Buzz Williams on Solomon Washington's debut, Wagner win, Maryland men's basketball's evolving identity

Ahmed Ghafir
3 days ago
9 min read

Everything that head coach Buzz Williams said after Maryland men's basketball's 89-63 win vs. Wagner ahead of Big Ten play:

On Solomon Washington

“The first thing I would say is I'm glad that he's back. The second thing I would say is, I'm glad he's back and he didn't get hurt while he was playing. It was seven weeks ago when he got hurt. His first day of practice was Sunday. Yesterday was the second day. Physically, he helps us defensively. It helps us from an athleticism standpoint, helps us from a length standpoint, can guard the ball. I think he will help us on the glass on both ends of the floor.”

On identity heading into Big Ten play

“We don't know who we are and we're trying to figure out who we are while going to play a top-15 team on the road Saturday. We can't change the schedule. We are thankful for the healthy bodies. Our staff has been tremendous in regards to figuring out the problems, identifying the problems and we have more than one, but figuring them out and then creatively not being able to play five on five. How can we try to execute those changes in a better way. Just being able to play five on five - like today and shootaround, Christy Winters-Scott and Ed Cohen, they were like we've never been to a shoot around where you guys just play. And I go, for sure, in December, you haven't seen one of those. We're just trying to make up for for missed time. So I'm encouraged by a lot of the things that we saw tonight and I hope that some of them can stick, but we'll learn that the more we can accumulate the reps that we've missed.”

On Darius Adams’ motor

“I really like him. I like his spirit and his teachability maybe more than I like his game. All of these relationships are brand new. If you're asking about him, you probably know most of his story as well as I do, but his parents have been tremendous in allowing us to coach him. He seeks learning. He's very curious. He's in the gym often, whether the teams in there or he's with a coach individually. He wants to learn, not just on the court. He wants to watch himself, our team. He has very much a learner spirit. I think the best thing he does statistically as of now is get fouled. I think he's doing a better job taking the right shots. I think that's part of what all freshmen have to figure out. He's beginning to understand space, not just on offense, but on defense. His rebounding effort continues to improve. That's one thing that - his physicality as it improves, I think will change his game some. I didn't think he played great tonight. He got to the rim at a great level, he just didn't finish some of those shots. But I like the trajectory that he's on, and we're thankful that he's here for sure.”

On team’s evolving identity, roster versatility

“Very well worded question. I have a lot of thoughts on it without giving any secrets away, I didn't know who to start, and I told our guys that on Sunday when we got together, Sunday morning, hey guys, this morning, we're only going to talk about defense. We're going to walk through some of the changes we're going to make, and then everybody go home and then come back this evening and we're going to talk about offense and all the changes that we're going to make. And then we're going to practice both. And then, to some degree, we did a lot of that again on Monday. Let's watch the changes from practice. Try to teach you what was good, what needs to improve, let’s go practice again. And then we did the same thing this morning. Like we watched yesterday’s practice, here was good, here’s a little bit more, this needs to go away. And we were constantly changing the teams in all the different things that we were doing in practice just to try to analytically figure out who was good, who could get a stop, who could get a rebound, who could play and not turn the ball over. The things that have hurt us are the things that you know -

our turnover rate has been awful. We've given up way too many threes. Slashed the percentage of those threes. And then on the glass, no matter what team shot it, can we get a rebound? And those are the main things that we’ve made changes to and all of those are correlated and how we’ve done it. I do like there that there is some variables involved. I like that the size and the length and what we're doing with the group that we started. But I think we also have to figure out, from an identity standpoint, some consistency and whoever those guys are going to be. I do think Solo has some versatility on whether he's in or out. I thought Colin [Metcalf] played the best he has played since he's been here. Any limited minutes are helpful relative to how many minutes can [Pharrel Payne] play? How many minutes can Colin play? How many are left of the 40 at that spot? And you probably have to start there. But we didn't turn the ball over, which was so much better. And then I think our defensive rebound percentage was either first or second-best of our nine games and our offensive rebound percentage was easily the best. The reason we shot 45 free throws is because we didn't give the ball to the other team as much. And so I think we shot 109 balls tonight, which was by far the most that we have shot all season. So there's a lot of encouraging things. I just don't know, with the flex of being bigger or smaller, what the answer is yet, with just such a small sample size.”

On season-high 48 rebounds

“I thought the predictability of our shots was much better. I understand from a percentage standpoint, if you look at the numbers, 20 offensive rebounds is good. The best part is that we only turned the ball over 6% of the time, so at least we got a shot up. And so I think some of the issue has been the lack of physicality you have to play with on both sides of the ball from a rebounding standpoint. And I think if we're only talking about offense, I think a portion of it, if you remove the turnover rate is we're taking too many what we would define as unpredictable shots. And so within what we've changed on a miss and changed on when the opponent scores, I think there was more predictability and better spacing that led to those attempts. I didn't think that we finished at the rim very well. I thought we got to the rim in the first half. It was way worse than it was [in] the second half, but we do need to finish at the rim at a higher rate. But I thought the predictability, no matter the shot, was better.”

