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DIRECTV WOODEN LEGACY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 13, 2013Buzz WilliamsTIM SIMMONS: Next up is Buzz Williams from Marquette. Can you comment about the early start to practice, and has it benefitted your team? COACH WILLIAMS: I don't know. Obviously it's been different, the flow of how we operate and the timing of it has been different, not just for us, obviously for every other team in the country. I think the more you can be around your kids, the better, whether that's in the summer, whether that's in the fall. I think you probably think of it more in ‑‑ an outsider thinks of it more in a coaching‑type way. I don't know that coaches necessarily view it in that same manner. I think the opportunity to create rhythm and routine of what your culture is, what your beliefs are, the values of your program, that's probably the most important part of how the NCAA has changed things is just to not be so restricted in the opportunity to spend time with your kids. TIM SIMMONS: You're ranked pretty high, No.17 in the country. Did you expect to be that high at this time of the season? COACH WILLIAMS: We're not any good. We're not the 17th ranked team in the country. I know in the polls we are, but I think a lot of that particularly preseason, not just for us, you can say that for some of the other teams probably, it's just based on what we've done in the past, specifically last year. We lost our entire starting perimeter. We've got an entire new team, in some ways as far as the complexion of our team and how we're going to have to play. Are we the 17th ranked team in the country? In my opinion, no, we're not. That's not coach‑speak, that's just being transparent about who we are today. Can we work to get to that point? I don't know yet. We've only played two games. We were just okay opening night. We were better last night in our game. But we play a team that's good enough to win the National Championship on Saturday, and I think we'll probably have a better feel for where we're at when we wake up on Sunday. TIM SIMMONS: Can you single out any players who are playing pretty good, any surprises with your roster? COACH WILLIAMS: Well, you know, guys have probably played more minutes than some of them deserve, just because we've only played two games. But I think for our team, I don't think you can become so consumed with the results in November as you can your growth of your team, because who your team is in January and February and March a lot of times is predicated on how they grow and how they mature in November and December. So within how we have operated since we've been here, the growth of our team and each specific player is just as important as the results of any of those kids in November and December because we've got to continue to grow and continue to mature. TIM SIMMONS: Can you talk about the DirecTV Wooden Legacy, the format, and then obviously about your first‑round opponent Cal State Fullerton, actually kind of a home game for the Titans? COACH WILLIAMS: We're thankful to be a part of it. Anything that has Coach Wooden's name associated with it means that it's first‑class, that it's going to be elite. We're thankful to be a part of it. We've had great experiences in all the other exempt events that we've played in during our time here. We've never played in this particular event, and so we're excited to be a part of it. I love Dedrique Taylor. I'm excited that he's finally got a chance, long overdue, a chance to run his own program. It is a home game for them. That'll be good for us after having played at Arizona State four days before, to have an opportunity to play back‑to‑back road games, and it'll be a good maturation week for our program to see how we handle playing on the road for the first time out of our confines, out of our typical routine. We anticipate there will be a lot of positive things come from the experience. There may be some negative results, but I think in time they'll be really positive things that come from it. Q. I saw you were in one of those games which had a lot of fouls, a lot of free throws the other day. Are you on board with what's going on with the new directive, and how do you feel about it? COACH WILLIAMS: Yeah, good question. I'm trying not to join the social media avalanche of the rule changes. Having said that, I do think that it's going to change the way the game is played. Without sounding too simplistic, hey, if you touch him, it's a foul. Okay, I've got it, move your feet better, I've got it. Players understand that, coaches understand that. But there's going to be an adjustment, and I think within that adjustment, I think you're going to see obviously more zone because guys have got to be able to keep their best players on the floor, but I also think that you're going to see some of the adjustments in regards to philosophically how teams are going to play. Are teams going to continue to press in the full court? Are they going to press less often? How are they going to play in the half court? How is their ball screen coverages going to differ? We've kind of been evolving. We evolved a little bit last night, even during the game, just because I think that it changes the game. When you get to the bonus, close to the first media time‑out, and you're in the double bonus by the second media time‑out, that changes the game, and it becomes more of a free‑throw contest, but those officials are doing what they've been told. And if the people that are making these decisions believe that it cleans up the game or makes the game more pure or because there's more free throws there's more points scored, again, I don't want to get into all of that because I just think it becomes rhetoric. But I do think that there's going to be an adjustment, an adjustment in how you play on both ends of the floor. I don't know, maybe some of these guys are ahead of the curve. I've been trying to watch a lot of different games. Probably I've watched more games through the first week of the season than at any point in time in my career because I'm trying to see how teams are‑‑ how they're adjusting, both offensively and defensively. I don't know that we'll know the final answer or the final result because I think it's such a small sample size as of now, but I think as things play themselves out, I do think that there's going to be an adjustment, and the adjustment is going to be more than just, hey, move your feet and quit fouling. Everybody understands that. That's relatively simple to understand. But I think philosophically there's going to be changes that we haven't seen yet that will continue to evolve. TIM SIMMONS: Coach, we appreciate it, and we'll see you in about two weeks in Southern California. Good luck to you. COACH WILLIAMS: Thank you. Have a good day. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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