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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: SAN JOSE

March 23, 2019

Buzz Williams

San Jose, California

MODERATOR: Okay. We welcome Virginia Tech coach Buzz Williams. We will open it up to questions.

Q. Coach, first of all, again, congratulations on making it to the next round. One neat thing I think about your program I noticed is the shirts that you wear obviously during the post-game press conferences and the players are wearing. I think it's pretty cool. If you could give us a little background on how all that got started and overall how many T-shirts you've given out to your players and yourself?
BUZZ WILLIAMS: Thanks for asking. Thanks for even noticing. We call them quote shirts. You can't get a quote shirt unless there is a Tech talk behind it, Tech as in Virginia Tech. I think it's just another opportunity for us to teach our guys maybe a life lesson, maybe something that's bigger than basketball.

There was one quote shirt that was basketball specific in year No. 1. That was the only one that has anything to do with basketball. Everything else is specific to life.

The ones that I wear after the game, it's kind of the only time that I ever wear them. I don't ever want it to come across arrogant because most of those quotes are quotes that I say, not necessarily my original words. Some of them are.

We make five extra ones for anyone not in our program. So anyone not in our program that has a quote shirt, either the quote was attributed to them -- Gus Bradley is here. We have a quote shirt from Coach Gus when he was with us.

It's just kind of become a part of the fabric of what we do. Depends upon the year. I think we gave our guys their last quote shirt on the Monday before we left -- the Monday we left for Charlotte. And so that was the eleventh quote shirt of the year.

But I would say -- you could see a wall in our facility. It has the artwork from every quote shirt and the lesson under the quote. I think they average about 13 a year. So however many that is, approaching 70 in our time here. Thanks for asking.

Q. Buzz, in a quick turnaround, quick scout, is it helpful to you guys that you see the pack-line defense a couple times this year already with playing Virginia and the fact that you were on the same court with these guys in an exhibition game in early November?
BUZZ WILLIAMS: I don't think so. I think you can tweet about it and it makes sense. But I don't think at this stage when we play tomorrow, with however many teams will be remaining in the field, 20 games -- 20 teams left in the country playing for a National Championship, I don't think something that happened 139 days ago, I don't think that there's much carryover.

That's not who they are now. It's not who we are now. They're playing for their 30th win. And statistically, if you look at the metrics that matter the most, they're very impressive, almost better than half of the teams in the ACC on the numbers that smart people pay attention to.

But I don't know that -- I mean, I don't even remember that far back and how we operate, I just think that that's -- in dog years that was so long ago.

Q. I just wanted to ask you kind of on the previous question about the pack-line defense, facing it twice against Virginia, what comparison, similarities is there between UVA and Liberty?
BUZZ WILLIAMS: I try not to go to the dentist, because when you play UVA, that's what it's like. It's just -- it'll be a very slow game. I do think that how -- I'm not trying to coach Coach's team, but I do think that if you read what he says and how they go about their business, I think defensively a lot of what they do is very similar to what UVA does.

That whole coaching tree, Coach Bennett, Coach Bennett's dad, Coach McKay, Brad Soderberg, all of those guys are kind of from that grouping. And I think how they defend ball screens, how they defend the post, the pack line, the imaginary line that they want to -- it's the force field that the ball can't get to, I think it's very similar.

I don't know that there's any other team that we've played against this year that are 1000 percent pack line. Louisville has a lot of that. Coach Mack plays some of that, but it's not the original Dick Bennett "This is pack line, I'm inventing a new defense." I don't think anybody else does that the way that UVA and Liberty do.

Q. It seems like your seniors and the upperclassmen have a pretty good feel for what you're trying to accomplish and can coach internally. I would imagine that's the goal of any coach. But how satisfying has that been to see, and how does it play itself out in the day to day?
BUZZ WILLIAMS: I think okay programs are typically coach led. I think good programs it's kind of a mix, maybe some coaches and some players. I think sustainable, successful programs, it's normally player led. And that takes time, and even with time it doesn't mean that it's going to happen.

