Head coach Buzz Williams recaps Maryland basketball's season-opening win vs. Coppin State

Ahmed Ghafir
3 days ago
5 min read

Maryland men's basketball head coach Buzz Williams recapped what went right, wrong and looks ahead at the week of practice before Friday's Gold Rush game vs. Georgetown:

On Diggy Coit playing PG, moving Darius Adams off the. ball vs. Coppin State

“Yeah, I thought just collectively we looked like we were trending in a better direction. I thought it was more apparent what we were trying to accomplish on both ends of the floor, whether it was Diggy, whether it was [Darius Adams], I thought a lot of guys were more comfortable in regards to what we're trying to accomplish. And we didn't play very well the first ten minutes of the second half, but to their credit, I thought how they responded in the last ten minutes was good. So there were some good things as we're getting started. It's a small sample size. I don't want to read too much into the good things or the bad things, but just try to hold guys accountable on what we want to eventually become and coach them towards what we're going to become, not what we are on day one, game one.”

On the team’s three-point shooting potential

“I don't know. Based on the first two contests, I thought we shot the ball at a higher percentage last night. We've changed some of the things that we do when we throw it inside. I think our guys are executing that post-feed movement better. I think all teams are better when the ball goes inside-out. I think teams shoot it better when they have ten toes toward the rim and the pass is coming from the paint. And a lot of our shots last night were that. [Pharrel Payne] does command some decision on how you're going to defend him. I think we've tried to spend a little bit more of our practice time not only on what we're going to do when the ball goes inside on the weak side, but we've also tried to spend some time figuring out, how can we get the ball inside earlier in the possession.

“So I think again, it's not the results that we're concerned with right now, in regards to how many threes we made, or who made them, or who's playing what position. I don't think stereotypically, our guys or our staff even know those answers, whether they played or not played. I think creating false expectations is probably not what we want to do, particularly what I want to do. Myles [Rice] hasn't played a game that Maryland. We need him to get healthy. We need all of our guys to get healthy. And to be honest, like any team in the first week of November, we need a stretch of healthy because we've missed so many reps in year one, and we can't - not just on game day, even on practice days - we've got to continue to find ways to put them in the right positions to be successful. And I did think getting it inside and what we were doing on the post touch was much better than it had been in the scrimmage and in the exhibition.”

On rebounding, crashing the glass

“I sure hope so. We haven't been near physical enough against any of the three teams we've played. We have increased our physicality in practice. We probably spend more time teaching, coaching, watching how we grade every possession. When the ball is in the air, whether we shoot it or the opponent shoots it. It has become a part of the fabric of what we want to be about. But if you've never heard the things that we do and the things we teach and how we go about it, it does take some time, and we spend an inordinate amount of time on offensive rebounding and defensive rebounding. We did not do a really good job last night. It was the worst statistically we had been. From an offensive rebounding standpoint, we were better against Coppin [State] last night than we were against [UMBC] as far as defensive rebound percentage. So I do think that our guys are beginning to understand we grade every single possession when the ball is in the air. They get a report card. We watch clips. No assistant does it. That's what I'm in charge of. That's my bucket. And it's just because if you look at a basketball game, no matter who plays, the second-highest volume of things that happen are rebounds. And so we've got to continue to spend time and effort and energy and emotion trying to make sure that we do a better job so that we can control possessions so that we can control time of possession. And at times, we're making strides. We just got to become more consistent.”

On Buzz’s passion on the sidelines

“I don't know there. Some of them are getting to where they understand the language I speak. I've got to do a better job investing in their life, investing in who they are. So when I'm acting maybe a little off center, they receive it in a better way, but I do think, to their credit, we have made some strides in that regard. I wish I didn't have to do that. Sometimes that's probably not the right way to coach in 2025 but I do think we're making some strides relative to our relationships and them understanding what's important, but more importantly why it's important. So I'm thankful for the opportunity to be with these guys as we kind of start learning one another and growing and developing and figuring this thing out.”

On practice ahead of Friday’s game vs. Georgetown

“Yeah, today in our program is three days away. Three days away means that it's a day off. And so if there's two games a week, those two days are game day. The two days before the game we call one day before. And then the two days before the game we call two day before. So we played last night so today is off for our players. That means within the old adults of our program, we call it three day all of the prep work that each of us do - the offensive coordinator, the defensive coordinator, the special teams coordinator, we kind of split up and we have all of our three day before meetings. Tomorrow is two day before. But because today is off, we always follow an off day with early bird. In 2003 you guys remember what happened at Baylor and I decided at that time I would never go 48 hours and not have contact with our team. And so tomorrow morning we will have early bird, but tomorrow is also two-day before, so we've got a lot of work to do, obviously.

Coach [Ed] Cooley and I go back a long, long ways, even before we were head coaches, and have a great relationship, and I know that man, they just beat Kentucky from start to finish in Lexington. I've watched some of the clips of that game so we've got a lot of work in front of us. I know how important it is to Maryland and the history that comes from this rivalry, but we've got a lot of work to do to get better to have a chance on Friday against Coach.”

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