Buzz Williams received his nickname while attending Navarro College. He "buzzed" around the men's basketball team so often the coach gave him the nickname. Williams took over as Marquette University's head basketball coach on April 7, 2008. He served as head men's basketball coach at the University of New Orleans during the 2006-2007 season, and as an assistant coach at Texas A&M, Colorado State, Northwestern State, Texas A&M Kingsville and The University of Texas at Arlington. 

He coached Marquette to a 25–10 record in the 2008–09 season, where they lost to the Missouri Tigers in the second round of the NCAA tournament. During the 2010 season, Williams coached Marquette to a 22–12 record, which ended with a close loss to the 11th-seeded Washington Huskies in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

During the 2010-11 campaign, Williams led the Golden Eagles back to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2003. His team went 22–15 including a 9–9 Big East record. They received an at-large bid in the 2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament where they defeated Xavier in the second round and Syracuse in the third round to advance to the Sweet Sixteen where they were defeated by North Carolina.

In 2014 he accepted the Head Coach position at Virginia Tech.