Pharrel Payne after Maryland's loss vs. Georgetown: "didn't play to the level we should've"

11 hours ago

7 min read

Maryland men's basketball head coach Buzz Williams reiterated what was clear by the final horn: "we weren't there."

In a prove it game one season after being humbled against its DMV rival in College Park, Georgetown left no doubt at Capital One Arena on Saturday night in a game that Maryland trailed nearly from beginning to end. The opening minutes featured three lead changes before Maryland trailed the final 35 minutes and 11 seconds.

"From a physicality standpoint, we weren't there. From a communication standpoint, we weren't there. From an aggressiveness with a high IQ on what's right, relative to time, score, momentum, we weren't there," Williams said after the loss. "Is that me blaming? Absolutely not. But it's a great opportunity for us to teach from and for them to learn from because it's going to be required over the next 19 weeks.”

It didn't matter that Maryland ended up winning the battle on the boards, or nearly doubling Georgetown's paint points, after allowing the Hoyas to shoot 52% from the field. Yet big reason why the Hoyas shined was due to the three point shooting discrepancy as Georgetown made half of their 30 attempts, including knocking down seven of their eight attempts from the under-12 timeout prior to the final minute of the first half.

Andre Mills knocked down a three that tied the game at seven in the opening minutes, but that marked Maryland's last made three until the final four minutes of the game as Kaden House, one of three Terp to finish in double figures scoring, knocked down a pair of threes that cut the deficit in half, making the final score much more respectable than how the game ultimately played out.

"We just didn't play to the level we should've," Pharrel Payne said after the loss.

Whether Maryland can find an answer as to how to play to the level needed is another question with ninth-ranked Virginia headed to College Park next Friday, Nov. 13.

More from Buzz Williams after the loss

On what led to the score opening up

“I think maybe a little bit of all of it. I watched a few clips at halftime. Obviously, I haven't been to watch the second half yet, but I think our transition defense was connected to the average shot selection too often in the first half. We offensive rebounded much better in the second half. We got fouled at a much higher rate in the second half. Our shot selection was much better in the second half. I think all of those things are connected. I think we made and attempted one free throw in the first half. I think our offensive rebound percentage was the lowest it's been through three preseason games, and this being our second regular season game. I don't necessarily think that they were all bad shots. We define shots by medals – gold medal, silver medal, bronze medal, no medal. We didn't have near the gold attempts that you need to have in order to win on the road. We count no medal shots. They include blocks. I think they had six blocks. So if you have six blocks and you're shooting too many average shots, and you only attempt one free throw, that probably means you're not going to be shooting what we would call predictable shots and have a chance to offensive rebound. So I don't know that our offense helped our defense at the rate that it has to in order to win on the road. And I also think that when you are shooting unpredictable shots, you're going to be in a broken floor. And when you're in a broken floor, it's going to lead to fast transition and/or uncontested threes. And I thought they were – all of them: [Jaland Lowe] for sure, [Elmarko Jackson] for sure, [Kayva Mulready] for sure. But a lot of that transition three came from average offense.”

Kaden House

“I really like what he is defensively. Really like the toughness that he competes with. Some of his aggressiveness defensively at times takes him out of the play. He's beginning to understand space offensively, which will allow him to get fouled I hope at a higher rate, but I'm excited about his future and I think that he fits us on both sides of the ball in a really good way.”

On how this loss can help the team

“The thing that I just told them in the locker room, I don't talk much postgame ever. Good win or bad loss, because I like to watch it so that the words that I use, there's evidence to support it. And also there's more conviction instead of it just being emotion. They have responded through all of the things that we've done in practice, they have responded to everything that we've taught them this summer. And we're going to need to have the best response thus far as we finish week one, going into week two. And we'll utilize tonight and tomorrow and Monday the right way to diagnose all of the different lessons. It's not one thing, it's multiple things because multiple things are required to win. Multiple things contribute to losing.”

