MAUI JIM'S MAUI INVITATIONAL

November 22, 2021

Buzz Williams

Quenton Jackson

Andre Gordon

Texas A&M Aggies

Postgame Press Conference

Wisconsin - 69, Texas A&M - 58

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with questions for the players.

Q. Andre, you got a really quick start. You had three 3-pointers early on. What was clicking for you all early in the game?

ANDRE GORDON: I think we were just locked in. We prepared well for the game. We prepared to start well for the game because in previous games we didn't start well. We ended well, but we didn't really start well. So I think we just was ready. We were amped up. We were just ready to fight.

Q. Andre, six of seven from three and had 28. Did Wisconsin do anything different after you guys got hot?

ANDRE GORDON: Yeah, it was just a matter of finding open shots. We didn't get a lot of opportunities to shoot the ball as we did at the beginning of the game and, but, yeah, we just didn't hit open shots when we had the chance and didn't get the opportunities.

Q. Quenton, seemed like the game really got physical, how did you respond to that physicality?

QUENTON JACKSON: We knew coming in the game it was going to be kind of physical, so we kind of expected that. When it happened I don't think we responded the way we should. I wouldn't say it caught us off guard, but I don't think we expected it to be that physical. We talked about it and it wasn't like there wasn't going to be any, but we didn't respond the right way. So that's one thing that we have to try to figure out.

Q. Obviously in a tournament situation like this you have to turn around and play tomorrow. What's going to be the preparation and how do you get ready physically and mentally to put the game behind you and look forward to tomorrow's game.

ANDRE GORDON: It's kind of like AAU ball, we've been doing this since we were young, we just got to turn around and forget what happened, erase the board and just keep going, just play basketball, we do it every day. So just having the mentality to do so.

QUENTON JACKSON: That's just how the game goes, win or lose, you have to be thinking what's next, you can't be thinking too much about the fact that you lost, it clouds your judgment. We got to have a good mind going to the next game so we can focus on what's coming next.

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach.

BUZZ WILLIAMS: I thought we did a lot of good things. We just didn't do them for long enough. I think our preparation by our staff and players was really good. I think we knew exactly what we had to do in order to have a chance to win and I think there were consecutive minutes where the five kids on the floor did that.

The thing that we struggled with is we need all five to play with great discipline and great execution for a longer stretch, whoever those five are. But I thought we did some good things. Wisconsin is not going to beat themselves and we turned the ball over at too high of a rate and then gave them too many extra possessions on the offensive glass and I thought that that was the difference in the game.

Q. What did you tell your players about what type of game this would be and what to expect from Wisconsin?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: We went Wednesday afternoon, and then we took Thursday off. We do two-day prep, one-day prep, and then obviously game day. A little different because we traveled a littler earlier to Vegas. The way we started two-day prep was just to give them context on how Wisconsin plays.

And obviously I have the utmost respect for Coach Gard and have known him for a long, long time and I think he's doing a lot of the same things from a fundamental standpoint that Coach Ryan did, maybe a little faster in pace at times, but categorically the same.

So we showed them some clips of our six games, Marquette versus Wisconsin. We showed them some clips of Virginia Tech/Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament. I think your defense against Wisconsin has to be better in the last 10 seconds than the first 20 seconds. When you look at thus far through three games entering today, 42 percent of their shots are happening in the paint. And one of the highest number of shots in the country that happened in the last 10 seconds.

I think even today we call that fire when it gets to the last 10 seconds. I thought in fire, when we were on defense, they scored at a higher rate than you have to in order to beat Wisconsin.

And then the same is true offensively. If you're going to try to take good shots, you have to be comfortable playing late in the possession, and we call that ice. And both fire and ice today, we were not as good as we needed to be in order to beat 'em. Some of that is because our turnovers happened before it got to ice and then some of those back-breaking -- you don't get clean rebounds against Wisconsin. Everything is going to be a tip. If they're going to shoot in the last 10 seconds and then they get an offensive rebound, you have to be tough enough to guard them again for another 25, 27 seconds.

And I thought those things were the difference and those are the things that we practiced and we showed 'em. We just didn't execute it well enough to have a chance.

Q. The fast start in the first half did Wisconsin do anything schematically that changed that or was it more execution issues?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: Yeah, I don't know if they changed anything. Without trying to coach their team, I don't know that schematically they did anything. I think that was just kind of the realization for our guys. When you play Wisconsin, there's not going to be a home run hit. There's not going to be a knock out punch. It's throw good pitches, throw good pitches, throw good pitches, and then body blow, body blow, body blow.

And I thought we started great and then, as you said, we did not close out the half the right way. That bled into the start of the second half, and that gap where we didn't execute all of those things that I was talking about. That was the difference in the game.

It's a five-possession game and those five possessions were kind of right there in the middle of the game. We ended fine. We started great. It was not being able -- we exhaled and you can't exhale against Wisconsin.

Q. (No microphone.)

BUZZ WILLIAMS: I think he's, I love 34. He's going to have a bright future in coaching. I think 1 is a really good prospect and I think 1 changes their team. And I don't necessarily think that it's schematically that they change anything, but I think there's more of a priority when 1 is in the game and what they're trying to accomplish.

If you were to chart everything they did in their two guaranteed games when 1 played and then chart what they did in their game against Providence, it was different and it was different because 1 wasn't playing.

But I think at halftime, I think they had shot 26 of their balls. I could be wrong on that. So for the game they shot 34 of their 58, and for the first 25 minutes that percentage was even higher. I think he's a good prospect. I don't know if I interrupted your question. That's enough.

Q. Today's, obviously Wisconsin's a physical team that you've played. How would you rate your team overall on how they dealt with that size because it seemed like especially in the paint that they really changed a lot of shots?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: They change shots and then you think, regardless of your size, hey, I'm blocking out and I'm about to get the ball, and then as you're about to get the ball here comes a deflection. Here comes a tip. They don't stop when the ball's in the air and I think that's what makes them so good is when the ball is in the air they're not going to settle behind on your back. They're going to swim move. They're going to try to get around. They're going to try to get a tip.

I think there were spots when we did a good job. You just have to know that it's going to be a game full of unclean rebounds and you have to feel the responsibility regardless of who you are when you're on defense. I have to get that ball.

And we did a lot of advantage/disadvantage rebounding drills on Friday and Saturday in preparation for that, and that was one thing that I mentioned to our guys at halftime and even again at the end of the game, was there anything in preparing that happened that you weren't prepared for? And they were like, it was exactly what we saw, it was exactly what we practiced, it was exactly what we talked about. We did do good -- I think Henry being in trouble kind of changed us a little bit on the offensive glass. I think Marcus being in foul trouble changed us the last six or eight minutes of the first half. We need both of those guys from a stability standpoint on the glass and some flow in what we're trying to accomplish offensively, but we will have to finish many games, not just Wisconsin, we'll have to finish many games over the course of the season with better discipline and better execution on the things that beat us today.