00:00Big Ten tournament starts tomorrow with the Maryland Terrapins taking on the Oregon Ducks.
00:05And joining us now to preview that, talk about the regular season that was,
00:09he's the head coach of the Turtles.
00:11He's on the Window Nation guest hotline.
00:13Let's welcome back to the show, as we do every Monday, Coach Buzz Williams.
00:16First of all, Buzz, how you feeling?
00:18You're on this Monday morning.
00:19Good morning. How you doing?
00:20Doing all right.
00:21And, you know, after the Wisconsin game where, you know, they kind of got on you,
00:25the Badgers did, you know, effort certainly was there against Illinois yesterday afternoon.
00:30in the regular season finale against the 11th-ranked Illini.
00:34Just talk about the team and the way they played.
00:38You know, Illinois is going to be a dangerous team come March,
00:40and they were dangerous yesterday.
00:42But ultimately, what proved to be to their advantage in the end?
00:47Yeah, I think they'll be a two-seed in six days.
00:51I know that however you get voted in the AP poll, I know that's somewhat archaic,
00:57and I don't really know how it works anymore.
01:00In the things that matter, they're ranked fifth in the country.
01:03They have the number one offense in the country.
01:05They were number one in offensive rebounding in our league,
01:10and they were number one at not turning the ball over.
01:14I thought from start to finish, from the plan and the ability to try to execute the scouting report
01:20against the team of that caliber, I thought our guys gave great effort.
01:24I thought their concentration and their ability to try to play to what you have to do in order to
01:30win was really good.
01:32That was the lowest turnover rate we had had since we played them at their place.
01:37We turned it over eight times yesterday.
01:39Yesterday, when we played at Illinois, we turned it over seven.
01:43They're number one in the Big Ten at shooting threes.
01:47We wanted to limit that as much as possible.
01:51We did a good job limiting it, and we contested their shots.
01:56We're not known as a three-point shooting team, but we made nine threes, and they made five.
02:01I thought the difference was we fouled way too much in the second half.
02:08They didn't get to the bonus in the first half, but they shot 21 free throws in the second half,
02:15so 16 of their points in the second half came from the free throw line.
02:19It was almost a push on the offensive glass.
02:23They got 12.
02:24We got 11.
02:25We did a good job contesting their threes, but I thought the difference was we fouled way too much in
02:31the second half.
02:3425% of their points came from the free throw line,
02:37and that's just too much when you're playing a team that's offensively as potent as they are.
02:43Coach, how encouraging was the performance for Darius Adams yesterday?
02:47Coming off the bench, you had 14 points.
02:49Seemed to have a pep in his step, playing with some confidence for sure.
02:53I mean, as a freshman, and he talked about it last week, you know, get that freshman ball.
02:57It is what it is, but how would you assess his play yesterday,
03:00and how encouraging could that be for, you know, the next couple of days, hopefully, in Chicago?
03:06You know, I think our issue all year long, whether you're talking about D.A.,
03:11whether you're talking about Biggie, whether you're talking about Dre, Solo,
03:15pick a player, because I don't think that it's specific to D.A.
03:20D.A. played well yesterday, but he has not played well in a while.
03:25But you could say that about every player on our team,
03:27and I think that the inconsistency of our team has been the inconsistency of certain individuals.
03:34And I don't think that it's exclusive just to offense.
03:38I think it's also exclusive to rebounding.
03:41I think it's not exclusive to rebounding or offense, but it's also defense.
03:45Like, I love Elijah.
03:47He played 35 minutes yesterday, and he had one rebound.
03:50Well, we're playing the tallest team in the country,
03:53the number one offensive rebounding team in the Big Ten, third in the country.
03:58We need more than one rebound from him.
04:01And that's not me being negative towards Elijah.
04:03I would say that if Elijah was standing here now.
04:06And same with D.A.
04:08When he's good, I tell him he's good.
04:10And when he's bad, I tell him he's bad.
04:12I think that where we have to grow as a program
04:15and where we have to grow relative to our roster
04:18is the consistency required to execute at the highest level
04:24on both ends of the floor and also on the glass
04:28because that's what good teams do.
04:29And this league is comprised of really good coaches
04:32with really good players that have depth,
04:35that can play on both sides of the ball
04:37and consistently do it night in and night out.
04:41And yesterday, we were fairly consistent from start to finish.
04:46And I thought our young guys were incredible.
04:49Andre Mills had 30 points.
04:51Incredible.
