While 4-seed Texas A&M men’s basketball hasn’t faced the 5-seed Michigan Wolverines since 2018, coach Buzz Williams and Michigan coach Dusty May are familiar with each other ahead of their second-round matchup in this year’s NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena in Denver.
Last season, May led Florida Atlantic — the school he took to the Final Four in 2023 — to a 96-89 win over A&M at the ESPN Invitational in Orlando, Florida. And while the teams aren’t exactly the same, there are a few memories from that game that stick out to Williams.
Like what happened afterward to then-graduate guard Tyrece “Boots” Radford, who was limited to just 18 minutes due to illness.
“I went to the hospital with Boots immediately after the game,” Williams said. “Obviously Henry [Coleman III] got hurt, didn’t play the next day. So I remember the game.”
For May, last season’s matchup helped him understand what to expect from a Williams-coached team.
“Coach Williams’ teams always have a great identity of toughness, of togetherness, of guys never taking a second off,” May said. “They’re absolutely relentless in their pursuit of protecting the rim, protecting the paint and getting second shots, and they probably have as good role definition of any team that I can remember competing against in the last several years.”
Graduate G Wade Taylor IV dropped 35 points in that Florida Atlantic game, one of seven Aggies on this year’s team that saw playing time against the Owls.
Michigan graduate center Vladislav Goldin — a 7-foot-1 Russian giant — also faced the Aggies for FAU before following May to the Maize and Blue. The Wolverines also have a few transfers from the Southeastern Conference who have faced the Aggies at previous stops, including junior G Tre Donaldson, who played two seasons at Auburn before transferring.
“There’s players on that team that have been in the SEC, so I remember parts of it,” Williams said. “ … I do think that how they utilize [Goldin] is the same, but I don’t know that it’s their exact style on either end. I’ll be able to know a little bit tomorrow. I kind of have saved that for this evening to see how much it correlates.”
Williams has long made it a hobby of his to study coaches — and not just the ones who he happens to be coaching against. He rattled off a list of May’s previous stops, back to his days as an assistant at Louisiana Tech under now-Georgia coach Mike White, allowing him to develop a healthy appreciation for May’s career — complete with high praise.
“Obviously, coach is a genius,” Williams said. “He had an unbelievable start to what will end up being a hall-of-fame career. He represents all that’s right about college athletics.”
May got the better of Williams last season. Saturday, they’ll see which of the pair will advance to the Sweet 16 when the Aggies and Wolverines tip-off at 3:15 p.m. MDT at Ball Arena in Denver.
