Buzz Williams on consecutive ranked matchups: " real players and real coaches, that's what they want to do"

Ahmed Ghafir
2 days ago
4 min read

Maryland men’s basketball fell back into the loss column after a 19-point defeat at Illinois, still with just three wins in ten games outside of College Park this season. It started well after holding onto a slim lead for the bulk of the first 13 minutes and keeping it within single digits for nearly 16 minutes, but the wheels began to come off as time passed.

“I thought we did a lot of good things, but you have to be even better than good to win at #7 Illinois,” head coach Buzz Williams told Chris Knoche in his postgame press conference. “We were better in the second half in regards to our turnover rate. We were better in the second half in regards to not getting just absolutely pommeled on the glass. And then ten threes in the first half versus five threes in the second half is distinctly different. So again, spurts where we were good, the first ten minutes and then in the second half, it was four to six point game only second half from start to finish in the second half. But in order to win these games, as you know, 40 minutes is required at a high execution level. And the mental errors and the things that are almost invisible at times. We fouled them way too much. That's probably the highest number of free throws they've given up in a while. We just didn't make the percentage of free ones that we have to.”

Illinois had no intention of giving Maryland any hope in the second half as the deficit quickly ballooned to 20 points by the 14 minute mark and trailed by as many as 27 before an 8-0 run to close the game made the score look somewhat more respectable, if at all. Maryland also finished the game out-rebounded by 16 with the Illini turning 15 offensive rebounds into 20 second chance points while finishing with 17 assists on 27 made baskets.

“I think that regardless of real tall or kind of tall, the skill set is tremendous,” Williams added. “And then the job that they do on the offensive glass, I think nationally, they were sixth in offensive rebound percentage. And I think in the first half, I think they had ten offensive rebounds and they only had five in the second half. I could be wrong on that, but ten threes and ten offensive rebounds in the second half…the size is daunting, but the size is daunting before the ball is shot and the size is daunting after the ball is shot. And regardless of their size, their skill allows them to play all over the floor. And so that's why we were doing some things that we haven't done up until this season, or up until tonight this season, trying to negate not necessarily their size, but to try to influence better than we did, trying to influence the type of shot and position ourselves to give us a better chance on the offensive glass.”

“I told our guys, I thought the line so to say, if you were to add up all of the offensive rebounds, and you were to add up all of the defensive rebounds, and then if you were to then when the ball was on the ground, add up turnovers/block shots. If you were to look at those two metrics only, that would be the spread of the game. And so they beat us by 16 on the glass. We forced them to seven turnovers. We only had five, but they blocked our shot five times, so that was 10 in that metric, and seven that away. It's just when you study them analytically, their prowess kind of predicts what it's going to be. And then, relative to our deficiencies, a lot of our game planning strategy by our coaches was how can we negate some of those numbers that give us a better chance?”

Maryland will now look for better results in a similar test when they take on tenth-ranked Michigan State in East Lansing for a noon tipoff on CBS this upcoming Saturday, the second of three consecutive games against top-15 teams.

“We're playing three games this week and two of those games are on the road, and to your point, and if you add Purdue a week later, we're playing three games in a row against all top-ten teams, with two of them being on the road. And I know it comes across demented, and I for sure don't mean it to come across with any level or hint of arrogance. I think real players and real coaches, that's what they want to do. And so I've really, since Sunday evening, I have really enjoyed studying with our staff all components of Illinois. And we'll get home whatever time tonight and we'll start before the sun comes up tomorrow. I think that's what this is. And to compete at this level, and to compete against the best players and to compete against the best coaches and the margin that you're competing in is literally so thin that it's invisible, it's blurry, like, where is it? And trying to diagnose where that is, I know it sounds sadistic. Is that a good word?”

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