Buzz Williams on Pharrel Payne, Maryland basketball's second-half comeback vs. Marquette, rebounding

Ahmed Ghafir
6 days ago
4 min read

Everything that head coach Buzz Williams said after Maryland men’s basketball’s gutsy 89-82 road win vs. Marquette:

On Pharrel Payne’s status

“He’s at the hospital, but we don't know anything.”

On his return to Marquette

“I've prayed about it a long time. Milwaukee, Marquette, it changed my life. I wasn't deserving of the job at all and because of many people that were willing to make a hire of someone that didn't deserve the job, it completely changed my family's life. And so I have nothing but great things in every possible way. Father Wild. Greg Kliebhan, Mike Broeker, Steve Cottingham, like I didn't deserve the job, but they were also very supportive once I had the job. And then it's a testimony to a lot of good players and a lot of good coaches and a lot of people who are not in the media guide that helped us be successful. I was overwhelmed and way out of my league and ill prepared. I tried to keep up, but I have had no negative emotion towards playing here other than I didn't want to play him. I think Coach Smart's a Hall of Fame coach, sincerely. 17 years, he's under 50, e's won 370 plus games, he's already been to a Final Four. And I think how they're doing it in 2025 takes a lot of guts too. And I think who he is and how they've built this in the time that he's been here is very reflective of what I remember Marquette and its values being.”

On Pharrel Payne

“I was a little caught off guard. Obviously, we have 15 new players, and this is the second week of the season. [Pharrel] followed us here. He's the only player that followed us here that has played for us this season. He's our best player that's well received within our program. I've never seen him hurt and the angle that I saw, it did not appear good. I know I'm not supposed to run out on the floor, so I was there probably a little longer than I should, and when I got back to the huddle, our kids said, ‘Coach, you got to pray for him.’ So there - I don't mean this condescending - I didn't talk about ball, we just prayed for him. And I do think that their response, not their execution, but their response and maybe some of the intangible things that are important, whether there's an injury or not, was great growth for our program.”

On scoring 89 points vs. Marquette

“We're trying to teach them some of the things that we learned at our previous stop in regards to offensive rebounding. It's different personnel. I know some of that mantra that has followed us relative to that is good. It's a lot of teaching. It's a lot of emphasis how we practice, what we do in film. How we grade rebounding takes an enormous amount of time. We are beyond bad at it, not just against Marquette. We weren't in the top-100 in defensive rebounding or offensive rebounding entering today's game and so I would say we're not in the top-200 after this contest. I think we had zero offensive rebounds at half. So our offensive rebound percentage was zero and Marquette’s offensive rebound percentage hits, our defensive rebound percentage - they got more of their misses than we did. So I think we were defensive rebounding 43%. So in the last two years, being first in offensive rebounding meant that your offensive rebounding percentage number needed to start with four. And I know it doesn't work the other way where your defensive rebounding starts with four. So we finished the day with 17% offensive rebounding. I would assume that would finish last in the division one and we finished - our defensive rebound percentage finished the exact same, 43%. We watch clips day in the game. We watch clips from practice. If you saw all the drills we did for rebounding, you would think like we're putting on a coaching clinic, but we are not executing it well at all. And I thought [Caedin Hamilton], [Royce Parham], I think [Zaide Lowery] is an elite level, tough offensive rebounder. I think [Tre Norman]…probably doesn't tweet about him enough on the offensive glass. [Damarius Owens], [Josh Clark]…I wasn't sure about eight as an offensive rebounder, but those other guys, like they just whipped us. They almost had as many offensive rebounds as they did defensive rebounds. Just awful.”

On the second half run

“I think the thing that we've struggled with, like any coach would tell you in their second week of the season is you can't give the ball to the other team. And we did a better job in the first half of at least not giving it to them. That will help us in regards to our points per possession. Maybe we'll get an offensive rebound next week. But also, we're so reliant on free throw makes. So we didn't give it to them as much in the first half and then I thought we started the second half as if we were just really happy that it was tied at halftime and then we turned it over I don't know how many times in the first ten minutes of the second half, but I think the stretch that you're talking about - my brain's a little chaotic from all that's transpired - but I don't think that we had very many turnovers in that stretch. It doesn't mean we were making shots, but at least they didn't have the ball. They are so gifted tilting the floor downhill, and they force you into rotation at such a fast rate. Like I was trying to explain to our guys, even though all of this language is new to them, is there any way our offense can help our defense? I'm not saying we need to make a shot, but it's almost a little bit of time of possession in football. Like we don't need to just keep giving it to them. And so in that stretch, I don't think we had a turnover. Do you know? I would say that's what contributed to it.”

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