Maryland basketball head coach Buzz Williams on UNLV win, first half turnovers, rebounding

Ahmed Ghafir
2 days ago
4 min read

Everything that head coach Buzz Williams said after Maryland men's basketball beat UNLV, 74-67:

On 15 first-half turnovers, second half adjustments

“Credit to coach. We’ve played against him before and a lot of the things that he was doing in the full court and the half court he had done in his past. And we had glanced at it in preparation, but he had not done all of that through the first five games this year. We were discombobulated, which is what they wanted. We made incredibly poor decisions, and we could never get in a rhythm. And so I don't know of those 15 turnovers, how many were live ball, but defensively, our numbers were pretty good at half considering we gave them the ball 15 times. I think the solution, or somewhat of the solution was we just tried to simplify, no matter what they were doing, we were going to do the same thing. And we found some continuity in that. But very lucky, considering how high return over rate was to have a chance to win.”

On outrebounding UNLV

“And if we wouldn't have turned it over 20 times, I'm not saying we would have got it, but we would have had a chance to get it. And so the things that we're relying on, we need free throw makes. Can't turn the ball over 20 times and accumulate enough free throw makes. And then secondarily, it was our best offensive rebound percentage, our best defensive rebound percentage and we still gave them the ball 20 times. I think it's the first time this year that the opponent shot more balls and shot more free throws than we did. And so again, there's a lot of things analytically that if you look at the game, it shouldn't have been a game specifically in our favor. So we did do a lot of things, but when you're giving the team the ball 22% of the time, you're playing against an avalanche. And so I did commend our guys. Our coaches are doing a really good job, like we practice rebounding as much as we practice offense, as much as we practice defense, because that's the been our Achilles heel through the first three weeks of the season.”

On Aleks Alston posting six points, six rebounds in 18 minutes

“He was great. He has skill. He's tentative in regards to the physicality He has to play with. I do think through extra film and through extra reps, he wants to learn and he's making some progress. And in the first half, he may have been the best player on the floor for us. I think he led our team in assists or second – yeah, he was second on our team in assist and he played 17 minutes, and he was 100% from the field. He had the same number of rebounds a lot of other people played that played more. So he doesn't quite execute with the physicality we need from him defensively, but offensively, he's the best high-low passer we have and he may be the best catch-shoot player we have. And so his length allows him to be in the mix, and if he'll keep making strides like he has, we need him to have a role on our team.”

On preparing for Gonzaga, next steps after UNLV win

“I don't know what time it is, the first thing I'll do is shower and then I'll spend 20 minutes just studying this, not because it applies to tomorrow, but it does apply to tomorrow relative to the focus being on us. We have to be really careful, in my opinion, in week four of year one that we give all of the attention to the opponent, particularly with a short turnaround. We have to make sure that we're applying the lessons that we're gathering information on and making sure that we're succinctly explaining that to our guys where they understand. I think the first part after this is I'll meet with our personnel coach, just so I can get a feel for their team, their talent, their experience, etc. Then I'll meet with our defensive coordinator to talk about their premise behind how they play. And then I'll meet with our offensive coordinator, how do they play defensively? How are they going to defend in the post? How are they going to defend ball screens? Do they have any unique defensive principles that are their secondary versions? And then, when we get together with the team, first thing in the morning, we will do what we call flow, which is where the coach that's in charge of the scout just kind of commentates six minutes of them playing. And it's kind of intermingled maybe two minutes from the night, two minutes from earlier in the day or earlier in their season. And then we'll go over the first version of their starters, and then we'll come back in the afternoon when we have shoot around, shootaround I'm sure will be at the hotel, and we'll kind of walk through what we call their gold actions, which are their top four things. And then we'll walk through what we anticipate our gold actions will be. And the rest of the time, it's just a lot of the stuff that I put on this that I can be prepared for if adjustments are needed.”

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