Buzz Williams on Maryland basketball's health: "If I could control it, I would give more effort and energy to it"

Ahmed Ghafir
5 days ago
4 min read

Maryland men’s basketball is days away from officially kicking off the 2025-26 season, but whether fans will see a full glimpse of the new-look Terps remains uncertain.

Asked whether any of the injured newcomers who missed the exhibition win vs. UMBC will be available vs. Coppin State on Monday, head coach Buzz Williams added he has “no idea.”

“If I could control it, I would give more effort and energy to it,” Williams said when asked about the team’s early season injuries. “I think – in the demented sort of way – the reps of those are healthy as we’re trying to lay the foundation, as we’re trying to grow and learn what gives us our best chance. Those guys are accumulating reps at a really fast rate. We only have eight guys to practice – they’re getting every single rep on both sides of the ball. We’re just taking advantage of what it is.”

The absences on Monday were alarming given the number of impact players sidelined. The program already announced Rakease Passmore will miss the entire season, while both Myles Rice and Solomon Washington were spotted in walking boots pregame with Rice’s injury the most recent of the bunch. Isaiah Watts and Diggy Coit were also sidelined in the exhibition win, while Northeastern transfer Collin Metcalf played just one minute after battling back from preseason injury.

“It’s really difficult a lot of the guys on our staff spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how we can positive reps on both sides of the ball,” Williams added.

“We’re still going to play on Monday and we’re still going to play on Friday and we’re still going to practice and we need all of our energy going to those that can, particularly I think the last time I talked to you guys, there were seven guys that played 199 minutes and five of those seven had never been in a college pregame locker room.”

For a Maryland team with a tough non-conference slate in November with matchups against Georgetown, Marquette and Gonzaga ahead, it’s a tough hand dealt for Buzz Williams – especially in his first season as head coach working to integrate 15 players on his roster.

Unsurprisingly, that means senior center Pharrel Payne will play an even bigger role for Maryland after finishing just shy of a double-double with 26 points (9-12 FGs) and nine rebounds in the exhibition win. Buzz Williams noted he’d “like him to play as many minutes as he can play” while analyzing the frontcourt.

“Relative to Monday, you could say that about those seven guys. I would’ve played Dre [Mills] more minutes if he hadn’t fouled out. So I think Pharrel will play as many minutes as I can. I think George [Turkson Jr.] can play some as an undersized forward. I think Elijah [Saunders] can play some. And then as our healthy guys return, there’ll maybe be some more minutes to choose from. But [Pharrel] is for sure our first and best option inside.”

While Maryland will hope to get both Coit and Watts back for the regular season opener, Williams analyzed what his healthy players can improve on after reviewing the film of Monday’s win.

“We did a really, really poor job of guarding the ball. It got us in rotation and then because we were in rotation, because we couldn’t guard the ball, they offensive rebounded at the highest rate they have since coach [Jim] Ferry has been there. They did a great job going to the glass. We did a poor job of finishing the possession with the rebound but if you rewind on why that was, it was a because we struggled guarding the ball and then on the weakside we were just spun around too much and didn’t do a good job when the ball was in the air. I would say that would be the number one thing we’ll have to improve upon regardless of opponent. We did a good job – almost great job – on the offensive glass. I think we rebounded 55, 56% of our misses. That’s probably an outlier number. I hope our defensive rebound percentage is an outlier number, too, because I think they rebounded 32% of their misses. And that’s not a good number regardless of opponent. We need to do a better job on the glass but we can only do a better job on the glass like all other teams if you stay out of rotation as much as possible, which means you’ve got to keep the ball in front of you more than you did on Monday.”

What’s been the message to the team ahead of the opener?

“Everything revolving around how can we guard the ball better, how can we not be in rotation, how can our rotations be more effective when we aren’t in rotation and then you’re not going to play perfectly but when you get in rotation, you still have to have more physicality and more of an effort to finish the possessions with a rebound than we did on Monday.”

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