Buzz Williams on return to Marquette, Maryland basketball's pregame routine, Guillermo Del Pino

Ahmed Ghafir
7 days ago
8 min read

Everything Buzz Williams said ahead of Maryland men's basketball's first true road game of the 2025-26 season:

On Pharrel Payne’s transition

“He's made a lot of strides in the year that we've known him. I think the most impressive thing is he wants to improve. He doesn't shy away from work. He wants to be coached. He wants to be told the truth. I think he appreciates the pace at which we operate. There was a learning curve to that a year ago at this time, but he's a really, really good human being. Think his ball screen coverage continues to improve. I think his understanding of space, whether he has the ball or doesn't have the ball, has made tremendous strides. And I think he's getting to the point where he can sustain his effort over longer periods of time. I think he played 21 minutes a game for us in the second semester last year. So he's making the appropriate strides relative to his growth, and obviously we're very thankful that he's here and very dependent upon what he's done through the first three games.”

On Diggy Coit

“His natural position is off the ball. And one thing that I think he's had tremendous growth in regards to receiving what we want to do. He's getting better at how we want to do it, but I think the why of why we do it, he's bought in 1,000% and he's as old as you can possibly be in college. And for him, you know, sometimes the hardest learning is unlearning and he's been tremendous at that. We've kind of had to miscast him, but he's playing with a low turnover rate, and we anticipate he's going to have to play a lot. And so he's going to have to continue at the pace that he's been at. I think he does have experience playing at this level. He's always been - he's been at this level for one season off the bench last year, kind of in a completely different role than what he's been in through the first two weeks of this season, but he's embraced that and wanted that. We talk often. He's constantly in the office. He's constantly on the court doing skill work and so I appreciate the energy that he's competing with.”

On his biggest takeaway as his time as head coach at Marquette

“I think it's just a testimony to a lot of people that have been willing to help me. I haven't done as good a job as those people have in regards to willingness to help others. Like I mentioned the other night, there's no way I should have got that job. That's a top-15 job. Always has been, always will be. And there were a lot of people that helped me. And so I think the thing that I've tried to carry, I guess it's been 12 years since, I've just tried to find ways to help other people maybe that were as undeserving as I was for that opportunity because there were a lot of people at that institution, in that department, in that community, that were doing things that they didn't have to do that were very helpful that changed our family's life.”

On watching rebounding clips ahead of gameday, pre-game routines

“Well, if you look at it analytically in any game - high school game, college game, NBA game, regardless of gender - the thing that happens the second most in any game is rebounds. So it's going to be the number of shots, that's always going to be first, and second is going to be rebounds. Now, is your team going to get it or is our team going to get it? And so one of the things that we learned coming out of COVID, it kind of began during COVID during the lockout, everybody kind of in a weird place, how are we going to establish some level of program not based exclusively on talent, and how could we create a niche that would give us some guidance on how to recruit? And what was a margin that we could compete in maybe that we would change the practice itinerary, the film watching itinerary, and maybe bend it in a way that would be unique to our program. And so I've learned a lot from other people. This was not something that I formulated. It was just kind of a project that has become all consuming. Rebounding clips the day of the game started two seasons ago, and in our program, there's 174 buckets. 174 buckets of responsibility and everyone in the program has certain buckets that they're the head coach of. I have the least number of buckets, even though my title is head coach, but my bucket, one of is rebounding. We're not very good at it currently. We're not ranked in the top 100 no matter which team shoots it, but I do think that there is beginning to be some traction in understanding it. And so I think tomorrow, it's always dependent on the road, how far we're away from the hotel, but I think rebounding clips in the morning are at 6:21.”

On Maryland’s offensive sets against a zone

“Our biggest problem no matter, zone in the full court, the half court, man in the full quarter, the half court - we need to try not to give it to the other team as much. That's what's hurting our offensive numbers. I think we turned it over 17% of the time on Tuesday night. We did have one turnover against the zone but of the 15 turnovers in addition that we had, regardless of what the defense is doing, our offense needs to do a better job of not giving it to the other team. Some of our defensive numbers are improving. What's hurting our defensive numbers is when we give it to the other team and they score on a live ball turnover. Obviously that hurts some of it. But I would say it's not necessarily our zone attack or even some of the spacing and our man stuff. It's just a lot of possession-related. We can't give it to the other team.”

