COLLEGE STATION — This whole Southeastern Conference thing was all new to Buzz Williams. It’s why he wasn’t ready to make any preseason prognostications on how his first Texas A&M team would fare overall.
“It’s the first time in five years,” Williams said this week, “that every game is new.”
Five years ago, the native Texan was in his first season at Virginia Tech. Williams, previously head coach at New Orleans, Marquette and Virginia Tech, is big on analysis and thoroughness and familiarity, and he said it’s difficult to truly possess any of the above minus an on-site education.
He dubs it “foundational knowledge” — not just possessing game tape of an upcoming foe playing another team, but video of a foe playing you.
“I have to understand the opponent first before I can deduct, 'OK, this is what they do and this is how we can best help our own team,'” Williams said.
That’s why he’s increasingly pleased in early February — his still-new SEC opponents are beginning to look a bit more familiar.
“Tonight was the first time we had played somebody before,” Williams said late Tuesday after the Aggies dismantled Missouri 68-51 in Reed Arena.
A&M also had won at Missouri 66-64 on Jan. 21, so this week the Aggies earned a regular-season sweep of the series. Next up is more familiarity for the Aggies: At South Carolina at noon Saturday.
“They punked us,” Williams simply said of the first meeting between the Gamecocks and Aggies, an 81-67 South Carolina victory Jan. 18 in Reed Arena.
He’s been pouring over game tape since in trying to figure out why. The Aggies have veered here and there in finding their way under Williams, who took a once-plodding Virginia Tech program to three consecutive NCAA tournaments before returning to his home state, but overall his first year has been a success to date.
Midway through SEC play, the Aggies (11-10, 5-4) have won more league games than they’ve lost, a nugget few expected when they were dropping three straight contests to Harvard, Temple and Fairfield in late November and early December in the Orlando (Fla.) Invitational.
Put another way, the Aggies’ five victories in their first nine SEC games is their most since starting league play 8-1 four years ago. That 2016 team featured future NBA players Danuel House Jr. of the Rockets and Alex Caruso of the Lakers.
The Aggies were 3-6 in 2017 and 2-7 each in 2018 and 2019 under then-coach Billy Kennedy. The 2018 team recovered to make the NCAA tournament and push its way into the Sweet 16.
With nine games to go in league play and the SEC tournament in Nashville, few are expecting Williams’ first A&M team to make the postseason, even with a surprising start that has the Aggies tied for fifth with three other programs in the 14-team SEC.
The Aggies, who rely heavily on three true freshmen among the top eight players in their rotation, are at the bottom of the SEC heap in shooting from the field (38.9 percent), and the only team in the 30s percentage-wise.
Three of the other four worst-shooting teams haven’t won more than two games in league competition, a testament to Williams’ ability to get the most out of his mostly poor-shooting players in other ways.
For example, the Aggies held a 46-21 rebounding advantage in a 63-58 win Jan. 28 at Tennessee and a 49-30 rebounding advantage Tuesday against Missouri, in running away with the 17-point win.
“It may not make a lot of sense, but sometimes our best offense is, don’t shoot an airball, don’t turn it over, hit the rim and then we have a chance,” Williams said.
Following their road game Saturday, the Aggies return to Reed Arena for contests against Florida and Georgia. The Gators are new to Williams, while the otherwise-bad Bulldogs beat A&M 63-48 last Saturday in Athens, Ga., one of the Aggies’ head-scratching veers this season following the surprising win at Tennessee.
“Strategically as a coach, it’s fun to be able to not necessarily anticipate what (an opponent) is going to do, but at least have some evidence of what they have done,” the ever-analytical Williams explained. “Particularly against us.”
"Happy" - Google News
February 07, 2020 at 07:36AM
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Aggies have reason to be happy halfway through SEC play - Houston Chronicle
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