Fire & Ice: Buzz, Aggies focusing on closing out every possession

Key notes from Buzz Williams interview

• One of the things that we track is the last ten seconds of a possession when we’re on defense - we call that “fire.” When we are on offense, we call those last ten seconds “ice.” Those are some of the unseen numbers that we track. During the previous three games, we have gotten to fire and ice as much as anyone in the league because of what we want to do defensively and on time of possession. Our fire and ice numbers have been really good over the last week. 20% of our possessions are going to end in fire or ice. If you look at it over the last three games, we’ve been as efficient as we have all year. When teams don’t play as we do, it alters their rhythm.
   
• Early on, when we prepared for our Costa Rica games, I told the kids that I was going to look at the stats, but not look at any prior tape because I didn’t want any preconceived notions of them. We did look at the tape of before I was here, so they knew what was going on and what we wanted to do with fire and ice. It’s more important than any team I’ve ever coached, and it’s completely brand new to them.
   
• Their mentality is changing. They used to get so rushed, but now when we get to the end of an offensive possession, they understand that ten seconds is an eternity. Over time, your bad-shot percentage decreases because they understand how much can happen. They realize they have time to do more than a flat ball screen and a shot off of that. Their willingness to accept that says a lot about them.

• This is my 13^th year doing it, and I’ve always had a junior college player on my teams. It’s kind of unspoken for me because I’m the only power-five coach that is a junior college guy. JUCO guys are usually always a little behind because of the time needed to prepare, the length of the season - it’s a lot. You see it the same with freshmen. There’s a transition for both. The junior college guy has some experience, but the level and intensity is all brand new. How much they care is essential.

• I’m good with guys that seem to think they have nowhere else to go. Guys like Jimmy Butler and plenty of others. I didn’t recruit Jimmy. I didn’t even know Jimmy.

• I thought Quenton Jackson was 10-14 days ahead of schedule. He figured it out during finals week. Guys seem always to figure it out when school starts back up in the spring - Martin Luther King week. He was becoming more consistent.

• All of it is new for Q. The level of support he’s receiving is brand new. We have so many more coaches; we have nutritionists and all of that. He cares so much, and he’s become so much more consistent. That’s why his production has gone up so much.

• Regardless of who or where we play, we have a chance in very specific ways. It’s going to have to be similar to Saturday’s game. We are so burdened by how we can make it a push on the glass. How can we prevent them from obliterating us on the glass? Because of Kentucky’s size and length, they put so much pressure on the rim. We’re going to have to be at our absolute best for it to even have a chance of being a game. We have to negate their pressure or even it out a little bit. At the other end, we have to find a way to create pressure on the rim. Our formula will be the same against Kentucky - a team that is going to win the league.