Buzz Williams on takeaways from Alcorn State win, team's rotation, rebounding numbers, returning to Marquette

Ahmed Ghafir
1 day ago
8 min read

Everything head coach Buzz Williams said after Maryland men’s basketball bounced back in the win column with a 84-64 win vs. Alcorn State:

On the rotation, minutes three games into the season

“No, sir, I think the consistency that we're looking for will have to come from practice, not just from the games. And I think that we're trying to make sure that we measure the same things in practice that we measure in the game, so that they understand the growth that we need from them. And I think as it's happening in real time, we're probably not at the point in week two where we're allowed to give grace on if you're not meeting the standard of accountability on whatever we're trying to accomplish, we need to make a sub. So some of that happened tonight. We had more stamina for longer periods of time – stamina mentally, stamina emotionally, stamina physically. So there was some growth. But in regards to the analytics and the things that we want to hold them accountable to, I think in year one, week two, I’m not concerned with our rotation yet.”

On free throw shooting

“I do think it's going to be important for our OER. We were better in some of the things that are important to us. It'll be a cheat code for this year's team. Can we play and get fouled and then can we defend without fouling? I think tonight's half was the first time in the six halves that we've played that have counted that the opponent didn't get in the bonus. Much better at getting to the rim. We did pretty good at that on the previous week. We finished at a much higher rate, but like we talked about the last time, offensively, can we play to get fouled, which means get the defense in rotation, and then defensively, can we play without fouling, which means we can't get in rotation? And so there was improvement. I understand some of the false security that can come relative to the opponent, but relative to the idea and the execution, it was better.”

On what Buzz learned about his team during dominant runs in the first half, to start second half

“I think that we probably played 25 minutes the way we want to play. I thought the first ten minutes to your point, a lot of what we want to accomplish was happening on both ends of the floor. And then it really drastically changed from an execution standpoint, a stamina standpoint. And then in the second half, I thought a lot of what happened in the first ten minutes was very similar without having watched it to the first ten minutes of the first half. And then it almost the air went out of the balloon again. I think it was the third time out, I called, I think it was 6:10, left on the clock, and can we finish these six minutes differently than how the last four minutes have transpired? And a credit to those guys, tried to make sure we played everybody just so that there was the energy prerequisite needed. We had four turkeys in the first half. We had seven turkeys in the second half, and a lot of the if it was 4-4 in the first 10 of each half, I thought we did better in closing the game down.”

What a Turkey is

“We define a turkey as three straight stops, and we define three baskets in a row as a heat.”

On rebounding margin, whether that’s closer to what Buzz wants to see

“I think you can look it up. We do rebounding effort is what we call it, where we grade on the rise of the shot. You shoot it, and your four teammates if you're on offense, those four teammates have a role. And so watch that possession, you shot it. Now watch it four times in a row, and if your four teammates did their job. And then we do the exact same thing when you five are on defense, and the opponent shoots it. All five have a job. Again, without acting like I have the answers because I don't, what we're trying to figure out is how can we control more possessions slash time of possession football style by being much better on the glass. Through two games, I think we were 172^nd nationally in offensive rebound percentage and barely in the top 100 defensive rebound percentage. Again, false security, respectfully, relative to the opponent. But what we've tried to do is make sure that we're showing those from the game. And instead of just showing it from the game, we've created breakdown drills on the rise so that we can show them doing it or not doing it, and then grading that every day. And so I have it here. Instead of talking about it for the game, we've tried to do it for the half.

So OR percentage in the first half, 50%, 72.2 defensive rebound percentage. Slightly worse in the second half, 36% in the second half, but better defensive rebounded, 77%. In a perfect world, just the evidence that we have. If you want to be first, you need to be close to 80 in defensive rebound percentage. If you want to be first in offensive rebound percentage in our history, we have done that a few times. Your number needs to be probably close to 40. I don't think that necessarily we're going to approach those numbers, but we need to get closer. Because if we get closer, then that's less time that we're on defense, and that's potentially more times that we're going to get fouled, and that's potentially less times that we're going to foul them, if that makes sense.”