On Pharrel Payne’s high free throw rate

“I think he commands attention and we try to have the right dose of where we get him touches. And I think some of our issues thus far, minus the turnover rate offensively, has been the spacing on where we're trying to get it to him. And some of the adjustments we made, I thought after one game, were better. Even as it was unfolding, I think there are even some adjustments within that, not to try to be too smart, but we need him to have a very high usage rate. And the usage rate may not mean he has to score, but when he gets the touch, what are we doing on the weakside of where he gets the touch? And then when he gets the touch in the middle of the floor, what are we doing relative to the spacing on the outside thirds? So I thought that was dramatically better. Our free throw rate, specifically [Darius Adams] and [Pharrel Payne] has to continue to stay at a high rate. We're so dependent. The reason why we had our highest OER is because of the conversation we're having tonight. And I think some of it is spacing and some of it was the predictability of those shots that we have a chance to get it back on an offensive rebound, and that leads to, hopefully a higher free throw attempt.”

On the NET ranking

“I have a lot of different thoughts on it. Obviously, Tuesday night was the worst loss of my career as a head coach and Wednesday night was the second worst loss of my career as a head coach. And we’re playing in a game, those two games are based on there’s a lot at stake on who plays and what they’re playing for and point differential was part of that tournament. So I understand. And then the NET that has been ongoing since the NET came about. The struggle that I have with that is particularly in year one, and with what we've endured over the last six weeks is we need every rep of every minute of healthy, or they just got back healthy. And so I don't think that I'm at the point yet where - I know our NET is not good because of the results from Tuesday and Wednesday's performance. We need to see if [Guillermo Del Pino] can play meaningful minutes. We need to see if Aleks [Alston] can play meaningful minutes. We need Solo to play every rep he can play. Myles I think has played four games now, maybe it's five. We need those young freshmen, we started those four freshmen in the second half, the first 10 minutes against Alabama, regardless of score, good or bad, we just were so deficient in reps. I kind of have some thoughts philosophically. I just don't think that where our program is right now, that that's priority number one.”

On halfcourt offense

“Think the spacing helped. I thought we took two what we're defining as bad shots, red light shots in the first half, and as soon as they took them, we identified them. I just didn't think that we made a high percentage of the green light shots, and so the assist-to-turnover ratio, was the best it's been all year. I think going into tonight's game, we were a minus-19 after eight games. That means you're giving the ball to the other team way too much. I think the adjustments to the spacing helped. I thought that the reads were cleaner and I thought what we were trying to accomplish was more defined in a better way. And I think being able to sub in or out with healthy bodies if you do right or do wrong, and everybody understanding the expectations, I think that that helped. It just looks prettier when you make it, as you know.”

On improved shot selection in the second half

“What I would say is the first part is, we took too many would twos in the first half. Our shot diet was better in the second half. The turnover rate was probably the same, in essence, in both halves. I think we have to continue to be more comfortable in what we're going to do on a miss, what we're going to do on a make. I think they have a general idea after two days of practice. I think some of the variables relative to who's playing where we're not really comfortable with which had probably was a little yucky in the first half. I don’t know that anything we’re going to do would ever be aesthetically pleasing for a while but I think we can get closer to it. I just think that not giving the ball to the other team, I think that was really bad numbers. Like 19% of the time, we had a turnover through eight games and that’s just really hard math to overcome with some of our other numbers. So I would say that would be the best part of it.”

On the ease of playing defense after a missed shot vs. turnover

“So dead ball tonight, 19 times when it was our ball. They scored 21 baskets. We got a defensive rebound 22 times. That's like fun. We had five steals, and we had 19 offensive rebounds and all of that is better. I think I know you know this If you're asking the question, when you give the ball to the other team at the rate that we were, what percentage of that is a live ball or a dead ball, but when it's a live ball turnover, now your defense is broken and it's never set, and you're playing from behind the entire possession. And when they shoot, which is probably going to be quicker than normal because your defense wasn't set, you're in rotation to get the defensive rebound, and we just - all of those things have compounded in a negative way. And I thought tonight there were stretches where all of that compounded in a good way. We didn't turn it over. We got some more offensive rebounds than normal. We got fouled at a higher than normal rate and so now our defense was able to get set. And so now our defense looks better, but kind of sort of, it was because our offense was better. And we're not going to play perfect and I understand who we played and where we're about to play. But how can we bend it towards what we know it has to have more? And that's going to come from hopefully we practice 20 times this month and play four times.”

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