04:52I don't want to have to count on Andre to score 30 points.
04:56D.A. was our second leading scorer with 14.
04:59Great.
05:00You know, he made 50% of his threes
05:03as opposed to in Big Ten play, he's made 20%.
05:06I think it's the consistency.
05:08We needed more consistency yesterday
05:10from our old guys on senior day, not from our young guys.
05:15And going into Chicago, we need everybody to be at their best
05:18so we can stay as long as possible.
05:20You mentioned Andre Mills there.
05:22I mean, what can you say about his development
05:24from when he arrived here to yesterday,
05:27you know, multiple 30-point performances this year
05:29and just looking way more aggressive
05:31with the ball in his hands this past month?
05:34Well, I think there's been some consistency
05:37on the days that are not publicly accessible.
05:41I think there's been consistency in his diet.
05:44I think there's been consistency in what he does in the weight room.
05:47I think there's been consistency in what he does in the film room.
05:50He's been very, very consistent in his skill work in the gym.
05:55And I think that's obvious, similar to what you say, Mitch,
05:59and his aggressiveness going downhill,
06:01his ability to play off two feet.
06:03You know, and yesterday, we had five turnovers in the first half
06:07and he had three.
06:08And like I've been telling him,
06:10we need you to have more offensive rebounds
06:12than you do turnovers.
06:14We need you to have maybe more assists than you do turnovers.
06:18Because if we think that it's just going to be about you scoring,
06:22then you're never going to develop into the complete player
06:25that we need you to be.
06:27And like, how many times do you foul their Dre?
06:31How many times does their Dre foul you?
06:34That's a good score to keep.
06:36How many times do you turn the ball over?
06:39We don't want to just look at empty stats relative to,
06:42oh, I scored 20 and he scored 18.
06:45Well, that's a two-point swing.
06:46I think we have to continue to give Dre, as a freshman,
06:51every opportunity to understand and grow and develop
06:55to be a complete player.
06:56And I think he's made unbelievable strides.
06:59And transparently, some of what he was able to do in February,
07:03he averaged 19.2 points in Big Ten play in February as a freshman.
07:08That's really hard to do.
07:10But some of that 19.2, we needed more guys to be with him
07:16because I don't know that 19.2 needed to come from him
07:20if we were going to be successful.
07:22We went three and five in February.
07:24We want to go six and two.
07:26We want to go seven and one.
07:27How do we do that?
07:29And so I've been very encouraged by Dre's growth.
07:31But I think what he knows and his sphere of influence understands
07:37is it's not just what's happening on game day.
07:39It's the consistency that he's having every other day that we don't play.
07:43It's hard to believe it's tournament time already, but here we are.
07:47You guys are kicking off the action in the Big Ten tournament tomorrow evening.
07:51What do you remember about your previous meeting with Oregon
07:54back in early January?
07:57It's amazing.
07:58I've spent a lot of time since the last time I was talking to the media
08:02at whatever time that was, five o'clock, six o'clock yesterday,
08:07trying to study Oregon.
08:09We played them the first weekend in January.
08:11I think that was, I don't know, like eight and a half weeks ago.
08:16And so I started there and I just stepped out of the conference room
08:21to call you guys, trying to see kind of what they were doing
08:25when we played them and then how their team has changed
08:28as it relates to how our team has changed.
08:32I think Oregon probably got to Chicago yesterday,
08:35obviously we were playing here yesterday.
08:38So we're going to meet with the team in an hour
08:40and kind of do some film and walk through.
08:43And then we got to travel because as you mentioned,
08:45we played the first game of the Big Ten tournament
08:48and we also played the last game of the Big Ten regular season.
08:53So it's a short turnaround and we've got to make sure
08:56that the information and the content we get to our guys
08:59are what helps them the most tomorrow afternoon.
09:02Buzz Williams, head basketball coach, University of Maryland.
09:05Buzz, we appreciate the time as always.
09:07Good luck in Chicago.
09:08We'll talk to you next Monday and hopefully talking about some fun stuff.
09:12Maybe dancing shoes.
09:13That was great.
09:14You got it.
09:15Buzz Williams, everybody.
09:16You got it, man.
09:17Here's Buzz Williams, everyone.
09:18You know, all things considered,
09:20seem to be in pretty decent spirits
09:21because, Nolan, once you get to March Madness,
09:23crazy things can happen.
09:25Six and O this week.
09:26That's all it's going to take.
09:27Six and O.
09:28Four and O this week.
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