Buzz Williams

[jekelish]

 

[Digger]

He's not close to "Dixon offensive" but his sideline behavior/antics do make it easy to dislike him (myself included). I absolutely respect his coaching ability, however. He's going to turn VPI into a tournament team in the near future, imo, and their fans shouldn't care how popular he is with the other ACC fanbases.

 

[Cheriehoop]

In the last week and a half VT has been playing very well. They lost to Virginia by 3, beat Pitt and lost to Wake at Wake by 3 before playing us. Buzz is a very good coach and will be a thorn in every team in the ACC's side . He will be able to skip the JUCO recruits he had to rely on at Marquette too.

 

[OttoMets]

Love me some Tom Crean. I've never seen a team so unprepared for a zone, let alone a 1 seed. It was a wonderful gift to my eyes.

 

[Orange Barrel]

I used to be a Buzz hater. I mean like a seriously irrational Buzz hater. But when I watched his presser after Syracuse beat his Marquette team to go to the Final Four in 2013 all that changed. If you can find it, watch it. (I just wasted 30 minutes searching for it to no avail.) He was absolutely the epitome of class. He was unbelievably gracious and couldn't say enough good things about our program, coach, players etc. Did a complete 180 on him after that. My only beef with him now is that he's always on the court, but that's as much on the refs as it is him.

 

[OttoMets]

I used to be a Buzz hater. I mean like a seriously irrational Buzz hater. But when I watched his presser after Syracuse beat his Marquette team to go to the Final Four in 2013 all that changed. If you can find it, watch it. (I just wasted 30 minutes searching for it to no avail.) He was the absolutely the epitome of class. He was unbelievably gracious and couldn't say enough good things about our program, coach, players etc. Did a complete 180 on him after that. My only beef with him now is that he's always on the court, but that's as much on the refs as it is him.

Same, though I also have no respect for the clutch-and-grab style of play, as it's ruined college basketball while the regulatory body has stood by and watched.

But Buzz seems like a good guy, introspective and pleasant.

 

[AZOrange]

Love me some Tom Crean. I've never seen a team so unprepared for a zone, let alone a 1 seed. It was a wonderful gift to my eyes.

Oklahoma 2003...

 

[SoBeCuse]

The zone has been far too friendly for acc foes going back to last year. Im not so sure we can expect to survive year in year out in this league with the zone. Putting way too much pressure on our halfcourt offense.

Kaleb, Roberson, Cooney, etc. make Flynn, Devendorf, Donte Greene look like the Spurs.

 

[two3zone]

I actually like Buzz. I think he's an excellent coach and if he can get some guys there I think they can build the program there like what's been done in Miami. If I was a high school kid I'd love to play for him, his antics are a little odd but he seems like he absolutely loves his players.

I'll end my post with a little Buzz Williams dance.

 

[PeteCalvin]

I used to be a Buzz hater. I mean like a seriously irrational Buzz hater. But when I watched his presser after Syracuse beat his Marquette team to go to the Final Four in 2013 all that changed. If you can find it, watch it. (I just wasted 30 minutes searching for it to no avail.) He was absolutely the epitome of class. He was unbelievably gracious and couldn't say enough good things about our program, coach, players etc. Did a complete 180 on him after that. My only beef with him now is that he's always on the court, but that's as much on the refs as it is him.

Buzz being on the court isn't his fault, it's the officials' fault. They control the game and NEVER tell any of these coaches who like to stroll that they need to stay off the floor. All they need to do is T a couple guys up and it will stop.

 

[reedny]

Yah, once someone mentioned Curley Howard it was all over. Now I can't even look at the guy w/out expecting Moe to slap him upside the head. He's obviously a vary passionate and competent coach .. but his habits of profuse sweating, wild gesticulation, invading the playing surface and setting up encampments during every time out are all amazingly annoying.

http://www.syracuse.com/orangebaske...iams_stalks_sweats_carrier_dome_syracuse.html

 

[UnderHisOwnPower]

He puts forth a lot of energy that can be taken as annoying by opposing teams, but he absolutely torched our zone for most of the second half

But he also blew the game by letting his guys jack threes with a double digit lead and about 4 minutes left. Terrible clock and timeout management, they gave the game away.

 

[HoustonCuse]

He had a good pre-game NCAA tournament PC one time too. It was probably 2011 when the refs jacked the game from us. But anyway - he told his (quite lengthy) story of how he got into coaching. It is pretty hard not to be entertained by the guy and sort of root for him a little after hearing that.

 

[andyw715]

Buzz being on the court isn't his fault, it's the officials' fault. They control the game and NEVER tell any of these coaches who like to stroll that they need to stay off the floor. All they need to do is T a couple guys up and it will stop.

My 8yo daughter and I went to the Towson @ UNCW mens game a few saturday's ago. Towson coach spent most of his time yelling and spazing out on the 3 pt line. My daughter asked what that crazy guy was doing out there.

Refs gotta do something.

 

[Orangezoo]

Going against and regularly beating scrub coaches like Jim Calhoun and Bob Huggins and Buzz Williams and Mike Brey and Jay Wright really didn't prepare us for the ACC. We've even managed to get some wins over Pitino and Dixon.

That is far removed from the point here. The style of play in the ACC lends to more possessions overall and you can clearly see the better ball movement. I am not saying the zone does not work. But if we don't apply pressure with it and sit back the style of play leads to more open shots. As a single defense it has been shaky. With that said.. it is also clear that there is a very strong need to be better offensively in this league. The big east was a brutal and tough league with great coaching. But reduced possessions was beneficial given the more physical nature of the league. We have seen a great many teams in league play the past two seasons torch our zone. The quality of the defenders is certainly a variable but it appears more than that. The ability to cause discomfort to opponents offensive rhythm has been where our defense has looked the best. Pressure vs UNC being a prime example.