On Guillermo Del Pino’s role

“I think the thing that I would say in defense of Willie is him not being here this summer, no matter who you are, whether you're from this country or not, whether you're a portal or a high school senior - when you miss an entire summer in the film room and on the court and in the weight room, you're going to be playing from behind. I love his spirit. I would say he's the most favorite player within the program. Our players, in a very genuine way, rally around protecting him. I thought the shock of 11-0 vs. Georgetown to start the game wasn't Willie's fault, but when he just gave it to him six inches from the rim, that was probably the right decision by me not giving him an opportunity to go back. We started a different group, supposedly some of the people that are supposed to be better, and we got beat 10-2 in the second half. So he's making some growth. But again, whether it's Willie, whether it's Diggy, whether it's [Pharrel], we've got to continue to work on our work capacity Like, how long can Willie play and do what we're asking him to do. Same with Diggy, same with [Pharrel]. I know you guys laughed at me maybe at some point in Baltimore, like we need [Pharrel] to play every minute and we need Diggy to be much more productive. We need Willie to get to a position where he can maybe make a shot, maybe make a free throw, maybe have an assist. But our work capacity, regardless of their name, we're making strides. We just got to continue to make longer strides, and we're continuing to show that to him in practice. We're showing that to him from the games. We've made some strides. We've just got to continue to increase our capacity, including Willie.”

Whether there’s a culture or language barrier with Del Pino

“So initially I was probably wrong on that question. We tried to find someone on campus maybe that could shadow him specifically with basketball. Because I think what I've learned from Willie, some of the things that you would use as far as language in basketball, that's not our language as a coach. That's not our language as a program. We refer to our language as words we use. And so it's not necessarily that Willie doesn't understand English. It's how we're using those English words in our program. And I think some of the context from those words was not how he learned Rosetta Stone English, if that makes sense. And I have asked Willie, including today, 712 times do you understand what I'm asking you? Like most guys, two weeks into the season with a brand new coach, they don't really know if I'm being sarcastic, if I'm being sincere, but we're improving in regards to our body language. Our whole program is, Willie is too, and I'm trying to be more aware of that. Our staff and our players, when I kept saying we need to hire him a tutor, they kept saying, coach, he understands everything. He just doesn't know how to talk to you. And I would say that our program was right about that, and I was wrong about that.”

Describing his sideline demeanor, whether it’s evolved through his career

“For sure. I'm old now. This is our I think this is our 19^th season so a little over 600 games. I would say it's dramatically evolved, partly my age, partly just how the model of college athletics has changed. I've coached at a lot of places that have hyphens or directions in the name of the school so there's not quite the exposure. But I think some of it, the game has changed too and I think so I've tried to morph and be a little bit more mature. I probably care too much about the value of each possession. And so I've kind of taken some of that energy and maybe some of that passion and tried to invest it in the relationships with our players so that in real time, I can say things that I hope that they receive in the right way. But for sure, I would say that a lot of it has to do with my age and just how things have changed over the last 20 years.”

On his in-season attire

“I know nobody's ever asked, and so I'll go ahead and tell you for being so sincere, I wear a sport coat during non-conference games, except at MTEs and I wear soft sole shoes. And then during conference play, I wear a vest so nobody asked me how much I sweat and I wear hard sole shoes. I was raised in a small farming community where you try to give your best, and most of the jobs I had for a long period of time, you got paid by the hour. And so I feel very blessed and fortunate. And so my only hobby is gear. That's all it's ever been and so there's not a malfunction. I was trying to see if we could get our work capacity to be a little longer. Could we go from one media time out to the next and play incredibly hard and play for one another, and so I was probably a little too exuberant on Tuesday night. And I'm trying to find ways in practice and trying to find ways in the film room how I can ignite that same level of energy. Because I think the best programs are not led by the coach. I think the best programs are led by the players. And we want to establish a great program here. That's what it's always been. And now that we're all brand new, regardless of my suit works, my sport coat works or not, whether I sweat, whether I'm too energetic or not, I want our players and our program to all have that same intangible and we're not there yet. We're not even in the first grade version of it. But I do think that we're approaching kindergarten and so we're making progress.”

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