Buzz Williams tries to explain Maryland basketball's 30-point loss vs. #12 Purdue

Ahmed Ghafir
1 hour ago
7 min read

Everything head coach Buzz Williams said after Maryland fell by 30 points against 12th-ranked Purdue:

“I felt that way more after Michigan State from start to finish than I had any other game that we had played. We've tried to revamp a lot of different things in our first bye this particular week. I do think any team, not just [a] year one team, I think any team that plays three top-15 teams in the NET with two of them being on the road, you're probably up against it. That's the good thing about this league. I thought some of the things that we tried to revamp that we wanted to do offensively on a miss, were better on a make, had some flow to it. What hurt us the most in the first half - the turnovers, as we mentioned, but we had zero offensive rebound. And they had eight. And so we shot more balls than them in the second half. I understand their roster was a little different in the second half than the first half, so I don't want to discount that. But their volume of shots in the first half and our lack of volume of shots, partly from turnovers, partly from not accruing any offensive rebounds, that's where we have to improve.”

On what Buzz has learned from the first month of Big Ten

“We spend probably just as much time transparently on roster construction as we do the tactical parts of it. I don't exclusively remember my whole answer to you on that, but I do remember the question. I would say, through ten games, there have been more mid-channel ball screens than I anticipated and I think there's more drop coverage than I remember seeing in the study from the summer. Purdue probably has the deepest play catalog of any team that we've played, but a lot of that is going to somewhere, whether it's on the side or in the channel, it's going to end in a ball screen with three. And I had a little bit probably better recollection of Purdue because we played them last season. But the six teams that we played last year in the Big Ten, we haven't played all of those teams yet in the ig Ten so a lot of whatever I was saying was kind of based on that. But the ten games that we've played thus far, more mid-channel ball screens than I remember and more drop coverage, no matter the opponent, than I remember.”

On Purdue’s 3PT shooting, perimeter defense

“The effort was fine. The weak side coverage was what was not good enough from an execution standpoint, I think they had nine in the first half. They had six in the second half. And of the nine, I'm not sure - we count one pass threes - how many of those threes were off one pass? Whether it's ball side, typically it's not ball side, it's going to be on the weak side. Did they have to throw the one more? And so our weak side coverage was not executed at the rate that it has to be. And I don't know how many of the nine that they scored in the first half came out of a live ball turnover but our turnover rate was too high, which led to some of those threes. But in the half court exclusively, our weak side coverage wasn't good enough.”

On the performance of Darius Adams, Andre Mills with combined 35 points

“Well, most freshmen, as you know, they at some point, they kind of hit a subliminal wall. Because of all that's transpired with our roster, they haven't had a chance to see that wall and we can't allow them to feel it either. I give a lot of credit to the coaches. They've done a really good job with those two guys. Those two guys are hungry to learn. I don't think that most freshmen are as accepting of where they are and what they need. As DA and Dre, I think they have special hearts. I think they're curious in regards to wanting to learn and their work ethic has continued to improve relative to the physicality and the things that they're learning at a rapid rate through the first 20-ish games. We've been doing more skill stuff exclusively with those two guys in the mornings, and then we're doing a lot of stuff with them, post-practice, playing off two. I'm more involved with the post practice stuff and then they're much more consistent, not just in their skill work, but also in their basketball IQ - watching, studying it, having better understanding relative to what they're doing, but also to what the opponent's doing. I think DA has a knack for getting fouled, and I think both of those guys are improving at playing off two and doing better within playing off two feet, whether it's for them or for somebody else. And I think, I don't know how many it was in the second half, but it was much better. I think we were 6-of-8 in the first half from the free throw line, 13-of-17. As we've talked about, we need to figure out a way to skew our points per possession. Those two guys can do it by getting the defense in rotation. And I thought those two guys, if there was a category without me watching the game, those two guys did a lot of good things specific to that.”

On getting Diggy Coit involved

“I think the scouting report on Diggy has probably changed would be the first thing. I think when you do some of the things that he has done to help our team, they're probably going to do things to not allow him to continue to shoot and score at that volume. I think when you study some of the numbers, obviously he's our leading scorer and has by far taken the most field goal attempts on the team. I think where he's trying to figure out - and some of it happened today, the turnovers hurt him. But if you're VPP, if you're shooting more balls than points you're scoring and you don't get fouled, then it becomes very inefficient. And so how can we help him be more efficient? And then within that efficiency, can we find a way with the attention he's drawing to create for someone else? And I think the intent that he is trying to learn that, considering he's always just been a microwave scorer, he's been really good at it. Like he's been asking to come to the stuff we've been doing with DA and Dre and I'm like, No, we're doing other things for you. It's the combination. And so I think it's a little bit of, how can we get him going, per se. But as much as it, how can we get him going, we don't need the other four guys just looking at him going, ‘Hey, Diggy, are you about to shoot’? So it's a little bit of the balance of that.”

On the impact of Purdue’s early 13-0 run

“I'm just trying to call timeouts as fast as I can. 13-0, I probably need to call a timeout before that, transparently. And I'm becoming more aware relative to time, relative to score. I want to - if we can - I want to be able to have timeouts for specials, but I also know that we need to have timeouts in order to stop a run. And so I think the timeout, the initial timeout, was the right timeout. Arguably call it sooner. Some of that timeout was the two turnovers we got before the first media timeout. Some of that is the newness of what we were doing. Some of that was the turnovers that led to the naked threes that they were shooting. So is a timeout necessarily going to stop that? So obviously, it's similar to how we started against Georgetown. You don't want to start a game, and the avalanche has already started and then you're playing from behind from that point forward. So I'm trying to do better with that. Similar to Michigan State, how the game started. Stop. We have to stop. And within the stop, should we have mass substitutions? Should we completely go against whatever we were just doing, offensively or defensively? So there's, within the decision making matrix of what that is, I've tried to be more open to calling them relative to runs.”

On the rebounding margin

“That was what I told them at halftime. I haven't seen what it is for the game. So our defensive rebound percentage for the game was 63% and our offensive rebound percentage was 24% and arguably through the first nine games, that's been the best thing that we've done. I think we were fifth in the league in offensive rebound percentage and I think we were sixth in defensive rebound percentage. Having said that the last two games, we've played two of the better rebounding teams in the country. But at halftime, we had zero offensive rebounds. I think we had one team offensive rebound, which just meant they touched it and it went out of bounds. In the second half, it was better, but we shot more balls in the second half partly because we got more offensive rebounds. But we have to salvage, on both sides of the ball. We're making progress at times when the ball is on the ground but we we have to stop when the ball is in the air, allowing the other team to get it as often as they are. And when we shoot it, we need our shots to be more predictable, so we have a chance to get it at a higher rate.”

On first game with students back

“I thought it was phenomenal. I should have said that at the start. I know I don't ever have an opening statement because I just try to answer the storylines of the narratives you guys are creating. Maybe that's wrong. I was very appreciative and without talking to our players, because after I waved to my wife and daughter after the national anthem, I don't really pay attention. And I know I'm the new guy here, but I thought the ambiance, the pink shirts, the crowd, the students. It speaks to the history of this program. It speaks to the support and the care of the community on and off campus. I thought it was tremendous. I thought it was the best environment of any game that I have coached in XFINITY thus far. And so considering we need to be way better in every possible way for them to show up on Sunday afternoon. I know everybody went to church, but hurry up after church and get over here. I thought it was elite.”

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