Buzz Williams receives two-game suspension, assistant coach suspended for season

Texas A&M head basketball coach Buzz Williams on Friday received a two-game suspension from the NCAA, while an assistant coach received a yearlong, self-imposed suspension, after the Division I Committee on Infractions pronounced that the Aggies violated multiple NCAA rules.

Williams, an unnamed assistant coach and the university committed separate infractions, according to the NCAA’s press release.

Williams himself had “impermissible contact with a prospect during an evaluation period,” it says, while the assistant coach violated rules when “he observed a prospect participating in an open gym during an unofficial visit and later conducted two 45-minute tryouts with that prospect, during which he provided coaching instruction.”

Additionally, Texas A&M was charged with holding 24 separate, prohibited off-campus workouts during the COVID-19 pandemic, which included both student-athletes and a prospect. The release also says that several of the workouts — per instruction from the unnamed assistant coach — were conducted and supervised by noncoaching staff members, which exceeds the permissible limits for countable coaches.

Williams and the university allowed for six noncoaching staff members to participate in on-court activities, which exceeds the NCAA’s maximum of countable coaches by three.

Texas A&M received a number of punishments ranging in severity, including two years of probation, a $5,000 fine, a reduction in men’s basketball official visits for the 2021-22 academic year by five, a reduction in men’s basketball recruiting days by 5%, a two-game regular season suspension for Williams and a suspension for the assistant coach.

The assistant’s suspension, according to the release, was self-imposed by the university and runs from June 2020 to the end of the 2020-2021 basketball season.

It appears as though Texas A&M cooperated throughout the investigation, as the case was processed through the negotiated resolution process.

“The process was used instead of a formal hearing or summary disposition because the university, the involved coaches and the enforcement staff agreed on the violations and the penalties,” according to the NCAA. 

The NCAA’s committee for the investigation consisted of Carol Cartwright, president emeritus at Kent State and Bowling Green; Thomas Hill, senior vice president emeritus at Iowa State; and Mary Schutten, executive vice president and provost at Central Michigan.

Texas A&M finished with just an 8-10 overall record and a 2-8 conference record in the 2020-21 season. It had a significant COVID-19 pause, forcing multiple games to be cancelled; following a 68-61 win over Kansas State on Jan. 30, the Aggies did not compete again until a loss to Mississippi State on March 3.