Buzz Williams reflects on the life of MLK Jr. & analyzes A&M's defensive strategy

Key notes from Buzz Williams interview

• We will spend a little bit of time on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this morning and then more tonight when we get to Columbia. You could talk about Dr. King every day. One of my best friends is coach Goerge Raveling, a member of the Naismith Hall of Fame. Coach Rav was on stage with Dr. King during his 'I Have A Dream' speech. Coach, who was a teenager, asked for his notes from the speech, and Dr. King gave them to him. Because of this holiday, Coach sent a picture of him on stage with Dr. King with the notes in the background. I love history, and I've studied a lot about Dr. King. We will, for sure, find ways to give our guys tidbits about who Dr. King was.
   
• I think our team cares more. I think there has begun to be consistency about how we talk and how we treat one another and how we work in the film room and on the floor. None of that is quantifiable. It's not good enough. We took some steps back last week, but from that consistency, they're much more aware when we're not doing what we're supposed to do. Over time, that matters. Over time, relative to our program, this team and these children's lives, that consistency is important to have.
   
• Entering Saturday's games, in conference games only, we had the second-best defense. Statistically, we have forced more threes than any team in our league. Last year at Virginia Tech, we forced the second-most threes of any team in college basketball history since the shot clock era began. We are focused on keeping balls out of the paint. With this team, we do not want to foul. We do not have a team that can absorb foul trouble. Fouls happen out of rotation and at the rim. We've done an excellent job of getting the ball out of the paint.
   
• Our defense is not a man coverage or zone coverage. A lot of people in the media think it is a zone, but it's not. We're okay with people calling it that. Defensively, we want them to hold the ball as much as possible and force them to take shots late in the clock. That forces a lot of threes and a lot of corner threes. We want to contest over 70 percent of those threes. It was 76 at Vanderbilt, 75 vs. LSU, 70 vs. Ole Miss and against South Carolina, it was 56 percent. It was not good enough.
   
• If South Carolina shoots and misses ten balls, we want to get seven of those balls. South Carolina got 5.5 of those balls back. That was not good enough.