On picking up four fouls within first 33 seconds of 2H, GTown in bonus final 17:02

“Really difficult. I actually think it was more than three [fouls]. You could be right. I thought it was four, but to your point, it got to seven really fast. That's not the way that you want to start. And we want to make more than the opponent attempts and so we have to defend without fouling. Way too many reaching type fouls. Some of that was on those second half starts, but just categorically, I think we got to the bonus first in the first half, but we were eight to ten minutes behind getting to the bonus in the second half, and that's a large margin relative to how we need to play.”

Evaluating defensive performance

“I think that we need our shot selection to do better. We need to put more pressure on the rim, whether that's by shots, whether that's by rebounds, or whether that's free throw attempts. We need more opportunities where the ball is coming out of the net, and we can play hat on hat instead of playing in a broken floor. I think that you have to be careful at just skewing the numbers. There's always a reason why, and as I mentioned to Ed, I think that's kind of what started all of this, was we need our offense to be better so that we can get our defense set. [Lowe] is a dynamic guard, and when he has multiple shooters and [Vince Iwuchukwu] as an anchor at the rim, when the floor is broken to start the possession, you're going to struggle and you're going to stay in rotation.”

On defending Iwuchukwu

“The first thing we talked about was [Lowe] in transition, in an open floor, his ability to score once he got inside the volleyball line. And then we talked about the presence that [Iwuchukwu] has, whether that's a post feed in the channel, whether that's a post feed to the block. And what our defensive plan was in some ways, we were okay with three. I thought [Iwuchukwu] and [Payne] were fighting at a very high level, from a physical standpoint, from a competitive standpoint, at the rim. I thought [Chol Machot] was fabulous. I thought [Machot] changed the game in the first half. I don't know how many of the six blocks we gave up. I don't know how many [Machot] had. That's not to take away from [Lowe], but I thought [Machot] really changed the game and allowed us to settle way too often instead of getting them in group rotation and making good decisions at the rim.”

On multiple touches per possession

“We call them triggers. I thought our triggers were slow, just in general. We need a trigger so that it ignites a rim pressure. Whether the rim pressure, to your point, is off the pass, whether it's off the bounce. Is there rim pressure? We only need one. We don't need two, so that we play with appropriate spacing. But on that rim pressure, does it make them make a decision. And too early in the possession, we were slow to a trigger. We need to anticipate our triggers quicker, and even if we don't win the first trigger, we need to hurry up and get to the second trigger. You're not going to score at a high rate against a set defense on the first side, not sure that even on the second side that's enough. We didn't get it to the third side enough because the anticipation of the trigger wasn't near as sharp as it needs to be.”

Managing shot selection

“We started talking about it in the first timeout. And that's not to say I'm right and our players were wrong in any stretch of the imagination. I think I'll know more after I study it. Shot selection will have to improve. Offensive rebound percentage needs to be at a high level. Both halves, we need to be the first team in the bonus both halves. I don't think that we can only shoot one free throw and have a chance, whether we play at home or on the road. There are aspects of our transition defense that will always have to improve. We have concentrated on that since we played Bucknell because we knew how fast Georgetown was based on what we had seen. I think just overall, our response to adversity, our response to things aren't perfect, our response to we're not anticipating a trigger, our response to we're settling for a silver shot or a bronze shot. Our response has to improve and I don't think that that's specific to one person. I think that's specific to the entire operation. That includes me. But I think that them seeing it tomorrow and Monday, I anticipate they'll respond the right way. But to pinpoint, was it this? Was it that? Like it's easy. We made three threes and they made 15. So mathematically, you're way behind. But there's some things that are connected at deeper levels, that are not always going to be perfect. And so when things aren't perfect, from a physicality standpoint, we weren't there. From a communication standpoint, we weren't there. From an aggressiveness with a high IQ on what's right, relative to time, score, momentum, we weren't there. Is that me blaming? Absolutely not. But it's a great opportunity for us to teach from and for them to learn from because it's going to be required over the next 19 weeks.”

Related Links