Buzz Williams shares halftime message he gave vs. Southern

With No. 23 Texas A&M down by 14 points at halftime last night against Southern, Buzz Williams had a point to get across at the break.

Following the game, Williams noted an idea of what was said in the locker room with the Aggies down at a score of 39-25 to the Jaguars. He said that it was about what you could have assumed that he told his team about how they started the game on Wednesday.

“Yeah, I probably said about what you think I said,” said Williams postgame.

However, it wasn’t a message that Texas A&M didn’t expect to get from their head coach. In fact, it was one that they were already saying amongst themselves before he came in. That was their experience finally coming through last night according to Williams before a much better performance in the second half.

“To our guys’ credit, they were all shaking their head. They understood,” said Williams. “Collectively, we have 45 years of college experience. A lot of it is here, which is a positive thing. We need that to be a competitive advantage. It was not in the first half.

“So I said all the things that they probably said before I got there. I gave them some space so I would make sure that I had the right words. But I would assume, without me being in there, that they were saying the same things,” Williams continued. “So, when I said what I had to say, there was no disgruntledness. They understood and I do think, in the second half, they performed accordingly.”

Facing that 14-point deficit, Texas A&M posted a 31-point margin in the second half to win it at 71-54. They took the lead with a 20-5 run coming out of the break. They then ended it on another run at 18-5 over the final five minutes.

On offense, the Aggies improved their field goal percentage from 22.9% in the first half to 52.9% in the second. They did the same defensively as Southern went from shooting 51.6% from the field to 21.7% while. The Jaguars also turned the ball over 14 times as compared to four to start with.

The double-digit halftime deficit to the SWAC opponent was not a good spot for Texas A&M to be in. Still, since they came back to win it by double digits themselves, Williams is just hoping that they don’t do it again.

“There’s for sure a lesson to be learned and hopefully we process this lesson and don’t have to do it again because those 20 minutes were not good in any stretch,” said Williams.