It speaks to the character of our guys. I think it speaks to their IQ and their EQ. Those old guys that have been -- I mean, Med's known me since he was a sophomore in high school. And I think there's some -- it's never written about, and maybe it shouldn't be, because it would make too much sense, but my staff, a lot of those guys have been around me a long time as well. Right? Half of our staff either played for me or was a manager or a GA.

And so it's kind of the culmination of all of that, to the point that I'm probably the least used cog in the wheel, because the staff, the players, the former players, kind of how they've morphed and how they've grown is way better than what I would have done if I would have led it on my own.

And so I think that's what you want as you're building an organization, for there to be some continuity, not just in how you play, but maybe the why is maybe more important than the how.

Q. To follow up what you were saying about Liberty is a different team than they were back in November. So the film you've seen of them today, what concerns you the most about the team they are now?
BUZZ WILLIAMS: Well, they're tenth in the country in effect active field goal percentage. And I know it's an easy story line. It's the pack line. It's Tony Bennett, it's Ritchie McKay. It's Dick Bennett. I get all of that. But they're tenth in the country in effect active field goal percentage. That's very impressive.

They haven't lost a game in over a month. They won their championship game on the team that they tied with to win the league. That's very impressive. I don't know if you saw that game, but that was a great college basketball game.

And even the game that they played last night, I don't know -- I know the 5-12 matchup is popular in Vegas, but that was -- Liberty won that game. And Liberty was never out of the game, no matter what Mississippi State was doing. And so as effective as they are defensively, and obviously that slows the game down, for them to be as efficient as they are offensively is -- I mean, that's why their metrics are so good. I mean, their net, their KenPom, all the stuff that matters, that's why they're still playing, to be honest.

Q. I know you talked a little bit about it after the exhibition in November, about your relationship with Ritchie. That encounter when you were at Colorado State, he was at New Mexico, what do you remember about that, and after that just how your guys' relationship evolved?
BUZZ WILLIAMS: Yeah, I worked for a coach at Colorado State, and Ritchie used to be a graduate assistant for Coach. And so, of course, I did not know any of that. When Coach hired me, I didn't know Coach. I'd never been to Colorado. It wasn't like it was a wired deal.

Like maybe most young coaches under 30, I was probably hellbent on the wrong things, with a lot of it being selfish in nature. I remember what happened. If you want to talk about it, we can.

It was a Big Monday game. That was when the Mountain West Conference played the game after SportsCenter. If you were living in Richmond, you were already asleep when that game came on. But for somebody that was 28 years old and employed at a school that didn't have a direction in it or a hyphen in it, that was a big deal to play on national TV. Where I'm from, I never had cable until I became a coach. And so like Big Monday was pretty cool.

And so Coach Layer I've never heard say a word of profanity, ever. And never have I heard Coach McKay say a word of profanity. And so I for sure skewed the numbers in that regard. And Coach wouldn't allow me to use profanity. And I did that night, and I probably didn't handle myself in the right way.

But I think to talk about that would be even more immature on my part, because my relationship with him has completely morphed into something totally different. And I have the utmost respect not only for what he does as a coach, but, maybe more importantly, who he is as a person and the impact that he's had as a coach.

Q. Coach, I just talked to Justin Robinson, and he was mentioning that while he was hurt, that he felt that he was beginning to see the game even more as a player and a coach, and he looks up to you, and that he is able to analyze things from -- in a manner that he wants to be a coach, he said, after he plays. I'm wondering what your assessment of his kind of cerebral take on the game is and if you do see him being a coach one day.
BUZZ WILLIAMS: For sure he'll be a coach. He'll be incredibly successful. If I'm still coaching, I'll try to hire him. Probably won't have enough money to afford him. Jamie McNeilly was a player on my -- was a player who's now on my staff. And as a young coach, I thought he was the best player I had been around that could take what I was saying and translate it to the players that couldn't understand it.

