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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE OPERATION BASKETBALLOctober 29, 2014Buzz WilliamsCHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA Q. Obviously you did a lot of successful things at Marquette. When you look at this team of Virginia Tech, the team said that you've brought a lot of energy to them. What have you taken away from the team? BUZZ WILLIAMS: They're as good a kids as I've been around in the long, long time, and they've been very receptive to how we want to go about things. They've been as coachable as any group that I've been around. They're aware of the workload that's ahead of them. Having said that, they're really excited every day to go to work, and I think that there's something to be said for that. I'm thankful for the chance to be around them. I would rather be with them today than doing this. Q. The first thing that you did when you got there, the players said that you introduced your wife and your kids to them. Talk about what that meant to you to establish family first, and then the second part of it, why was this the right fit for you to leave Marquette and make the decision to come here? BUZZ WILLIAMS: Well, I think that a lot of coaches, a lot of leaders in all walks of business say that this is a family. I think a lot of people believe that. It's just really important to me that I'm famous in my home, regardless of my success or whatever success is on or off the floor. I want to make sure that I'm the husband and father that I'm supposed to be, and so my kids are around our players a lot, and I did want them to meet my wife, and I did want them to meet our four children. And our players, whoever said that, is right; as soon as my family got to town, I immediately took them to meet our team. I think that's what you're supposed to do. Instead of just saying it, you want to be about it. I think that's what all successful people do in any walk of life. Q. Now that you've kind of gotten to have practices with the guys, I think we asked you a couple weeks ago, but now that you've had more practices, what traits or characteristics can you tell about this team right now? BUZZ WILLIAMS: We've had 16 practices as of yesterday. We'll go again twice tomorrow. I would say the No.1 characteristic that I would say about the team is they really care, and I think that's a great place to start. They're working incredibly hard. They want to work. Their expectation is to work with energy every day. They've been phenomenal in their ability to listen, to execute what we're trying to teach them. They've been taught several things. Some of them have had three coaches during their tenure, and so their ability to listen and be able to absorb that and be able to execute it has been really, really good, but I think they're also aware of how critical every day is for us as a program to continue to improve. I would say the first thing is that they really care. Q. There's been a lot of changes aside from the coaching staff. I'm talking about players, people who have left, new guys coming in. How is this group looking, and do you think the potential is there to outperform the preseason rankings? BUZZ WILLIAMS: Well, we got 155 votes and Duke got 935, so the potential to outperform what the expectations are, obviously we have multiple opportunities to do that because we were picked dead last. It's hard for me to say, to be able to answer your question in an honest way. I'm familiar with some of those teams that we've competed against in the past, but I've been so consumed with trying to establish our culture and the things that are really important to us that I've probably been negligent to some extent on beginning to prepare for teams that we're going to play in January and February. But we've just got so much work to do between now and then, it's hard for me to say. And it's hard for me to compete, like, where are we in comparison to other programs. Obviously I have a pulse on that because it's what we do, but I didn't watch any tape from last year because I didn't want to pre‑judge our kids that are remaining, and like you said, we've probably had more player changes than we have coaching changes, if you want to count by numbers. I can say that the kids that are still there all want to be there, and there's something to be said for that, and we're thankful that we are there, but how do we compare to these other teams and where they're at with their roster and their styles of play? We're behind in that, and we've got some work to make up in that regard. Q. Now that the poll, I guess the preseason poll is out, I don't know how much you really take into that. I'm sure you don't take a ton, but is that something you use for motivation for your team, or is that a surprise, or do you just kind of throw that out altogether? BUZZ WILLIAMS: Yeah, I hope that we're not motivated by external things. Having said that, I'll tell them and show them. I'll text that to them whenever you guys are through asking questions so that they know, but it's not necessarily to fire them up, it's just this is what they said, sorry I'm not there to tell you in person, but here's‑‑ I just took a picture, and that's where we're at. Q. Hearing that you're not influenced by some of the external, from the internal standpoint, how do you benchmark amongst your own crew? BUZZ WILLIAMS: Good question. Are we better today than yesterday, and then can we be a little bit better Thursday than we were today, and then can those days turn into weeks, and can we string together a few weeks and turn it into a month, and are we distinctly better as 2015 starts than as 2014 comes to a close. Q. How is Devin Wilson handling what you would like to do offensively? BUZZ WILLIAMS: Really well. He's a good player. I think that he could be a really good player. I think the thing that he cares about most is he wants to win. You can tell he's a former football player. He's not scared of anything. He has great defensive instincts. He has improved dramatically as a leader in the six months that we've been there. His teammates trust him. His teammates rely on him. But I think in some of the things that we're trying to do offensively, it's predicated on him being really good. I hope that we don't have to burn him out and play him 38 minutes a game. There will be nights that I'm assuming that we will. But we need to find somebody that can allow him to come get a drink of water here and there, and we're trying to figure that out. We don't have an answer to that yet. But he's been great. Q. Going back to your progress and talking about day‑to‑day getting better, I know you haven't played a game yet, but from the time you got here and started working with the guys, how has that progress been? BUZZ WILLIAMS: Yeah, good question. Better question than your first one. Really good. Really good, because those are things that we have evidence on. I'm not trying to be sarcastic to you, but I can better answer that question without giving you coach‑speak because I know where we were and I know where we're at, and so I can answer the growth and the improvement. I think David Jackson has done as good a job as he can possibly do in the weight room with our team. I think Ernest Eugene has been great in some of the injury prevention stuff we do in the training room. I think our staff has been great in what we do in pre‑practice and post‑practice, watching tape, things of that nature. I think that more than maybe making a shot or a particular play, I think our guys better understand the work capacity that we want and the energy level we want during that work on a daily basis, and to be able to function as if every day is the same day. I think it's an arduous process, all of this, and really what we want are beavers. Beavers get up and chop wood every day. They do the same thing wherever they are. And that's what we want to be. And I think our guys have bought into that. They understand that, and they're to the point now where they embrace that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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