On the mindset going against Alcorn State’s zone press

“We play with too high of a turnover rate. Some of their turnovers came from our zone press break. When you were in first grade, your first grade teacher probably taught you to draw a stick man, you know what I'm talking about. So when you drew your stick man, if the head was the ball, the way we teach zone is we need a right hand. We need a left hand. And on your stick man, when you were in second grade, you drew a belt. We need a belt, and we need a foot. So a lot of our spacing on our hands and belt was really bad, which helps the zone. I didn't think our zone attack in the half court was very well ran, either, but those were reps that we need, not only for our future, but we're going to need a lot of that prior to Saturday because coach [Shaka] Smart runs a lot of havoc, I think is the his brand, and that's a lot of zone with intermingled, a lot of man, one trap, run and jump. And so our press attack, regardless of their type of press will need to be distinctly better.”

On analyzing his guards on the ball

“I thought it was probably the highest number of assists we've had. At some point we're going to have to play where we have more assists than turnovers. We're not quite there yet. I don't know what it would be, cumulative through three games, but I think this would be our highest basket assist rate. 50% of our baskets were assisted tonight before it went analytically final, which is - that's better than it was in week number one. I do think that's kind of a hard thing to measure. Obviously, if it doesn't mean that you're not making the right pass if they missed the shot. So sometimes that, in my opinion, subliminally, those numbers can get skewed if you're not making that shot. But I thought there was some improvement in regards to the right reads for sure.”

On Myles Rice’s role

“I'm going to coach the guys that are healthy every single day and I don't want to create false expectations for anybody. And I mean this without being condescending or sarcastic in any sense of the way. Through three games and you've seen this both games here, including the exhibition, the one that we won with our five man hitting a three running the two guard spot in secondary. We're trying to find five guys that will play incredibly hard and then try to find the next right guy that can sub in for the first of the five that needs a break. We haven't figured out, oh, he's this, he's that. We really would like to get to where we could have seven and a half, eight and a half tough, smart, dependable guys that are all pulling in the same direction regardless of position. I think sometimes coaches, particularly me, we try to fit round holes in a square peg. And the most important hole that we have to address is, can we play really, really hard and all care about the same things, and how many possessions in a row can that group do it before we need a sub?”

On returning to Marquette

“Completely changed my life, completely forever changed our four children's lives. I didn't know you at that point, but it's not hard to research. I should not have gotten that job by any stretch of the imagination. I was the head coach at the University of New Orleans six months after Hurricane Katrina. We played seven guarantee games. We went 14-17, 9-9 in the Sun Belt Conference, and on my 365 days, 65th day, I resigned. I was 34 I think when I resigned, I was sued by the University of Louisiana system. I did not know Tom Crean. I did not know the Big East. That was such a blessing. I did not take that job thinking that I was going to be the head coach. They interviewed me 14 times in seven days. My wife was involved in three of those interviews. There were three or four people that had really big guts that stepped out of their comfort zone to make a decision to hire me. That's a top-15 job, no matter who the coach is there. History speaks to that. But that decision by those decision makers completely changed the life that my children have lived. It was a special time. I was completely overwhelmed. I was scared out of my mind. I was not skilled enough to do the job by any stretch - administratively, institutionally, within the community. There were a lot of people that were mentoring me and helping me in all of the deficiencies that I had. And then there was a lot of good players and good coaches, you can research those numbers. Those numbers are because of other people, not because of me. And so I've benefited from that, which is potentially what eventually led to every other job that I've had. And so I haven't been back to play a game. I haven't played Marquette in any sort of way. So I've been praying about it for a long time since Colleen [Sorem] told me we were playing them and we'll handle it the right way. And after what we're doing on a daily basis here, my energy and emotion will be consumed with can we figure out how to do the things that are important here?”

On special memories of Milwaukee

“We write thank you notes when we travel. So I think my calendar says we're writing thank you notes at 6:41 on Friday night. So we play at one o'clock central time. So that means chapel's at 5:41, that means rebounding clips are at 6:21, that means shoot arounds at seven. I haven't been to the new arena. so I don’t know how much time I will have. My wife is going to be able to go. She has some friends, long friends since we were there that she'll be able to see. And you probably know some of this, I may be the most boring, most routine person you can imagine. Very ritualistic, even when I was in Milwaukee on my days and where I ate and all those things. But I probably won't have much of a chance to do it.”

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