Buzz Williams after Indiana loss: "I've got to do a better job"

Ahmed Ghafir
4 days ago
10 min read

Everything head coach Buzz Williams said after Maryland men’s basketball’s 18-point home loss vs. Indiana:

On difference between Indiana’s first vs. second half offense

“I thought our coaches were great in regards to the plan, and I think our guys have continued to improve in regards to having more endurance to execute the plan. 70% of their shots entering tonight's game were assisted, and then 52% of the shots they've shot have been from three. And so part of their potency offensively is just how many threes they make. And so we were trying to influence who was shooting the three and then the type of contest on the three. And I think tonight was the lowest number of percentage from three that they've shot all season. So we did a really good job on that. I know that they made more in the second half. I think the thing that hurt us the most was before the shot, we did good in many respects. We didn't do good when they missed it. We gave up way too many offensive rebounds. That would be the first thing. And then the second thing, we fouled too much. We have done a good job throughout the season thus far of limiting our fouls but I think they scored 20 points from the field in the first half and 16 points from the free throw line. And I don't know what it would have been in the second half. We just fouled too much and we gave them too many shot attempts. We only shot one more ball than they did. And I think from a margin standpoint, from a deficit standpoint, we're going to have to shoot more balls. And within those balls, that also needs to include free throw makes. And we allowed too many offensive rebounds and then we fouled too much.”

On seven assists to 25 made field goals

“Well, I think part of our basket assist rate would be just because we couldn't make a shot. I don't think our guys were selfish at all. I think they've done a good job, a better job, an improving job of making quicker decisions with the ball. I think we got them in rotation at a good rate. I thought we shot better shots. Our shot diet was excellent. We shot 38% of our shots were layups. 41% of our shots were threes. We did a good job not taking bad would twos. [Darius Adams] is going to shoot a high percentage of would twos. I think our group is aware of that, particularly on drop ball screen coverage. So our shot diet was fine. We just need to make more of them. And if you don't make more of them, I don't know what - they assisted on 40 something percent of their baskets. I don't know what seven of 25 is but we just need to make more shots and then it'll look more esthetically pleasing.”

On defending Lamar Wilkerson

“yeah, that was priority number one, not just specific to [Wilkerson], specific to [Wilkerson], to [Tucker DeVries] and to [Nick Dorn] and so there were, without explaining all of it and acting like we have all the answers, I do think priority number one from a percentage of threes that Indiana shoots, who shoots those threes? The type of contest, how we're going to play them off the ball, how we're going to play them when a ball screen is involved. As you know, if you're asking [DeVries] and [Wilkerson] are going to play off the ball screen a little bit more than [Dorn]. And so I thought our plan relative to that, was better. They shot 41% of their shots from three. Going into tonight's game, they were shooting 53% of their shots from three, and they made 33% so there's some layers in that sometimes, all three of those guys are on the floor. Sometimes, most of the time, two of those guys are on the floor. And then at times, one is on the floor, only one of those three players. So our guys, we practiced that the last two days, including today, I thought their understanding of that was good. I think out of bounds under their first three in the first half was a miscommunication. I think 12 made a three at the top of the key. I can't remember where the second three came from in the first half. [Wilkerson] in the second half, two of those threes, we failed in regards to our plan. But of the eight threes, six of them, we played the way we would want.”

On defending IU’s backdoor cuts

“Well, I think behind what I just mentioned - anybody - you're not going to allow them to make or shoot as many threes. Any coach would say that because that's what they're so good at. And then when you are trying to influence the types of threes and who's shooting them within their motion, not necessarily all of their sets, they are going to cut back door. And so we were playing [Sam Alexis] and [Reed Bailey] a little different based on [DeVries], [Wilkerson] and [Dorn] shooting threes. I thought that [Conor Enright] moves really well without the ball. I think [Tayton Conerway] is incredibly gifted at the rim with the ball on the way to the rim. So our five, Elijah [Saunders] was great. George [Turkson] failed on a couple of occasions on the back doors, but we would, just from a math standpoint, we would want to give up more twos than threes, but we fouled way too much.”

On Darius Adams adjusting to become more aggressive

“On da and [Andre Mills] one of the things that we've been trying to improve on is their rim shot percentage. Both of those guys are improving in their ability to get to the rim. We have to continue to find ways to help them improve at the rim. And 38% of our shots tonight were at the rim. And this says that [Darius Adams] was 2-of-3 at the rim, really good, and Dre was 3-of-4. So when we played Oregon, they were 1-of-11 on layup, so to say, and tonight, they were 5-of-7. So we've been doing different finishing things at the end of practice with those two guys. I think DA’s footwork is - his footwork prior to the catch and on the catch is as good as anybody I've coached at his age. He's finding ways to get space. He is comfortable in the would-to-ish way. But when you can put pressure on the rim, you have to be able to finish, and when you can finish, we're going to need those two guys to get fouled at a high rate, because there's not anybody to throw it to. And so we're trying to get the defense in rotation more off the bounce than we were over the last six or seven weeks off the pass. And those guys have made improvement, and tonight, some of their work came to life, which was good.”

