Buzz Williams on Maryland basketball's new frontcourt tandem, love for DJ Wagner, OT win vs. West Virginia

6 hours ago

7 min read

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNBxQOlqWYE

Everything that head coach Buzz Williams said after the overtime exhibition win vs. West Virginia:

On the second half

“This is the first time in college basketball history that you’ve been able to have three preseason games. There’s some strategy in that. There’s some finances in that. There has to be some thought to that on the timing, the location and no matter what your thoughts are, obviously you have to have an opponent that’s willing to do that. I really like how our staff worked incredibly hard. We’ll play three Power Four schools – one neutral public, one home public and then one closed door on the road.I just think all of the lessons, whether it’s the first half, whether it’s the second half, whether it’s the specials, whether it’s overtime, I think all of it is so meaningful. I think after two, the one thing I didn't necessarily think through from a timing standpoint is we spread one and two out seven days, and we spread two and three out six days. So that after the third one, we have eight days before the first game. And relative to the newness of the team, the opportunity to teach from that tape and not be in a rush to prepare for the next game has been really beneficial. So we played on Sunday. We were off on Monday. You have to take one day off and then we diagnosed the lessons on Tuesday and Wednesday and then we somewhat have kind of a rhythm that's intentional – two day before, one day before, and day of. So we were able to practice that on Friday, Saturday, Sunday going into today's game. So all of the lessons, the ones that you saw and the ones that you didn't see are beneficial to being more prepared than ever before if you handle it the right way for the season.”

On WVU’s dip in three point shooting after shooting 72.7% from 3PT early

“I think that Coach Devin [Johnson’s] plan was spot on and kind of associated with my first response. Some of the things that we do two day before, one day, and day of are not only specific to the court, but they're also specific to the film room. And then from a workflow standpoint within the staff, certain responsibilities within the staff, and that's part of our players learning to hear Matt's voice because Matt's in charge of this and Buzz not always interrupting Matt's responsibility. I think the plan was right. A couple of things, other than how well they shot it. Any time someone is scoring at that high of a rate, it's probably connected to another problem. It's not just a singular problem. And so our staff had done a really good job in preparation of the three things that were involved with the 75%. So there were no adjustments to the plan at halftime, but there was awareness of our lack of execution of that plan. And similar to what I just mentioned to them, without revealing everything, so are we the first half team? Not talking about the scoring. I'm not talking about the result. I'm talking about the execution of the plan in the first half on both sides of the ball. And then the execution plan on both sides of the ball in the second half. Which group are we? Which is valuable to the next six days of work?

On the impact of Pharrel Payne being healthy

“I was mentioning this to someone that came to practice last week. I learned so much from [Pharrel Payne]. I've been around guys that have gotten hurt that were season-ending injuries. I haven't been around a guy who was the best player that had a season-ending injury. I haven't been around long enough that the best player who had a season-ending injury, as we were going through statistically the worst year I'd ever had. I learned so much from him, and our relationship has always been good. We're thankful that he followed us here, but how he handled that from an emotional standpoint, from his maturity. I learned a lot from his parents when we played at Minnesota. They came over to the hotel the night before and I just spent some time with them. Like how he went about that injury has led to what he looks like now. Lowest percent body fat of anybody that size that I've ever been around. His skill is dramatically different. My response when he made the three was not, can you believe that? Because I've seen him work in a way. He was always a hard worker, but he's become very regimented. His diet, his sleep. He’s monitoring his sleep. He's monitoring his HRV. Like he's just taking it to a completely different level. And I think when you have someone of that talent that returns, and you have 11 new players, that model, that example creates some maturity without the coaches always happy to talk about it.”

On the frontcourt tandem of Tomislav Buljan & Payne

“I don't know if I'll watch all of it tonight. I'll watch some of it tonight. This was the first time, against another team, that we've been able to play with both of them. And it was my decision not to play him last week. I thought that was the right decision. Similar with [Bishop Boswell] this week, it was my decision not to play him. I think our team is different, and I think next Saturday we'll try to play different lineups to collect different data because today we were able to get different data. That's encouraging. We only had seven minutes of [Boswell] playing last week, and Tommy didn't play. This week, a lot of data with Tommy playing with [Payne], Tommy not playing with [Payne], Rob [Jennings] having a much more meaningful role relative to some level of rotation, [Austin Brown] who played significant minutes last week, who didn't today, and so it's just again similar to the first question – how can we take all of this evidence that gives us what we need as the season starts, relative to what does the time score momentum say in that game? And what is the data that we have that suggests we already know how we should handle that, whether it's a good thing or a bad thing.”

On DJ Wagner

“He's the most beautiful human being I've ever seen. That's as fast as he is. I have a hard time coaching him. I have a hard time coaching him because I wish my heart was more like his. So I'm a little intimidated when I'm in his presence because I feel polluted in my soul. And when I see him, doesn't matter if it's dark outside or the sun [is] shining – his smile is just so electric. And we've renamed him on purpose. He has a new life here. He has a new name because he has a new life and I'm really excited. I thought his – if you counted hockey assists in basketball, he led Xfinity in hockey assists today. He was throwing that ball across halfcourt and it was completely changing the pace in the second half…our TVR for the game was 44%. That's like high octane, super duper fast, and it wasn't always on the bounce. And because he has a really good quarterback, he's open, throw it ahead. And then defensively, I think he causes a lot of aggravation. So thankful he's here because his soul is – I know there's no rules anymore, and so if he wanted to move in my house, I would let him move in my house while playing for Maryland. I just love him.”

On Pharrel Payne’s efficiency, shot diet, impact on the rest of the lineup

“In the game, it went analytically final with a minute left to go in overtime so 44 minutes. 57% of our shots happen with five toes in the charge circle. That's a video game number. It probably won't happen again, but a lot of it has to do with our attention to giving [Payne] good touches, which I think makes any opponent have to make a decision. 30% of our shots were from three, and we shot 50% from three. We would donate to a lot of NIL funds if we could shoot 50% from three going forward. We shot only 13% of our balls from would twos. So if Daryl Morey was our GM, he would be very excited about the money ball version that we're playing. But our version of moneyball, I hope bleeds to we can throw it to [Payne]. I personally think [Buljan] is maybe our best passer. And similar to Nolan's question, when you play with both of them relative to how are you going to guard [Payne] or Tommy on a post touch. But now I think we can put enough pressure on the rim, depending upon our lineup, off the bounce downhill. And so we have been this week trying to play with more space. Whether the space is happening off the bounce, what should the other four guys do. Or if the space happens off the post feed, what should the other four guys do? And I thought there were some good pictures of that. I thought [Payne] got a little sped up. I think he had maybe five turnovers, six turnovers at half…and we know for sure five of the nine came from a guy that commands attention. We can't give the ball to the other team when – and I've talked to [Payne] a lot about this. Hey, man, we're throwing it to you. We need space when we throw it to you. We can't give it to the other team because we're throwing it to you. That kind of negates the premise, right? But long term, I still think the philosophy is right. We just need to continue to - we call it post speed movement. When I throw it to Matt, whether Matt's a forward or not, we will get to the point we can throw it to Dre. We can throw it to Tommy. We're throwing it to you to see what your decision is for space on the weak side.

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