And 5 is the second best. I think he'll be ultra successful because he has a level of charisma about him, kind of has a level of swag about him, but it's not too boisterous. It's not arrogant.

I thought he was very important and helpful in the 12 games that he sat out. Obviously as a senior, as the all-time leader in assists, you don't want to sit out. I don't know how many games that we lost that we would have won when he played, but for him to be a Virginia kid and to be a part of the evolution of our program, I think that that was incredibly difficult, but how he handled it spoke -- speaks to who he is.

He sees the game a lot faster than I do. He's been one of if not the most important person in the change in our program, and maybe that's because of he's always to the next play, particularly when the ball is in his hand. He just -- he makes the game so much easier for Ahmed, game easier for Nickeil, game easier for Ty. But everybody that he's played against. When he was a freshman and starting, we were playing Seth Allen, and Seth Allen was as good with the ball in his hands as I've been around.

But when 5 has the ball, I just think it's -- you're too young to know the group the Eagles. They had a song, "Peaceful Easy Feeling." And when 5 has the ball, I think everybody feels that way. Our guys don't listen to that genre of music. I do. Like when 5 has the ball, I know statistically it wasn't his normal game, but in the 27 minutes that he played, he was a big part of handling Saint Louis's pressure, handling their physicality, because when he has the ball, you know he's going to make the right direction.

And a lot of times I think the decision that he makes, he's skipping. If it's A, B, C, he's skipping B. He's going from A to C, and unless you've been around him a long time, you never even knew that there was a B.

And so I think he'll end up playing for a long time. I think the right team that values having an IQ, values a great teammate, I think he'll stick with the right team at the highest level. But when he's done playing, I think he'll have an even greater impact as a coach.

His ability to influence not only his team, but like in Buzz's bunch and all of the other things that we do in the community is just -- he has -- he's very much a magnet to kids. And his ability -- my children, they think 5 hung the moon. And when 5 got hurt at Miami, that next day it was rough at our house, you know, because our -- my children thought we were going to lose every game. It was my children and Berman, you know, the wheels are falling off (laughs). And so that tells you how much they think of 5.

MODERATOR: Let's go to Berman on the left.

BUZZ WILLIAMS: Why not. Even you know who Berman is.

Q. I don't know if it sunk in. You started the preseason playing the charity exhibition game. You sat there with Ritchie on the podium there.
BUZZ WILLIAMS: I gave him some money. Did you ask Ritchie about this? I gave money to that ministry, and they never cashed the check until after the new year. That must be a Falwell deal. When you donate to charity, my CPA said you want to count that in 2018 --

Q. I don't have a CPA.
BUZZ WILLIAMS: As skilled as you are, I'm surprised.

Q. Being with Ritchie and the teams back then and now kind of come full circle and here you are these many months later with Ritchie again and the NCAA Tournament, does that strike you at all today or last night?
BUZZ WILLIAMS: I'm real happy for him, and I mean that in a sincere way. If you rewind -- I know he's older than me, but if you rewind in his career, his ascent was as fast as any head coach ever.

And the thing that I find in addition to that ascent was the AD at Liberty when he left was the same AD that hired him back. And I don't know if you could Google that in college basketball. I don't think that that's ever occurred. And I think that that just speaks to who he is.

Yes, it speaks to that he's a very good coach. But to leave an institution and then come back and the people that are making the decisions bring you back, I think that that probably is the most unique measurement relative to his career.

Last year, not this season, last year when the hurricanes affected -- one hit Houston. One hit Puerto Rico. The NCAA allowed us to add an exhibition as long as the moneys went towards those and the relief of those victims. This year the NCAA did not allow that. And so we had our typical annual scrimmage with South Carolina, and then Liberty was scheduled to come to our place for the scrimmage. And then we were able to work it out where we would just turn the scrimmage into an exhibition so that we could raise some money for that.

