Buzz Williams explains emphasis Texas A&M has placed on rebounding in SEC play

South Carolina earned its best win in years on the basketball court last week by going into Rupp Arena and beating Kentucky. However, the next time out, Texas A&M stomped down any ideas that South Carolina could maintain that level of performance by walloping the Gamecocks 94-53 over the weekend. Make no mistake, showed the Aggies: South Carolina is terrible at basketball.

The win marked the sixth in a row for A&M, who is off to a 4-0 start in SEC play with a mediocre Florida squad visiting College Station this weekend. The Aggies are looking like a real player for the conference crown, and head coach Buzz Williams says rebounding is responsible for the improved performance as of late.

Texas A&M smashed Carolina on the glass on Saturday, tripling the Gamecocks 16 total rebounds with 48 of their own. Heck, A&M grabbed more offensive rebounds (20) than South Carolina did total. Any way you slice it, that’s a staggering beatdown on the boards, regardless of competition level. For it to happen between two seemingly relative conference foes is hard to fathom.

Credit Buzz Williams for getting his group to buy in to pounding the glass, because it’s been an emphasis since the start of SEC play.

“We were so inconsistent on the glass in the non-conference on both sides,” Williams said after the South Carolina win. “We’ve tried to treat it at the same priority level as offense or defense in regards to how we practice it, in regards to the tape that we show and in regards to the emphasis. It’s not our identity, but it’s beginning to be a part of who we are.”

It certainly is. Since the start of the calendar year, the Aggies are the best rebounding team in the country, ranking as a top unit on both the offensive and defensive glass — a trait that’s actually pretty rare.

“I think the physicality we’ve been playing with on the glass has been the separator thus far,” Williams continued. “I understand we’ve only played two out of the nine weeks, but I think not just on the defensive glass but on the offensive glass … I think we’ve gained a lot of traction in the physicality and the responsibility on the rise of the shot.”

Texas A&M starting to find their identity as a dominant group on the glass. What’s crazy is that Buzz Williams plays small-ball. Texas A&M center Henry Coleman is the biggest dude on the team at 6-foot-8, while no other regular rotation player is taller than 6-7. But they have fierce rebounders in Coleman and their two wings, Tyrece Radford and Dexter Dennis — 6-2 and 6-5 apiece — who each pull down more than five rebounds a game.

Just a physical and spirited unit on the glass. Future foes beware, these guys get after every single miss.