Maryland men's basketball head coach Buzz Williams on exhibition win vs. Georgia Tech, Kaden House, kicking off year two

21 hours ago

8 min read

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21RI3ow9KRk

Everything that head coach Buzz Williams said after Maryland men's basketball's 85-70 exhibition win vs. Georgia Tech:

On the exhibition win

“It's a delicate balance when you're playing that hasn't ever played together. They're excited. I think we've tried to be as thoughtful in our process with the first team and their first game, or this team and their first game. How do we want to handle two days before? What's our process going to be specific to us, specific to the opponent? A very similar mode of operations with one day before. We've made a lot of adjustments systematically, not just on the court but off the court. And so it's our first rep of those process changes. We’ve practiced 13. times. Obviously, this is the first time in college basketball history that you get three preseason games. And so back in the summer, we tried to go through a lot of this long before we got to this point, just so that we could make data-based decisions and not emotional decisions. So we're going to practice 25 times before we play our first game. Very thankful, somewhat strategic in that the three preseason games are a variety of each.

One neutral site, if you want to call Baltimore neutral site. It was our way of trying to help those in this area that support us so well, one home game exhibition that's a return from last season, and then one scrimmage. And so, we've tried to make sure that the environment is different, that the location is different. But relative to the process, we just want to make sure that we're gaining all of the evidence that we need to make as many decisions as possible from a data and evidence standpoint.”

On Bishop Boswell’s second half absence

“He wasn't available. He or [Tomislav Buljan]. [Bowell] was ready to go in the first half, and then we decided not to play him in the second half, and then Tommy wasn't available for the game.”

On Kaden House’s unofficial debut, player comparison

“He's Mensa level smart in a way that's incredibly rare. It's been a long time in my career that I've been able to gain traction and a trustful relationship as fast as I have with him. And it started when we were recruiting him. As you can tell, he does not handle fluff at all. He wants to go straight to what matters. And you have to coach him that way. And he almost demands that because he is a fast, fast twitch human being. And a lot of how he thinks and the rate at which he thinks, when you know him - and he's hard to get to know on purpose - but when you know him, and then you watch him play, you can see how his brain is the best part of his game. And that's the first time, like you guys said, that's the first time he's put on a uniform. But he's a dribble and a half ahead. He's a pass ahead. He's three seconds ahead in the decisions that he makes. We've talked over the last three weeks. First time you play, there's three officials. Do you think that you're going to play 12 minutes or 17 minutes before you foul out? Of course, I'm not going to foul out. You're going to foul out fast. But I can tell you from all of the things that we track – not just the box score, not just advanced analytics – all of the data that you can possibly think of that we track, that we believe impacts winning through 13 practices in one exhibition. His numbers will not be very good today. He played 14 minutes and he averaged one foul per two and a half minutes he played. So that will really bring down – that will skew his numbers on the things that we chart. But he's a fast, fast twitch human being. And when you present something about your team or the opponent, you need to have practiced it a few times because if you miss a syllable, he knows.

I adore him. I stand at attention for his life story, and I have. We had an immediate connection. Literally, the first time I saw him in person, I never saw him play. I know that's not what I'm supposed to say. I just I love his heart.”

On what’s clicking in year two through the offseason

“I don't know how to compare. I don't think that that's fair to the guys that were on our team last year, nor to the people that are part of our team this year. I think our staff was systematically starting last December, we began to kind of reconfigure a lot of different things as we were learning about Maryland, as we were learning about what we want to be in the Big Ten. Our staff was almost perfect, in my opinion, in their evaluation of the intangibles relative to the 11 players that we signed. We can talk about their talent. Their talent is vital. It's a prerequisite, but the character of who they are, their sphere of influence, their sphere of influence, and those young people understanding what's important to us, what our program is about, not on the floor, but off the floor. Then on the floor, similar to what he just asked about [Kaden House]. I never saw [Kaden] play. Who he is as a player is a prerequisite. We understand that that's part of what's required. But who they are, when you're in this era of college athletics, you have the same information in some ways from a data standpoint as every coach. And so you've got to figure out the things that you believe translate to what your program is going to be about off the floor and on the floor. And our staff was, in my opinion, perfect in their evaluation of those intangibles.”