Yeah, I don't know, Berman, that it kind of crossed my mind yesterday the answer to that. I'm just typical coach. I'm so wired for that particular game, what was at stake, what it would mean to our institution, what it would mean to our program, what it would mean to these kids and these families that believed in something that wasn't there four or five years ago.

Maybe it's crossed my mind today, but not that it's from a competitive standpoint, more from an admiration standpoint. I have great admiration for Coach, for who he is. I think that was the first win for him in the NCAA Tournament. Is that right? 17 years as a head coach, and yesterday was his first win. I would assume since it was his first win, that it was probably the first win for Liberty as an institution. So I don't ever look at Coach as a competitive -- in a competitive lens.

So I don't know that I necessarily looked at it like November the 4th on a Sunday, can you believe we had the exhibition on Sunday at Liberty? Isn't that -- I don't think we should do that either. But -- I went to church that morning. I don't know if Ritchie did, but -- I don't look at it in that regard. Obviously, by the time we play tomorrow evening, obviously that's what it'll be. But I just look to him with great admiration and happiness for him and for his family.

Q. I'd like to go back to the quote shirts, if you don't mind.
BUZZ WILLIAMS: Yeah, I did a bad job answering that.

Q. Well, let's take another crack at it. I don't know how far back you've done that among your many stops, but what the origin of that was and kind of what you want to communicate with it.
BUZZ WILLIAMS: Yeah, so my brain works in fragmented sentences. So here's some potential quote shirts for upcoming years:

"Clarity of purpose creates perspective." I would have to massage that for a while to get it where our guys would understand it.

"If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you." That's a good one.

"An appreciation, not an expectation." That's one thing that we've talked about a lot over the last month in our program, that trying to figure out how to do it.

So on my calendar there's just all kind of random fragmented sentences. Some of them turn into a quote card. The quote shirts are really a derivative of quote cards.

I haven't given out business cards for years. And I never wanted to give a business card out because every business card has your name, your title, your information. And I always, at the very core of that, thought that that was arrogant. So when I became a head coach, I quit giving out business cards, and I created quote cards. And before I met Josh Chambers, they were like the most kindergarten quote cards ever. And Josh is now on our staff, and like they're the best graphics of all time.

So anytime I send something in the mail, I include a quote card. Anytime that I meet somebody, I have a quote card. And we have a different quote card every day. So any day that we work, I have a quote card. So anytime we watch film, I give everybody a quote card. When I give them the quote card, I give them a mini Tech talk -- what does this mean to you, do you understand it -- and then I give them my perspective on it. Anytime we gain traction or something is better than a quote card, it has turned into a quote shirt.

So just in random conversation, if our guys hear something or if our guys say something and they know it's -- they would use the word "fire." If they know it's fire, they'll say, Coach, that's a quote shirt. So Ahmed has every quote shirt that we've ever made here. 5, K and Ty have every quote shirt over the last four. Probably equals one quote shirt every 20 to 24 days.

And at the end of the year every person that's a player on scholarship on our team puts on their favorite quote shirt, and we take a picture. And then I take my quote shirt and cut it out, and I have a lady that makes me a quilt. So every year I have a quilt of the quote shirts from that year.

Every year we have a theme for the year. Our mantra is Get Better, but within that mantra there's a theme for the year. I don't ever say it publicly. But for that theme there is a logo. And so depending upon who the guy from Roanoke was asking, I don't have one on, but you'll find a logo on the quote shirt, and that logo will be specific to that year.

So year two was a ladder. Year three was the Birimian rings. Year four was True North. So it kind of looked like a compass. Year five is the number 5, but it looks like it has four fingers coming off the curve in the 5, and each of those four fingers, kind of like the pylons at Virginia Tech. So they know what year that quote shirt came from. And I think the best thing about those quote shirts is if you ask our kids what the lesson was, they would be pretty accurate in describing it.

MODERATOR: Great. Thanks, Coach.

BUZZ WILLIAMS: You bet.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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