Buzz Williams on lessons from Players Era Festival, Aleks Alston's development, start of Big Ten play

Ahmed Ghafir
4 days ago
5 min read

Maryland men’s basketball is coming off consecutive historically bad losses for the program, first a 39-point loss vs. Gonzaga before a 33-point finish vs. Alabama, two noncompetitive games to wrap up the end of a deflating finish in the Players Era Tournament.

Michigan, who went on to beat Gonzaga by 40 in the championship game, will soon head to College Park for Maryland’s Big Ten home opener on Dec. 13, but Maryland has a pair of chances to get back on track before then, starting with Wagner on Tuesday night.

“The awareness that it creates for our players in between the lines when you play two top-ten teams within 24 hours,” Williams said on 105.7 on Monday. “The results were not what we want, not where we're heading, but I think some of the lessons that took place are bigger than words and so to be able to study those programs, to be able to see those programs, to be in that environment, there's a lot of things in an unsaid way, as a coach, that I think will be beneficial to us, not only this year, but in the future.”

If there was a bright spot, one could turn to freshman forward Aleks Alston, who averaged seven points during the tournament and posted ten points against Gonzaga and Alabama.

“I think we were trying a lot of different things,” Williams added. Obviously, not many of them were working at a sustainable rate. The first ten minutes of the second half in our last game, as you know, we started those four freshmen and [Pharrel Payne] and we probably offensively did better than we had at any other ten-minute stretch at that point of the season. Defensively, we were just as bad or worse, but I do think [Guillermo Del Pino], I do think [Darius Adams], I do think Alex, I do think [Andre Mills]. I thought those guys on that stage against that level of competition, I thought there was great growth for them. I know it was very uncomfortable for everybody in the program to be in that position, but because of how things have transpired, those four guys having an opportunity to play the amount of minutes they have played through eight games. In some ways, it's not fair to them, but long term, I do think it will expedite their growth.”

Maryland will have a chance to move to 5-0 in Quad Four games when Wagner heads to the Xfinity Center for a 6 PM tipoff on BTN, the final tuneup before traveling to Iowa on Saturday afternoon. While all eyes are on a possible Solomon Washington debut this week, how Maryland responds to consecutive near-40 point losses is as important to Williams and his staff.

“As much as the opponent is important, I think establishing an identity for who we're going to be and how we're going to play on both sides of the ball. I don't think we've established that. Some of that is poor coaching on my part. Some of that is lack of healthy bodies to be able to practice five-on-five. Some of that is eight games in 20 days. You don't have many practice days and when those practice days are coming from October and we're practicing with seven or eight guys, some of that is just the accumulation of problems. I think we need as many good days of work on how we're going to play. We've made adjustments. We've made changes. And now within those adjustments and with those changes - some of which have happened since we've been back in Maryland - we just need to accumulate as many good reps on both sides of the ball with as many healthy bodies as possible so that we can continue to increase our execution. But before we can increase our execution, collectively, our thought all has to be going in the same direction,” he said.

“I don't want to take away from who the opponent is tomorrow. They shoot 41% from three, which is top-15 in the country. That has been an eye sore for us defensively and so again, whether it's ball screens, whether it's our rebounding needs on both ends of the floor, our turnover rate. We are doing some good things. We have to make those good things better and the things that have been hurting us, we have to figure out a way that it can at least become a push instead of it draining mathematically the things that we're doing well.”

Additional/full quotes from Williams today:

How practices have been since the Players Era Tournament

“I never justify where we're at because of injuries. The one thing that I have learned over the last six weeks, we haven't been able to install the normal preseason things - to be in situational drills, to be able to just play real on real, five on five. We've only done that 12 times as of yesterday. And as we continue to get healthier bodies back, I think some of that progress that we're lacking, that we're behind on, will be beneficial. I think up until this point, our staff’s done a really good job of creating the best scenarios that we could. But I think as our work capacity has increased, I think we're also been able to work together longer and have a better feel. I think the growth of our young players and their IQ and their situational awareness has been outstanding. I'm praying and hoping that as this evolves, this month, we played eight games in the month of November. We're only playing four this month. We need all of the game days but we need all of the practice days to try to make up for some of the things that we haven't had an opportunity to do thus far.”

On the Players Era Festival in 2025, the future of the tournament

“I agree with everything that you said. We were able to play in both and the evolution of what it was a year ago at this time to what it is now and what I anticipate it will be, not to forecast it, but I do think it's the best tournament in the country as of year two. And the opportunity for our program in our first year in the fourth week, to be able to learn the lessons, not only from watching the film, but the awareness that it creates for our players in between the lines when you play two top-ten teams within 24 hours. The results were not what we want, not where we're heading, but I think some of the lessons that took place are bigger than words and so to be able to study those programs, to be able to see those programs, to be in that environment, there's a lot of things in an unsaid way, as a coach, that I think will be beneficial to us, not only this year, but in the future.”

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