On the improved pace vs. IU

“It's such a delicate it's delicate. And credit to our guys. They are accepting of the fragility of it all in regards to, you know, we've changed some things since Michigan in regards to how we're trying to play offensively. And the rotation of who's playing, obviously, has changed. And so within a shot clock, is it a made basket or a missed basket? What can we do in the first six seconds? And then we kind of call the next six gray, like it's not black, it's not white, and it's kind of a delicate what do we need to do in gray? I think it was 65 possessions against Oregon. I haven't watched the game, as you know, but this says tonight we had 68 possessions. I don't think that we're going to play in the mid 70s. I don't think our depth, nor within how we're playing, I don't think we can absorb a mid 70s game. But I also don't know that we're going to be able to score enough points when it's a grinded-out low 60s. And I think the thing that really skewed our numbers tonight is what I mentioned to Gene - a lot of the things that we were doing prior to the ball being shot, our execution level of those things was as good as it's been in a while. The problem is when the ball was in the air, we didn't finish with a possession enough. And then a lot of our fouls came after the offensive rebound. And then we didn't get fouled enough in the first half. We shot 100% more free throws in the second half than we did in the first half, and they shot significantly more in the first half. And that's just - I hate to say it's one thing. It's not one thing. It's a list of multiple things. And we need the endurance of those multiple things. We've got to hit it at a pretty high rate. And then when there's one outlier, even though - the best thing that we did against Oregon, in some respects, is we finished the possession with a defensive rebound 75% of the time. And today, through 14 games, Indiana was offensive rebounding 28% of their shots. So from a possession-count standpoint, the game was probably in the range that we needed it to be. I would say that without knowing coach or trying to coach his team whatsoever, I would say he would prefer a faster game. The problem is today, when they missed and some of what we did, I thought influenced some of those things, they offensive rebounded 44%. We're not going to get enough possessions for us. So that's probably about the right pace.”

On what has stuck out about other first-year coaches

“Constructing the roster and how it goes, the hires of their staff. There's a lot of variables that are not public knowledge as you know. Trying to get the real information. I try to study all of it, not just their plays, and even - obviously, I'm aware of the four first-year coaches, including myself, in the Big Ten. But I think roster construction and how you do it, building a team, building a program, the depth, how to disperse the salaries, if that's the appropriate word to use in 2026. There's a lot of factors in addition to what happens in between the lines. And so what we've tried to do since we've got here is within our staff, each staff member kind of studies certain things, not just specific to first year coaches, but within the Big Ten, within Power Four. How do you go about your schedule? How do you go about your roster construction? How do you go about your salary disbursement? A lot of arguments are out there on it's professional and so you can study a lot of NBA salary cap information but I don't know that that's necessarily always the right thing, because those contracts have multi-years. And so Indiana is the oldest team in Division one. That's part of the study of this game, a part of, personally, my decision upon arrival, if every player is from the portal, then that means, initially, within the first 100 days that you're hired, you're making a decision that you're probably going to spend a lot of time in the portal. And I don't have a problem with the portal. I don't have a problem with high school kids. But thus far, over the last four years, as things have continued to change, we've tried to do a little bit of all of it so that you can build. Because for me, at Maryland, an institution, a program that's historically been so successful, I think what's important in our decision making is sustainability. And you don't know if every high school kid is going to hit so to say. You don't know if every high school kid is a good value decision. And the same applies in the portal. And then 10 months later, you don't know your team. And so some of the decisions that you're making in the early signing period also influences that. So there's, it's for sure, multi-factorial, and there's not an easy answer because there's not enough historical data to suggest what's right. So some of it's just the type of program that you want to be, that represents your staff, your families, their families, the department, the institution on and off the floor.”

On searching for first conference win

“We're playing harder. We're playing more together. Our coaches are doing a great job of identifying measurables. Our practices are much more impactful in regards to how we're spending the itinerary of what impacts winning. In some ways, I think we've stopped losing and we've had momentum in the process of all of this. We just haven't had momentum in the results. And so just like I told them, we'll keep auditing how we can improve and we'll keep building on the things that we know we are having success with. And the things that we're deficient in, we've got to continue to find ways to improve. Whether you're at home, whether you're on the road, we've got to continue to search for these margins of improvement and chase after it with the relentless spirit of where is one other thing. And that for sure, is me at the front of this. I've got to do a better job. And I'm trying to, professionally with great poise, apply appropriate pressure to everyone in the program for those margins. Because it's not - when you win, it's not one thing, and when you lose, it's not one thing. And we are doing a good job collecting the things that have prevented us from winning and we're salvaging and stopping a lot of those things. And now we're kind of to the - it's like my grandmother used to tell me. Hey, this is wrong and this is right, but there's a lot of times you're right in the middle and it ain't right and it ain't wrong. And we used to be way over here, and we're making progress. But the scoreboard doesn't say it. And Buzz Williams, in his first year at Maryland, is 0-fer. And I have no justification for that, other than I got to do better and I'm going to try the best I can with the right attitude and the right tone to continue to find ways to study to help these guys.”

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