Buzz Williams on Maryland basketball's loss vs. Rutgers, what went wrong

Ahmed Ghafir
17 hours ago
8 min read

Everything that head coach Buzz Williams after Maryland men’s basketball fell to 11-18 (4-14) following a 69-65 loss vs. Rutgers:

On turnovers vs. Rutgers

“I think the last couple of weeks, we've kind of gotten in a groove with our rotation, our synergy, our ability to play to the scouting report. Understanding our margins, not being resistant to what we're deficient in. I think we've been as good as we've been all season. I was caught off guard in the first half. I would not say fatigue. But it's like anything. There's always three parts with good, good programs, good teams. You have to play really hard, you have to prepare the right way, and then you have to execute. And we didn't do all three of those things, particularly in the first half. I thought the second half group was much more like what we had seen the last couple of weeks. It's hard to play, regardless of your team, if you give the ball to the other team at the rate that we were, particularly in the first half. For us to do the job that we did on the glass, offensively and defensively, and shoot more balls than they did, despite turning the ball over at the rate we did. We gave it to him too many times, and we fouled them way too many times. And we held them to four threes. That was part of the plan, but we let them get to the rim too much, and on the way to the rim, we fouled too often. We needed to get to the rim. We didn't get to the rim enough, and we didn't get fouled enough. But partly because they were taking it from us.”

On the halftime message

“Actually, the players led most of it. Everything they were saying was spot on. They've been more aware in the month of February than they were before that, in a positive way. There's been great growth and great maturity. Everything that they were saying, I let them say. We kind of changed tactically what we were doing. If you're down 19, you're probably going to have to change the pace a little bit. And so a lot of what we were doing on misses was some of what we did in late December, early January, some of what we did on makes was more mid January, they did execute that really well. I thought it kind of gave us life. We were able to get consecutive stops more often in that first 10 and a half, 12 minutes. I thought they did a really good job executing the change. We just did a poor job in the first half of executing the plan.”

On coming back from down 19

“I think they were just disappointed. Most of what I say to you in here is the same thing that I would say to them. I've been very transparent in our time here. To their credit, over time, they have realized that what we're trying to accomplish is right. They haven't been resistant to what the margins are that we're measuring. They've begun to take a lot of pride in that in a positive way. They knew as it was transpiring in the first half that we weren't playing the way that we have to play. And that's kind of why I let them say what they had to say at halftime. They were already talking by the time I got in there. And then I thought their execution of those things in the second half - two changes, one offensively, one defensively - were both really good. I thought that was a spark. I thought they handled that really well. I thought that, to go from 19 down, I think the first time out it was 16 down, I think the next time out it was 13 down. I think the next time out, we were down eight. And then at some point thereafter, I think, we went up one. We were running out of gas with that group that started, and then there was a lull. And I'm not blaming it on anybody, I'm blaming it on us. In that lull, the game changed again, and then we were fighting the rest of the way to try to change. We got to the rim much better. We got to the bonus before they did in the second half. We missed too many rim shots in the second half. We need to make our free throws at a higher rate. We did a great job on the glass all game long. Our turnover rate was a major issue in the first half, still wasn't great in the second half. I think it speaks to they know what we're trying to do and they were disappointed in what they did in the first half and did a great job for the most part in the second half.”

On rebounding vs. Rutgers

“Our numbers today, we were trying to be the best we had been. We wanted to be 44% offensive rebound percentage. Today we were 47 which would be our season high. And we wanted to be at 80% defensively. We've eclipsed that once and today, we were at 76%. Those numbers are good enough to win. Those numbers are good enough to win. Our shot diet was better than it was when we played at Rutgers. We took way too many would twos at Rutgers. We tried to play similar to their style. We just didn't get to the rim enough, and when we did get there in the second half, we didn't finish at the rate that we have to.”

On Darius Adams playing ten minutes

“DA Diggy, Willie, George, Collin, like I've been saying to you, relative to what we've been through over the last 100 days, regardless of name, regardless of age. Who plays really hard? Who can execute the plan on a consistent basis on both sides of the floor? I don't think that anything has been wrong with what Willie has done. I think DA has been phenomenal going into today. I think in conference play, he was averaging nine points, shooting 63% from the field. He improved 9% in the month of February from three. His efficiency has improved in the month of February.

