Buzz Williams after Maryland basketball's 33-point loss vs. Wisconsin, program-record 15th conference loss

Ahmed Ghafir
Mar 4
5 min read

Everything that head coach Buzz Williams said after Maryland men’s basketball by 33 points on Wednesday night, cementing a program-record 15th conference loss with one regular season game remaining:

On first half

“We were a little too offensive sensitive, but I do think that the pace was right. We played with five turnovers in the first half, five turnovers in the second half. That was dramatically better than the last time that we played. That was encouraging. We got beat on the glass by one. I didn't think that the level of contest that's required, specifically on [Nick Boyd], on [Braeden Carrington] and on [John Blackwell] where as good as they need to be. They're going to always play with five guys on the floor that can shoot. They shoot 52% of their balls from three going into tonight's game in Big Ten play. They shot even more than that tonight, and they shot a higher percentage. I think entering today I think in conference play, they were shooting 36% from three. They were making 12 a game. I think they had played 29 games I believe coming into today, 20-9 and they were 18-0 when they scored 80 points. They were 2-9 when they scored less than 80. So I do think your point, and that's one thing that we've talked about in preparation for the game, the pace is important. They're faster than you think. A lot of that pace is predicated on ‘we need to make sure that we don't give them the ball.’ And then, when we don't give them the ball, can we shoot the types of shots that we want, that we have a chance to offensive rebound? I think - I don't know what it ended up being for the game, but we had 11 offensive rebounds. That's encouraging. There were too many possessions, particularly the first ten minutes of the second half, where we weren't shooting the types of shots that we have to shoot. We can't get a rebound, and we can't potentially get fouled. They don't foul, but then you need your offense to help your defense. Top 25 team, we didn't execute the plan from start to finish the way that we need to. But I do think that there was, particularly in the first half, relative to pace, we probably were at the right possession count that we wanted.”

On focus on getting into halfcourt offense

“I was just trying to keep the pace the way we needed it to be from a collective thought standpoint. And then also just, can we all be on the same page? Run the same play every possession where all five guys, regardless of which five guys are on the floor, do we know exactly what we're doing? I think there were too many possessions in that first ten minutes of the second half where pace was probably not what we wanted, but we are behind, so we need to play with some pace. But the quality of the shot and our shot diet has to be right, otherwise the pace is going to tilt to their favor. And within that pace, they're first in the country at getting fouled in the first six seconds of the possession. And then within their pace, they're the third fastest team in the Big Ten. And so as the floor is tilting and you're in transition defense, half of the shots that they shoot are from three. And so that's why it's correlated, your offense has to help your defense. And too many times, particularly in the second half, we didn't do that.”

On free throw attempts

“I haven't seen the analytics. I think in the first half, 27% of our shots were in the charge circle. We made 57% of them. That number needs to be starting with a seven. We kind of play in the low 60s, and you need to be in the low 70s. So our rim shot attempts, we're constantly trying to measure. You're not going to get a team in rotation unless the ball, whether it's off the pass or the bounce, penetrates their shell, so to say. And Wisconsin, from a pack line defensive standpoint, you've got to get through the pack line to create rotation. And if you play, for lack of a better word, if you just play umbrella basketball, they're never in rotation, and so you're never going to get fouled. We did a good job in the first half. I think they made four free throws out of six, correct? We were 0-2. One of the principles that we want to play to, we want to be the first team to the bonus, and we want to make more than the opponent attempts. And because we haven't been shooting many, and we haven't been shooting them at a high percentage. We have changed that over the last ten days. We want to make more than they attempt, and when we shoot them, we want to shoot 72% or better. And so tonight, we made two and they attempted 13 and so they’re I think they were second in the league, it could be third, if I misspoke, I apologize. I believe they were fifth in the league in getting fouled, but third in their percentage. I think their team was 82%. So when you foul them, you can't foul them in transition. You have to contest the three, because they shoot so many of them. But maybe more so than any team that we've played thus far in conference. It's similar to when we played Alabama. They're very moneyball esque. They want to shoot a three, they want to shoot at the rim, and then they collect a lot of points at the free throw line. And so tonight they made 13 threes, which would be 39 of their 78 points, and then they made 11. So 50 of their 73 were threes and or at the free throw line. And I would say of the remaining 28 points, a high percentage of those points were in the charge circle. And so that's why your offense has to help your defense, and you have to get hat on hat in transition without fouling. You have to slow down the number of threes. I think at halftime, they had scored six threes, and three of those threes came off of our live ball turnovers that were in transition. All of those things are interwoven and interconnected, and that's the execution level of each portion of what we've talked about is so critical on the road, but it's also critical at home, particularly playing a team as talented as Wisconsin.”

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