PLAYERS ERA POWER COLLEGE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

November 30, 2024

Buzz Williams

MGM Grand Garden Arena

Texas A&M Aggies

Postgame Press Conference

Texas A&M - 81, Rutgers - 77

Q. Buzz, you guys seem to do better guarding Dylan Harper than the first two teams who faced him in Vegas. What did you guys try to do to limit him, and how do you think you did?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: I thought our coaches did a good job on trying to figure out how to make it more difficult. He's so ultra-talented and causes rotation almost as soon as he crosses half-court.

I thought our guys understood what we were trying to accomplish, and I think at times we did. I don't think we did anything of note the first six minutes of the second half.

I do think the first half we were somewhat on the same page in how to defend 2 (Harper) and how to defend 4 (Bailey). Coach (Pikiell) is such an underrated tactical coach. I know he's such a great person and everybody talks about that, but 2 and 4 are really good, but he also puts them in position to be really good.

Then in some regards we did okay on those guys, but what he was doing with those other guys was causing us just as many problems. So I didn't think we were near as good in the second half, particularly at the start. He was -- I mean, 37 points a game in Vegas, he was so good.

Q. In regards to Henry, he comes into the game averaging 60 percent from the field, six rebounds. He finishes 77.7 from the field and grabbed a team high 22 rebounds in the three games. What did you see in terms of his just improvement and maturity in the three games?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: Thanks for saying that. He's worthy of a few tweets. Analytically prior to Vegas his numbers were through the roof. We didn't start him on Tuesday, and I thought the job he did against 11 on Wednesday and, to your point, what he accomplished as far as offensively, it's -- we did some other good things offensively, but what he has given us on both ends of the floor in eight games from a consistency standpoint, we've been able to rely on.

Over the last two games, I was telling him in the handshake line, like he's not the MVP, but you could argue he's been our MVP in Vegas. He's just in a really good groove. He's very mature, fast twitch brain, has been with us for a while, knows exactly what we're trying to accomplish, is an excellent leader. His consistency on the court and off the court, we have benefited from in Vegas.

Q. When you look at what both teams did from three-point range, which isn't outstanding whatsoever, but the resiliency in blowing a six-point lead, going down by nine, the overall picture, three-pointers would bring you back in that game, but realistically the resiliency of sticking together and sort of playing methodical basketball?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: Yeah, I agree with everything you said. I've lost my voice, so I should have called on you to talk during timeouts because a lot of what you just said was what we were trying to do.

I do think this: I think that our response to adversity on Tuesday was really poor considering our experience and our maturity, and I think the response from Tuesday going into Wednesday was outstanding.

But I did think that today at halftime, I thought there were some things we could have been better at. We had a little bit too many live ball turnovers. We were doing a great job getting fouled. In stretches we were doing a good job of not fouling them.

Number 2 was averaging 12.5 points from the free-throw line here. Every game they've played, they've attempted at least 20, and in Vegas they've attempted over 25. That's a crazy number.

I didn't think of the 15 that we shot, I was okay with 12 or 13. They scored 23 points in the second half, called timeout. We made some changes obviously to try to muck the game up to try to change the rhythm, to change the pace.

In some regards, I think we did a good job of that.

But our maturity and our experience together, I thought the last 8 to 10 minutes, was probably the swing vote for us.

Q. You guys rebounded 7 of 8 misses and only had five offensive rebounds at the end of the game.

BUZZ WILLIAMS: It was bad. It was great at the start. It was -- sorry, finish your question. Sorry.

Q. You can answer. It's fine.

BUZZ WILLIAMS: We're so reliant on our offensive rebound percentage since we've lived in Texas. Like it's become part of the fabric of how we try to play, and we probably coach rebounding on both sides of the ball more than I ever have anywhere, and it's the only bucket that I coach. It's the only film that I show.

We grade every possession all five players on both sides of the ball every game, and it overwhelms our program. I thought we were good offensively personal-wise at half. We were a little below where we needed to be defensive rebounding percentage-wise.

A little bit of why the numbers ended up so bad were, in my opinion, we played zone more possessions in November than we have any February since we've lived here. We haven't practiced it very much, but we were in a Hail Mary situation. Like we've got to try something. And we played zone 18 possessions, they scored 15 points, but 8 of those 15 were on the offensive glass.

Some of that -- some of that was we're not really good at our roles out of the zone relative to rebounding. Most of that was they just kept whipping our ass. This was the worst we've been on the glass offensively and the worst we've been on the glass defensively, and that's a credit to them.

But a portion of that is we weren't just very good in the zone to finish the possession.

Q. You were very complimentary of Steve Pikiell before.

BUZZ WILLIAMS: He's just such a nice guy. I love coaches no matter what the sport is, and I really love coaches who overachieve, that nobody ever thought they would make it to the highest level. It's very rare that any coach at any level in any sport overachieves at the rate that he has at historically difficult jobs.

To be able to hang around and hang around and still be such a good human being and has had such hard jobs that you have to figure out how to coach because nobody cares. So you figure out how to coach, stereotypically speaking, in places that nobody even pays attention.

Then when you get your chance at a place that's really hard and then you do it despite the volatility of the business, of the administrations, and it never changes who you are, like I just -- I don't even know him, but I just like -- I study coaches, and I just have enormous respect that every time I see him, every time he sees my sons --

Like he sat next to my sons at the Final Four and like they write letters to one another, and my sons have Rutgers gear, and I didn't even know. That's what I told him after the game. Coach, I don't know. I don't know any of these players. I enjoyed studying you the last two days.

But it's hard to be a good person in 2024, and I just think he's a really good person, whether he wins or whether he loses. I wish I could be that good of a person.

Q. You studied them for two days. You played against them just now. Ask you a difficult question, but what do you think the ceiling is for this team?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: I really like a few things. The No. 0 is a lot better analytically than you think. And I think 24 is really skilled, and I think the combination of 21 and 24 allow 2 and 4 to play the way they want to play.

I think that 25 and 5 are trying to figure it out, so they figured it out against us. 25 -- yeah, he shot 90 percent and had 20 points. So we helped No. 25.

But I just kind of like they're young, and their best players are their youngest players, and every day is a brand new day. I like the things they're doing to put them in spots to be successful.

I think 99 is going to have a role, but I think 21 and 24 are going to keep getting a little better and a little better. 0 is undervalued, but Coach doesn't undervalue him, you can tell. And I think when 25 and 5, and now 25 figured it out, I think they have a high ceiling.

Q. Every March we are used to Las Vegas hosting three, four conference tournaments. This month Dawn Staley brought the No. 1 women's team to the Tipoff Classic. This week we saw incredible women in Henderson, a couple of tournaments here. There were question marks around this. I would be remiss if I didn't ask about my hometown here. What did you think about the tournament and Las Vegas in the month of November?

BUZZ WILLIAMS: I'm saying this the right way, not with any innuendo, I love Vegas any time of the year. I've only played one time in Vegas in 2013 in December. I played in a neutral site game and lost by six to the University of New Mexico the game before Christmas. So this was my first experience.

Some of the people whose names are not on Players Era that are involved is how Texas A&M was invited. It's a game changer for us. It was scheduled to be Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, but relative to the exposure, relative to the competition, how it was ran that it's all in one roof.

I didn't know all of that was going on in Vegas because all I've done is go to the room and come to the gym, but I think it's probably a great place for fans and all of the things that come with high level basketball.

So I have a hard time believing there's many places better.