Author
Christopher Boan writes for BetMaryland.com and has been covering sports and sports betting for more than seven years, with experience at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.2021-08-02
How Do Major Conference Coaches Perform When Switching Schools? Expectations for Buzz Williams At Maryland
Maryland wasted little time in replacing Kevin Willard as its men’s basketball coach, announcing Monday that the program hired Buzz Williams away from Texas A&M.
BetMaryland.com, as part of our Maryland sports betting analysis, used SportsReference.com to find statistics for the first season for head coaches who go from one major conference school to another in back-to-back seasons. Major conference school refers to ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, Big East and former Pac-12. The research included any coach who did so since the 2010-11 season, with 26 instances in all.
Season Performance Of Major Conference Coach After Switching Schools
Win Percentage | 0.526* | |
Final AP Poll Top 25 Appearance | 4 of 26 teams | 15.4%* |
NCAA Tournament Appearance | 8 of 26 teams | 30.8%* |
Sweet 16 or Better Appearance | 2 of 26 teams | 7.7%* |
*Rounded to nearest whole number
How Will Buzz Williams Fare at Maryland?
For the fifth time in his 601-game coaching career, Williams is on the move, with the men’s Maryland Terrapins basketball team being his fourth time in charge of a program in a major conference. The former New Orleans, Marquette, Virginia Tech and Texas A&M head coach is moving back north to coach the Terrapins in the 2025-26 season, looking to guide another team to March Madness next spring.
Of the 26 coaches that BetMaryland.com used for our analysis, four of them (or 15.4%) wound up in the final AP top 25 the year after moving. Eight of them (or 30.8%) reached the NCAA Tournament and two of them (or 7.7%) made it to the Sweet 16 or further in their new coaching stop. Keep this trend in mind at Maryland sportsbook apps when you eye futures odds next season.
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Coaches Who Succeeded After Leaving One Big Job For Another
One of those coaches, Bruce Pearl of Auburn, is in the 2025 Final Four. This is the second time in 11 seasons on the Plains that the veteran coach has led the SEC stalwarts to the national semifinal round of March Madness, along with the 2018-19 campaign.
Other coaches on the move that made deep March Madness runs at their new schools included Rick Barnes of Tennessee, who led the Vols to the Elite Eight in 2025 after getting the job in Knoxville in 2015 on the heels of a 582-game run coaching Texas (he led the Longhorns to a Final Four in 2003). Chris Beard (Ole Miss), John Calipari (Arkansas) and Mark Pope (Kentucky) all made the Sweet 16 at their latest coaching stops this spring.
It remains to be seen how Maryland Terrapins odds will look when the 2025-26 season rolls around with Williams in charge.
Also among coaches to successfully navigate the move from one power conference program to another in recent years were Chris Holtmann at Butler and Ohio State, plus Willard himself, who reached the Sweet 16 this season with the Terps before leaving on Sunday to take the Villanova job.
For Williams and Terps leadership, the hope is that Maryland’s newest head coach can do the same, guiding UM back to the Sweet 16 (or further) for the second straight season in 2026. The Big Ten program fell short against Florida, 87-71, in the regional semifinals last month.
In the meantime, our real money Maryland sportsbook promos at BetMaryland.com are available no matter who’s coaching your team.
USA Today photo by Isaiah J. Downing
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