The Buzz Williams era of Texas A&M men’s basketball is over.

As news broke on Tuesday that Williams would take the Maryland job — first reported by Jeff Ermann of InsideMDSports — the pressure is suddenly on athletic director Trev Alberts to make a hire that will keep the Aggies’ momentum up after three-straight NCAA Tournament appearances under Williams.

And with plenty of solid candidates — including North Texas’ Ross Hodge and McNeese’s Will Wade — already being hired this cycle, the race is on.

But before listing potential candidates, it’s important to recognize a few things about A&M men’s basketball and its place on the totem pole of job quality.

One: A&M is, historically, a bad men’s basketball job. The Aggies have never made it past the Sweet 16. Since former coach Billy Gillespie took the Aggies to the 2006 NCAA Tournament, A&M has made it to the Big Dance 11 times, so there is more recent success — but not the type of foundation that will draw a coach from a major basketball-first school, unless they’re in it for the challenge.

Unlike many other football-first schools, A&M men’s basketball plays third fiddle behind the gridiron and behind baseball. With dated facilities — and baseball first in line for an $80 million renovation, after an earlier refresh in 2012 — Alberts needs to find a coach who can do more with less, especially considering his focus on positioning A&M financially, given the economic realities of college athletics in the revenue-sharing era.

So from the home-run reaches to more realistic hires to a mid-major option or two, here are the coaches Alberts needs to pick up the phone and call.

Swinging big

T.J. Otzelberger, Iowa State

No, Otzelberger will likely not leave Ames, Iowa, a place his wife played college basketball and where he has spent over a combined decade as an assistant coach, associate head coach and, finally, head coach.

But you have to give him a call all the same. Iowa State is another job without much basketball history, at a school where football comes first. And in four years at the helm of the Cyclones, Otzelberger has taken them to a pair of Sweet 16s and made the tournament every year he’s been in Ames. It’s worth a call in the hopes he’s in the mood for a change of scenery.

Grant McCasland, Texas Tech

Lubbock might explode if Texas Tech has another coach leave for an in-state rival after Chris Beard left for Texas — and Tech athletic director Kirby Horcutt would open up his pocketbook to keep him in West Texas. But you have to at least give it a shot.

McCasland has built a resume worthy of a champion, and he’s also a Texas native with a long coaching career in the state, including multiple conference titles and an NIT championship at North Texas before taking Tech to the Elite Eight this year in just his second year in Lubbock.

This would be a slam-dunk hire if Alberts is willing to open up the checkbook and pry McCasland away from Tech — assuming he’s willing to leave, of course.

Realistic

Chris Jans, Mississippi State

A&M needs a coach who has won at a football-first school that doesn’t have the level of basketball resources that a Southeastern Conference rival like Kentucky or Tennessee can boast. Jans has done that in Starkville, Mississippi.

After taking New Mexico State to four Western Athletic Conference regular season titles in five years, Jans took the Mississippi State job and has given the Bulldogs three-straight 21-win seasons and NCAA Tournament appearances. 

Before Jans was hired, Mississippi State had just one NCAA Tournament appearance since 2009. 

Steve Lutz, Oklahoma State

Lutz’s first year in Stillwater, Oklahoma — a 17-18 showing ending in the NIT Quarterfinals —  may not be the impressive showing that will catch the eye of Aggie fans, but you have to look a bit deeper than that. 

The San Antonio native has won everywhere he’s been, including taking Texas A&M Corpus Christi to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments in 2022 and 2023, before taking the Western Kentucky job and sending the Hilltoppers to the Big Dance for the first time in over a decade in 2024.

The Oklahoma State job was a rebuild. A&M — which graduated eight players this year and was looking at a roster rebuild regardless — would be a similar story. 

And what Texas native wouldn’t want to come home?

Mid-major madness

Scott Cross, Troy

How badly does Alberts want to wipe the slate clean from the Williams era?

Because while Cross is a certified winner — the all-time winningest coach in UT-Arlington history and the man who rebuilt Troy with four-straight 20-win seasons — he was also the first player Williams recruited when the latter was an assistant coach for the Mavericks. The two have remained good friends to this day.

“They should have a statue of Scott in front of the arena at Arlington,” Williams said before the Aggies departed for the SEC Tournament. “ … He replaced me as an assistant before he had even earned his diploma.”

Would a mid-major hire from Troy excite A&M’s fanbase? Perhaps not, but Cross is still a proven winner — the contract wouldn’t run as much as poaching a high-major coach like Jans.

Alan Huss, High Point

A long-tenured assistant at Creighton under coach Greg McDermott, Huss took his first Division I head coaching job at High Point in 2023 and immediately took it to historic highs, including their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance this year.

Huss is 56-15 and has won back-to-back regular season Big South titles at the helm of the Panthers. He’s one of the hottest mid-major candidates left on the board this cycle.

But it’s worth keeping in mind that Huss is widely expected to succeed McDermott as Creighton’s coach when the former eventually ends up retiring in a few years. So if the Aggies want to get their own long-tenured coach who won’t jump to another job a la Gillespie to Kentucky or Mark Turgeon and Williams to Maryland, Huss may not be the way to go.