Williams stresses value of possessions as A&M's SEC gauntlet continues

After a 77-69 loss to Tennessee on Saturday, Texas A&M aims to return to the win column on Wednesday night, hosting Vanderbilt at Reed Arena. Head coach Buzz Williams joins TexAgs Live to reflect on an 0-2 week and look ahead as the end of conference play nears.

Key notes from Buzz Williams interview

• Every possession is a challenge, regardless of whether we have the ball or the other team has the ball. Tennessee is good enough to win a national championship. The guys did a lot of good things. We were connected. We missed shots that we would hope to make. That's part of it. Chaz Lanier was incredibly hot in the first half, and I thought our adjustments in the second half kind of slowed that down. It's exactly what we expected.
   
• We played much better than we did on Tuesday in Starkville. That was as poorly as we have played, potentially all year long. Way too many live ball turnovers. Way too many block shots. Never gave us the chance to get fouled. Never gave us a chance to get an offensive rebound. Playing in the broken floor and never getting our defense set. All of that is a credit to Mississippi State. What our problems were on Tuesday, we did not have those problems on Saturday.
   
• We grade our shots. It's a little too in-depth to answer succinctly, but we talk about grades. What would that grade be, one being the worst, five being the best, not necessarily the person, moreso our team? What we consider to be predictable. Is that the person we want to shoot when we want to shoot? Relative to time, score and momentum. For us to shoot 45 percent in the first half against the No. 1 defense in the country... We shot 62 percent in the field if you take away our 3-pointers. We shot 90 percent from the free-throw line. We attempted the same number as they did. A lot of those 3-pointers that we missed, I understand we're not a great 3-point shooting team, but they were the right shots. They were predictable shots. I think that's why they gave up more offensive rebounds than they have all year long. Our offense was predictable, and the grades of those possessions were what we would want them to be. It's more of a categorical thing than anything else.
   
• What I want to figure out is how I can help our team. I'm not looking to complain. I'm not looking to blame. I'm not looking to defend, "Hey, we did that right. It should have been that." As it's happening in real-time, I know when there's one that hurts, and that's kind of just part of it. My job as a leader is to speak light and make sure that I'm helping to encourage how we can improve on each side of the ball and in special teams situations. Also, I understand that we learn from those lessons. You want to continue to improve. When you get post-Valentine's Day, that's hard to do for any program because you are talking about details. I don't really look at my phone, so I'm probably a little removed from the emotion, drama and opinions. I don't think any of that helps us improve.
   
• To defend Lanier, we made some adjustments at half. The 13 3-pointers made is a hard number to overcome. Whether it came from one major person or note, 13 3-pointers, that's 39 points. That's a lot. For it to be a one or two-possession game for 37 to 38 minutes, that speaks to we we're doing a lot of really good things in regards to we shot more balls than they did. We shot more free throws. We offensive rebounded at a really high rate considering they're the 16th best offensive rebounding team in the country. They did not get the offensive rebounding percentage that they usually get. Did we lose because Lanier scored 30? No, we played at Oklahoma, and Brycen Goodine scored more than that, and we won. 
   
• We were awful in Starkville. Way too many live ball turnovers. We count block shots as live ball turnovers, so there were 22 times where we either gave them the ball when the clock was running and/or we shot the ball, and it was blocked. 
   
• I think the changes we made were right, but when you make those changes, you're going to open yourself up to some other things. Zakai Ziegler is a really good player. One of the better guards that the SEC has ever had.
   
• I told our guys after the game that I am not justifying losing, and I will take every arrow that comes my way anytime we lose. I will shine as much praise and glory on as many people as possible every time we win. I felt completely different post-game Saturday as opposed to post-game Tuesday, and I believe our players felt the same. We were not our best. That's a credit to Mississippi State. I thought our mentality was much more in line with who we are and how we got to this point on Saturday. I think Tennessee is good enough to win the whole thing. Ziegler is elite. Lanier played incredibly well, and he is their second-best player. I think we were comfortable being uncomfortable throughout it.
   
• We had to get back to our identity because that's how we win games. They don't turn it over. We try not to turn it over. Their defense forces you to turn it over. Our defense forces you to turn it over.
   
• On the glass, we offensive rebounded 44 percent against the No. 1 in the country. That's above our average. We defensively rebounded 75 percent. We're No. 1 in defensive rebounding in the SEC. Tennessee is among the best in the country from an offensive-rebounding standpoint. We got to the bonus first. They never got to the bonus. That was huge. In the second half, in essence, we both got to the single bonus and double bonus. That was encouraging. We also had a high offensive rebound percentage. 16 assists on 23 baskets. That means the ball was moving. There were a lot of really positive things. We did not win, and the head coach should be blamed in every possible way. I liked the nature in which we went about our work and the mentality in which we competed.
   
• We call it real on real. That was real on real on Saturday. When both teams are hooked up, is there an outlier stat? Is it for us? Is it for them? There was an outlier stat on Tuesday. We turned the ball over way too many times. There was an outlier stat on Saturday. Lanier scored 30 points. When you get to this late in the year, it's going to be the team that makes the fewest mistakes. Those shots that we shot, I hate that we missed them. I know who took them. I know that they missed them. I would also say shoot them again because they were predictable. We didn't make them at a high enough rate.
   
• I started studying early yesterday morning for Vanderbilt on Wednesday evening. This will be game No. 15 of SEC play. A brand new roster, a brand new coach and a brand new style of play. They play completely different than they have ever played. I haven't studied them or watched them because there is no familiarity. Our group has a lot of work to do. We started yesterday, and we've got the day lined up after this. 
   
• Vanderbilt spreads you out if you allow it. They shoot a lot of 3-pointers. They play with a lot of freedom, similar to Oklahoma in how they make reads on what you're going to do on the weak side. All of these reps and all of these hours before we play Wednesday night are very important. We don't know any of their players, nor do our players. We don't know their style of play, nor do our players, so I'm glad we're not playing until Wednesday because we have two full days in regards to being with our guys. We started this morning, but we'll go this afternoon and start what we call two days before, which is beginning the preparation part for the opponent. We have a lot of work in front of us. 
   
• Vanderbilt is an NCAA Tournament team. They just beat Ole Miss. Ole Miss is coming off of their bye week. They didn't play last week, just like Tennessee didn't play midweek last week. They only played us. Ole Miss had their bye week and then lost at Vanderbilt.
   
• Vanderbilt has some huge wins in non-conference. I think that from a statistical standpoint, you can cut out all of the opinions on Texas A&M men's basketball this year. It's their 113th year as a Division I institution, and they've been in multiple leagues. Statistically speaking, the league that they're currently playing in, never before in any league, has there been a league that's better than this.
   
• Looking through a lens of yesteryear, like, "I can't believe Vanderbilt is good." You have to let go of what you think they were. There's NIL now involved. There's a portal now involved. There are new coaches now involved. They're an NCAA Tournament team. Whoever you play in the 16 teams going into the last week of February, right now, there are 13 of those teams that are going to the NCAA Tournament.
   
• That speaks to the value of that possession. It's going to be a 66, 68, 69 possession game, and whether you have the ball or not, you are playing an NCAA Tournament team, and it is going to be an NCAA Tournament-type deal even though they're not saying that's what it is. That game on Saturday, that is an Elite Eight day. The winner goes to the Final Four. All of these reps, we have to learn from them. We can't anticipate the finish line. We have to continue to fight for every possession and find marginal ways to improve so that our best continues to change.