before taking the Bulldogs to each of the last three Tournaments. He’s paid handsomely by Mississippi State so it would have to be some kind of offer and commitment to lure him to another SEC program.
Andy Kennedy
Kennedy is a former SEC head coach who’s really rebuilt his coaching reputation in recent years and is worth a look by the Aggies. A UAB alum, his first head coaching stint was actually as the interim in Cincinnati after Bob Huggins was dismissed, but he really caught on with twelve years at Ole Miss, with several postseason appearances. Kennedy landed back at UAB as head coach in 2020 and has won at least 20 games in each season, with a pair of trips to the Big Dance. Whether or not he could be lured away from his alma mater for a second shot in the SEC remains to be seen.
Steve Lutz
Lutz is a rare coach who’s been on the move even more than Williams in recent years. After more than two decades as a collegiate assistant, notably with SMU, Creighton, and Purdue, Lutz became a head coach in 2021 at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. He took the Islanders to the NCAA Tournament in each of his first two seasons before bolting for Western Kentucky and having similar success there. Lutz landed at Oklahoma State last offseason and is only just scratching the surface, but he’s a San Antonio native who could stick around in College Station for a long time. His buyout is the biggest hurdle.
Bucky McMillan
With his influential work in recent years, McMillan is another head coach on the rise who you might see Texas A&M consider in this situation. A Birmingham native, McMillan became one of the nation’s best high school coaches at a school in Alabama before jumping to the college game, accepting the Samford job back in 2020. After a tough first season, he’s won at least 21 games in his last four campaigns, including an NCAA Tournament appearance last season and this year’s deep run at the NIT. There’s no connection to the Aggies, Texas, or power conference coaching so it would be quite the leap.
Porter Moser
Back in the 90’s Moser had two separate stints as an assistant coach for the Aggies and this would make quite the reunion. A lot has happened since then, as he’s made quite the name for himself by taking Loyola Chicago to the Final Four in 2018 and Sweet Sixteen in 2021. What hurts Moser here is his lack of head coaching success earlier at Little Rock and Illinois State plus his recent work at Oklahoma. He did just take the Sooners to the NCAA Tournament for the first time, but you have to wonder how much more run that program gives him.