SEC Basketball: Ranking all 16 head coaches for 2024-25 season

6. Buzz Williams (Texas A&M)

A collegiate head coach for nearly two decades, Williams has made waves at nearly every stop of his coaching career. He spent time as an assistant under names like Tom Crean and Billy Gillispie and has previously been head coach at New Orleans, Marquette, and Virginia Tech. He spent just a year with the Privateers before leading the Golden Eagles to an Elite Eight and plenty of success. Williams also took Virginia Tech to their first Sweet Sixteen in 2019 before skipping town for a Texan return.

The native Texan took the job at Texas A&M and has started to make headway after half a decade. The Aggies fell in the NIT title game in his third season and have found themselves in the NCAA Tournament each of the last two seasons. Texas A&M finished 2nd in the SEC last season before another fair effort this season, with Williams certainly hoping to continue success. He’s hoping to build a breakthrough winner at a third different power conference program.

5. Chris Beard (Mississippi)

Already a head coach at eight different colleges, Beard has really bounced around in his career. A former assistant to Bob Knight, Beard was a great junior college coach before leading Little Rock to an NCAA Tournament upset back in 2016. He then built history at Texas Tech, leading the Red Raiders to the national championship game a few years later before bolting to Texas, his alma mater, though that wouldn’t end well.

After being dismissed by the Longhorns following assault charges, Beard was left in limbo but allowed to resume coaching when those charges were dismissed. Mississippi took a chance on him last offseason and played well in his first season. The Rebels won 20 games and are trending in a great direction. Ole Miss doesn’t have much of a basketball history, though Beard might change that very soon at this rate.