Buzz Williams is the 'obvious' choice to win SEC Coach of the Year

Some difficult choices must be made before the Southeastern Conference announces its basketball awards next week.

There should be one easy choice, though.

Selecting Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams as Coach of the Year should be easy as picking Wade Taylor IV to shoot technical foul free throws.

It should be as emphatic as a Dexter Dennis slam dunk on a breakaway.

Alas, we’ve learned not to take any SEC honors for granted.

Frequently, A&M players and coaches have been overlooked when awards are presented.

Years later, it’s still incredulous and ridiculous Erik McCoy never earned All-SEC football recognition.

But the selection of Williams should be obvious.

Dissenters would howl at such a statement.

They would decry it as an SEC version of blasphemy. How, they would say, can someone whose team lost at home to Wofford be a serious candidate for coach of the year?

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Buzz Williams was the AP’s SEC Coach of the Year in 2020 after his first season in College Station saw the Aggies finish 10-8 in the league.

Yet, that loss is among the reasons All-SEC voters should bestow the honor on Williams.

That loss on Dec. 20 left the Aggies with a 6-5 record. The Aggies were written off like a CPA writes off a charitable contribution.

Yet, as anyone paying attention knows, the Aggies are 16-3 since that loss.

They’re 14-3 in SEC play. They clinched at least the #2 seed in the SEC postseason tournament by defeating Ole Miss on Tuesday night. They’re still mathematically in contention to win a share of the SEC championship (if Auburn upsets Alabama on Wednesday night).

The fact that A&M, which was picked to finish sixth in the SEC Media preseason poll, will finish ahead of Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee and Auburn — the top four in the poll — should be sufficient reason to honor Williams.

Williams kept his team together and believing.

Some thought the Aggies had imploded. Instead, they exploded. They flourished when most teams would have floundered.

Williams fixed problems. He motivated. He found a recipe for success and convinced his team to embrace it.

Under his guidance, the Aggies steadily improved as the season progressed.

They gained two hard-fought wins over Florida. They beat Auburn twice. They made clutch plays to topple Tennessee. And when they lost on the road to Kentucky, Arkansas and Mississippi State, they responded with big victories in their next game.

Some think Missouri’s Dennis Gates deserves Coach of the Year consideration. Williams beat Missouri twice.

He did all this without the elite-level talent some of the teams he faced had.

The 2022 national recruiting rankings include eight SEC teams in the top 25 — No. 2 Arkansas, No. 3 Alabama, No. 5 Kentucky, No. 9 Tennessee, No. 17 LSU, No. 20 Auburn, No. 24 Vanderbilt and No. 25 Ole Miss.

A&M’s class was ranked No. 66.

Jamie Maury, TexAgs

Since the loss to Wofford, Williams & Co. have turned Reed Arena into a fortress. The Aggies bring a 10-game home win streak into Saturday’s clash with Alabama.

Williams has relied more on the addition of hard-nosed transfers Dexter Dennis, Julius Marble II and Andersson Garcia than on an influx of highly-rated players like the aforementioned SEC teams.

By the way, A&M is 8-2 against those teams.

What more can be asked from a coach? Well, how about the fact that his team has had no off-court issues?

Alabama’s Nate Oats might still be the pick for some voters.

Boosted by the stellar recruiting class, the Crimson Tide needs one more victory to win the SEC regular-season title. Alabama, 25-4, is ranked No. 2 in the AP poll, No. 2 in the NET rankings and is all but assured a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

But Alabama also has the black cloud of tragedy hovering overhead.

Of course, it’s well known that a couple of Alabama basketball players — including star player Brandon Miller — were involved in the tragic shooting of a young mother.

Oats was criticized nationally for continuing to play Miller. He drew even more criticism for apparently defending Miller by saying he was “in the wrong spot at the wrong time.” Oats was the subject of even more criticism when a teammate “patted down” Miller in pregame introductions before playing Arkansas last Saturday.

A strong argument can be made that Williams has done more with less. There’s no legitimate argument against Williams as SEC Coach of the Year.

Still, some voters might consider placing Oats over Williams at the top of their ballot next week.

If so, they should consider Oats’ own words:

Wrong place. Wrong time.