 

[NKR1978]

That is far removed from the point here. The style of play in the ACC lends to more possessions overall and you can clearly see the better ball movement. I am not saying the zone does not work. But if we don't apply pressure with it and sit back the style of play leads to more open shots. As a single defense it has been shaky. With that said.. it is also clear that there is a very strong need to be better offensively in this league. The big east was a brutal and tough league with great coaching. But reduced possessions was beneficial given the more physical nature of the league. We have seen a great many teams in league play the past two seasons torch our zone. The quality of the defenders is certainly a variable but it appears more than that. The ability to cause discomfort to opponents offensive rhythm has been where our defense has looked the best. Pressure vs UNC being a prime example.

Good points. I disagree mostly because this year we're just not a good team and last year the wheels fell off because of the offense, but I see where you're coming from.

 

[Orangezoo]

Good points. I disagree mostly because this year we're just not a good team and last year the wheels fell off because of the offense, but I see where you're coming from.

In all honesty i hope im wrong. Ive always seen the zone as such a weapon. That said i tend to wonder if its either too well understood or just not suited to be exclusive in the acc. A year where we are strong on both sides of the ball is going to be the telltale and hopefully that is as soon as next year.

 

[jordoo]

In all honesty i hope im wrong. Ive always seen the zone as such a weapon. That said i tend to wonder if its either too well understood or just not suited to be exclusive in the acc. A year where we are strong on both sides of the ball is going to be the telltale and hopefully that is as soon as next year.

Its tough to take these first two seasons as a good cross reference for how effective the zone will be in the ACC. In both seasons we have struggled offensively to the point that teams do not have to be anxious against the zone because they don't have to worry about losing touch with us since we don't score very well. I for one would love seeing at least occasional 4-5 min spurts of pressure and then dropping into the half court traps being a regular part of our defensive arsenal however this season without the horses its hard to ask for unless its a desperate situation. I would like to see our defensive numbers compared to the rest of the ACC last year and at the end of this year. Last year was a solid defensive squad if not spectacular and this season is subpar for us on defense. If in these two seasons we are still in the top 6ish defensively then I think our better zones will be just fine especially if we can score. Even last year the zone almost always kept us within striking distance even when we couldn't score with the exception of @ UVA where we were without Grant for most of the game. This year other than @ Clemson its been the same.

 

[SU2NASA]

Actually he almost beat us with a team of mostly walk ons. The guy can coach.

Had a good friend here who's son was with the Marquette team and said he was pretty much universally hated there. Not as a coach, more as a person. Going from Marquette to VT isn't a step up - that's pretty much the reason.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

That is far removed from the point here. The style of play in the ACC lends to more possessions overall and you can clearly see the better ball movement. I am not saying the zone does not work. But if we don't apply pressure with it and sit back the style of play leads to more open shots. As a single defense it has been shaky. With that said.. it is also clear that there is a very strong need to be better offensively in this league. The big east was a brutal and tough league with great coaching. But reduced possessions was beneficial given the more physical nature of the league. We have seen a great many teams in league play the past two seasons torch our zone. The quality of the defenders is certainly a variable but it appears more than that. The ability to cause discomfort to opponents offensive rhythm has been where our defense has looked the best. Pressure vs UNC being a prime example.

At times we had 4 guys at the FT line extended. We had good on the ball pressure, but bad rotation.

 

[mark79]

But he also blew the game by letting his guys jack threes with a double digit lead and about 4 minutes left. Terrible clock and timeout management, they gave the game away.

I was just going to post this. They had no business losing the game the other night. You almost have to try to make that many mistakes... And their clock management (as you say) was about as bad as I have ever seen.

 

[longtimefan]

The zone is pretty easy to beat if you know what you're doing and have good shooters.

Hark back to the 2012-13 season. Buzz and his Marquette crew beat SU in the regular season 74-71. He knew how to attack the zone that day.

Jump ahead about 5 weeks, and Buzz's boys can muster all of 39 points vs. the Orange in the NCAA's.
Not so easy to beat that day. I doubt Williams forgot how to play zone offense in the course of a month. Point being--any defense can be beaten when it's not played well. When it's played exceptionally well, as was the Syracuse zone in the 2013 tournament, it's damn hard to beat.

This year's squad plays the worst zone in at least 5 seasons.

 

[Cheriehoop]

I was just going to post this. They had no business losing the game the other night. You almost have to try to make that many mistakes... And their clock management (as you say) was about as bad as I have ever seen.

The way they lost it had to be maddening to him. He had all guards out there and they lost it while being pressed.

 

[cuseincincy]

Had a good friend here who's son was with the Marquette team and said he was pretty much universally hated there. Not as a coach, more as a person. Going from Marquette to VT isn't a step up - that's pretty much the reason.

As a basketball coach Marquette to VT is definitely a step down. Even going from the Big East to the ACC is a mostly lateral move. Except he went to one of the worst basketball programs in the ACC with no history and no relevance.

 

[SUalldway]

I used to be a Buzz hater. I mean like a seriously irrational Buzz hater. But when I watched his presser after Syracuse beat his Marquette team to go to the Final Four in 2013 all that changed. If you can find it, watch it. (I just wasted 30 minutes searching for it to no avail.) He was absolutely the epitome of class. He was unbelievably gracious and couldn't say enough good things about our program, coach, players etc. Did a complete 180 on him after that. My only beef with him now is that he's always on the court, but that's as much on the refs as it is him.

and unlike Dixon, he'll actually give the opposing coach a decent hand-shake after down-to-the buzzer tough loss.