On Kaden House’s five fouls

“Well, it'll be the first time that Tuesday morning that we can show them pictures of somebody that doesn't wear red or black. And I think it happens with every team. It happens with [Georgia Tech head coach] Scott's [Cross] team. It happens with our team. Every team. Whatever you're doing offensively and whatever you're doing defensively, that's what you practice against. And so, when you play against something different, now they better understand the value of those reps when we say, ‘Hey guys, they're going to have a zone press, and this is what our press offense is.’ But as of today, we don't have a zone press. So when we are focused exclusively on us, it's us against us and there's value in those reps. But when we go, hey guys, we need to work on this because the opponent does that. We don't do that and so I think that some of it is the first time they've played. Some of it is you have three Final Four officials on October the 11th. Some of it is they're excited, and some of it is just immature. But a lot of that will come to life, and we'll be better. I hope the next time we play against another team, they happen to be blue and gold, so we'll just stay on the blue and gold theme. But we fouled way too much, and our execution of things that we don't do was very poor.”

On who has impressed HC Buzz Williams

“Oh, I love all of them. That's hard. I have two daughters, so when they say which is your favorite daughter, I say how old are you wanting? Same with the boys. I'm very encouraged by their character. I'm very encouraged by the relationships, player to player, coach to player, coach to coach. And again with their mentors, with their representation, with their moms, with their grannies, there's been a very consistent and diligent effort long before we ever got to this day of building trustful relationships and everybody understanding what we're trying to do. So I'm not dodging the question. I'm excited to go to work every day. We practice way too long because I just enjoy being around them. And we're going to have some adversity. And we had some adversity today. They beat us in the second half. So we've got a lot of work to do, and I understand the marathon is just now - it's not even started. And so every day the rest of this month, the two other competitions, but the other 12 practices, we've got a lot going. I think we play five Power Five teams in the first seven games, and so for us to be able to get three practice preseason games against three Power Four teams – sorry for saying Power Five the first time I used to coach when there was Power Five – but I love all of them.”

On Maryland’s defensive efforts

“Coach [Devin] Johnson is our associate head coach and defensive coordinator. In honor of Gus Bradley and honor of Monty Kiffin, our defense is called Seattle Three. And I think it kind of goes back to some of the things that I mentioned with Matt's question. You get eight weeks to work with your team in the summer. Obviously, the summer is longer than eight weeks, but you can only coach them [for] eight weeks. And then, if you look at the first day that you play and you rewind 42 days, you can only work 30 of those 42 days. It's the most legislated rule left in college athletics that you actually work less in the 42 days leading up to the season than you can work the rest of the year.

So, if you would think of it from Memorial Day to Halloween, and you were a first grade teacher, what would your lesson plans be, and then when are you going to be off? And I think that we've restructured a lot of our processes, including our defense. Our defense, relative to the core principles, is what Coach Devon has always done. But how we've went about building the foundation of that system. It's not all the way installed yet. We will do some things in the full court. We will do some different things on the backside of rotations. I would say it's probably at 85 to 88% installed. But I think how they have went about it, three of our other assistants are on the defensive side with Dev being the coordinator. So our players are attuned to the frequency of what those coaches are responsible for and our execution level of it continues to improve.

I thought that in the first half, some of the things that we're trying to accomplish in the first ten seconds of the possession led to a lot of the numbers that you mentioned. I don't talk to the team much after a game because I want to watch the game before I speak to them. But I was pretty convicted because I was taking some notes as the game was unfolding. The first ten seconds, as far as what we want to start the possession with, we failed almost every possession in the second half. So a lot of those numbers, I don't know where I would find them, but a lot of it I think happened in the first half. If we're only playing 100 minutes, we did a lot of good things relative to your question. If you're talking about the last 100 minutes, we were not as good as we need to be. But I think that systematically, how we've installed it, our guys - a credit to them and a credit to the teachers - they do comprehend what we're trying to accomplish.”

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