Texas A&M basketball is riding a four-game winning streak and sits at 2-0 early in conference play following wins over Florida and LSU. On Monday's edition of TexAgs Radio, head coach Buzz Williams joined to discuss his team's early success against SEC foes.
Key notes from Buzz Williams interview
- I think our defense gives us our best chance. Being able to finish possessions with a defensive rebound was critical in our first two games. We rebounded 78 percent of misses in our first two SEC games. If you control the glass on both ends, it puts you in a position to have success in that game.
- Julius Marble II is gifted around the basket with the ball in his hands. What we've tried to concentrate on with him is the number of balls he's shooting, let's say it's 10 in a 70-possession game. On the other 60 possessions, how are you impacting our team? He's very ball-centric. When he has the ball, he makes good things happen, whether he scores it or not. We need him to have an impact when he does not have the ball, as he did in both of those games. He was great on the glass in both of those games, and that contributes to our team's success. We do a lot of things to get him touches, but you have to impact the game when you don't have the ball. That's the growth we've needed from him.
- Dexter Dennis may end up being my favorite player I've ever been around in regards to how he bends the game toward us, regardless of if he makes a shot or not. He was like 0-of-8 against Florida, and we could not take him off the floor. He had better finishes vs. LSU. I'm learning in real time and being reminded of Dexter's impact without the ball. I'm trying to explain that more and more in different ways and clips to our team, specifically to Marble and Manny Obaseki before he got hurt. It's hard to take Dexter off the floor because of everything he does defensively and in the press. He plays so hard and makes such an impact on both ends. He puts pressure on the rim and the glass offensively off the bounce.
- Dennis is the best listener I've ever coached as a head coach. He's incredibly intelligent, and when you tell him something, you never have to tell him again. It's like I tell him things to get it out of my brain because when I say it, he's got it. I'll tell him things so he can coach things that I don't have to coach that thing anymore. It's other-worldly his ability to get information, process information and then share it.
- In certain scenarios, when certain players shoot, Dennis is a "get back." When I watch clips, I can see his body in motion and doing his job, and he never makes a mistake. His body is in motion when it needs to be. His impact on our team has been superb.
- We never flinched. To our team's credit, that's why we won. That's the reason we were inconsistent in non-conference play. We dug ourselves a hole. We played a more difficult schedule, but we were too inconsistent in our toughness categories. The reason we had success this past week to some degree is because of our toughness. You try to address that in different ways in words and showing it to them in different clips. There are intangibles of toughness that you can track. In real-time, you have to address those things and show it to them. Show them where their toughness is a separator in a momentum swing. Our team never flinched, and that's a sign of toughness. We have to continue to build on that because that has to be what we're based on. The 400 minutes we played this week were the best 400 minutes we've played.
- Whoever sent that text message, I appreciate it. This business makes you go so fast that you live in an alternate reality. It's the life I chose, and I'm very thankful for it. I've been a college coach for 29 years, and anytime somebody sends me a handwritten letter, I respond to it. I will always write them back. Handwritten letters are important, and it says that somebody takes time. That matters.