Diggy’s minutes have completely changed. But like I said to you guys last weekend, relative to Washington, when I thought Willie was the difference in the game and you guys were asking, why weren't other guys playing? I take all of that in the right way. We want to play the guys that give us the best chance to win. And if you're down 19 at half, regardless of what's happening, who can help us on both sides by playing really hard, playing to the scouting report, and executing.”

On IsaiahWatts

“He has a really hot basketball IQ.

Unknown Speaker 7:47

He has the ability to be in the right spot. He's done a lot better job. I think even in that second half, I was just looking at something analytically well ago, he shot more free throws today than anybody on the team and he played 15 minutes. I think the adjustment that Lyle [Wolf] made offensively, Watts is able - he has a fast twitch brain. He's able to hear it and take it to the court right away. And I thought that spread helped us in the first half. But again, not Watts, not anybody specific, just anybody that can help us if you're down 19, who collectively can change it? Collin didn't do anything wrong, he had eight rebounds. But can you change something? Because what we were doing wasn't effective.”

On Diggy’s potential game-tying three that missed

“Did Diggy score the possession before? Yeah, I think there was a timeout before Diggy scored the time before. And so we adjusted our late clock plan based on who they were playing and who we were playing. We scored the first time it went late clock out of the timeout and the second shot that you're talking about that he missed was the right plan, too.”

On Rutgers offense, what Buzz wanted them to do

“I love coach, so I want to answer this in the right way, without acting like I know anything. I think their shot diet is specific to them. And I thought their shot diet really hurt us in New Jersey. I think the thing that I would say from game number one, they shot 24 free throws. [Tariq Francis] was 12-of-13 from the free throw line, and our shot diet was too similar to theirs, and our roster is not constructed in such a way that we should try to match them shot for shot. I thought our shot diet was improved today relative to our roster and what we want to do. Where we failed is when we got to the rim, we only made 55% of those rim shots. And we didn't get fouled quite as much as we should. What hurt us in the first half with their shot diet was not the would twos. They were scoring too much at the rim and we were fouling. And so our plan, we did not execute in the first half. In the second half, from a shot diet standpoint, we were much better offensively and defensively. And I think coach is very aware of how they score best, and you can tell that their offense is designed to continue to get those shots. And so from a tactical standpoint, I am not the coach that he is. I have great respect for who he is, personally and professionally. We were trying to change that somewhat. And in some ways, we probably did, if you just look at those specific numbers. But the thing that hurts us is we still shot more balls than they did, but we gave them the ball 19 times in a 68 possession game. It's just hard math to overcome, regardless of shot diet.”

On lack of second chance points

“One thing that was part of the - not all of our plan per se is number specific. As you know, I get a little too number centric at times. But in this particular game, can we average more than one shot per possession, which is a positive way of saying, don't give the ball to the other team. And then the second number was can we average one point per offensive rebound? Which is what good teams. We had 18 offensive rebounds at their place and we had 13 points. So whatever that is, points per possession, that's not enough. And today, to your point, 16 offensive rebounds, four of them are team rebounds. So that really 12 offensive rebounds. We want 12 points, and we average .89. I think that's another margin that we've been trying to fight and we've tried to bring awareness to. We've done so much better on the glass when the ball is in the air. We're doing better on the glass because our shot diet has improved. It's more predictable. But when we get the offensive rebound, we've tried to change our lens on when we get an offensive rebound, we have heightened awareness that we need a great or perfect shot. And they know the definition of that. Because when we get them to your point, when we get them, we need to score at a higher rate. And so we practice the play so to say when we get an offensive rebound. If we get an offensive rebound in the paint, what are we doing? If we get an offensive rebound and it's not in the paint, what are we doing? If we don't score right away, what are we doing? If we don't score on what we call a dagger, what are we doing? And we've tried to create almost a two minute offense within what we're going to do on offensive rebounds, because if we can create more shot attempts, which we have done over the last three and a half weeks, we need to be able to score it at a higher rate. The issue is that, combined with giving the ball to the other team 20% of the time, it's just really hard - it's a hard combination. It's not a combo meal that you want to buy.”

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