Buzz Williams shares what win over Kentucky means for him

There is no hyperbole when it comes to describing just how important Texas A&M’s win over Kentucky on Saturday was for their season — plus, it was coach Buzz Williams‘ first victory against the Hall-of-Famer on the other sideline.

The Wildcats rode a four-game winning streak vs. the Aggies into Saturday afternoon’s matchup in College Station, and also came in as the No. 6 team in the country, facing up against an A&M squad that was 9-6 and absolutely had to notch a quality victory and their first in SEC play to avoid dropping to 0-3 in league games. Well, Williams and company fought tooth and nail to come away with the high-scoring overtime win, marking Williams’ first vs. John Calipari’s Kentucky.

The first time Williams faced Calipari actually came during the last season that A&M had beaten the ‘Cats prior to the other day. During the 2017-18 season, Williams’ Virginia Tech squad visited Rupp Arena, held a 47-41 lead at halftime, but saw Kevin Knox and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander lead a comeback win for Kentucky in the second half. When asked about finally getting over the hump vs. Coach Cal, Williams remembered back to that first matchup with him.

“Well, I’ve never won. Coach was nice — when I was at Tech, I begged him to play us and that worked out. I think we had 19 turnovers and I think we lost by nine. Five, that’s the only other player I’ve ever called by his number. Five was kicking that ball all over the gym, played really well.”

It was Knox who wore No. 5 and poured in 21 points and four assists. In Saturday’s second half, though, Williams’ defense was able to keep any one player in blue from taking over the game like Knox did in ’18 — although, Rob Dillingham made his best attempt.

Getting back to his own team, though, Williams was thrilled to see them respond and play with high intensity after doing so but losing on the road vs. current SEC leader Auburn earlier in the week. The Aggies kept their heads up and escaped the week with at least one terrific win for the resume.

“I’m thankful that how we played on Tuesday is how we played today,” said Williams. “And I’m hopeful that we can continue on this path of the things that we have built relative to what’s important in our program.”

Still, at just 10-6 with some suspect losses from earlier in the year, Texas A&M has to maintain their level of play and keep on stacking wins, because they still have a bit of a hole to climb out of if they plan on earning a decent NCAA Tournament seed. For now, it’s on to face a struggling Arkansas club.

“I hope that we can carry that to Fayetteville whenever we get there,” Buzz Williams said to close out his press conference.