Buzz Williams on Maryland basketball's defense, mishaps in road loss vs. Rutgers

Ahmed Ghafir
22 hours ago
3 min read

Everything that head coach Buzz Williams told Chris Knoche in his postgame press conference after Maryland men’s basketball’s 11-point loss at Rutgers:

On lack of rhythm on offense

“If we don't guard better, it's hard for us to have a chance. We were really good defensively. In the first half. We had four turkeys, which is the most we've had in Big Ten play. We shot too many balls in the first half that would not be described as great or perfect for us. Our recipe is like incredibly specific. And we had four or five possessions offensively in the first half where we were resistant to the recipe, and then in the second half, we never got three stops in a row. And so some of our offense, like most teams, is better off of a defensive rebound. In the second half too often times, every other time when they shot it, they made it. And then I know there were a few possessions there at the very end where we were fouling on purpose, but we're going to struggle if we never get in the bonus. And so they were in the double bonus before we started fouling on purpose, and we never got to the single bonus. And so too many empty possessions in the first half that I told the guys about at halftime. And then zero turkeys, and then we never got fouled enough to increase our points per possession. So I would never say it's an offensive thing or a defensive thing. I think it's all intertwined. We did a phenomenal job on the offensive glass again today. We shot 13 more balls than they did, but they shot 11 more free throws, and it can't be a push for our group, and it can't be a push on the road, and we can't play 100 minutes without the aid of free throw attempts. So the recipe, I do think that they understand. It just wasn't specific enough in regards to the execution today.”

On Rutgers scoring ability

“[Harun Zrno], in their 13 Big Ten games had shot 89% of his balls from three. I thought we did a phenomenal job. Not to disagree with you, I thought we did a phenomenal job. I think it's the lowest number of threes made in Big Ten play through 14 games. 5-of-18, 28% but to your point, the guy that made three of those five is a shooter. Think that was the first time Rutgers had ever played those five guys that started together in a game. And I love coach and so I'm not trying to coach his team, but I would say [Harun Zrno] was in to be a spacer, because number zero has made more would twos than any player in the country. And so he knew we would be in gaps, and he knew that [Harun Zrno] would afford us to make a decision on how to space. I thought our three point contest, for the most part was good. Some of the switches on two of those threes that [Harun Zrno] made, they were late. But again, if…you shoot 28% from three and 41% from the field, you probably did a lot of good things, which, in the first half, they made one three. They shot 10%. And so that's the accumulation of three stops in a row. We just - it's the correlation between what we need to do on both sides of the ball. And it wasn't as consistent as it has to be for us.”

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