Buzz Williams wants to see if Texas A&M's best 'gives us a chance' vs. Arkansas

Texas A&M faces Arkansas yet again on Wednesday, losing to the Razorbacks just four games ago, but winning their last three matchups ever since. Henry Coleman and Wade Taylor IV said the energy wasn’t there the last time they faced Arkansas, and that they weren’t playing Texas A&M basketball. Aggies head coach Buzz Williams was asked what needs to be different this time around, and gave an interesting response.

“I think one thing I mentioned to them, I said guys you guys stay at University Club .65 miles away. We don’t need a plane, and we don’t need a charter bus. If your car’s broke, I’ll come pick you up. If you don’t want to drive your car or ride with your teammate, I’ll still come pick you up. I think that will help our energy in some degree. We will have shoot around, as my dad would say, as long the creek don’t rise we’ll have shoot around tomorrow, I think that’ll help. We’ll have pre game meal, I think that will help,” Williams said.

It seems like Williams is harping on the basics, and to some degree, not much will be changing regarding their preparation except for the fact that this matchup is at home this time around. But he also harped on how his team played in their 81-70 road loss to the Razorbacks just two weeks ago.

“We did not give our best and I thought Arkansas was tremendous,” Williams said. “I thought they were tougher than we were, I thought they punked us. They had 10 blocked shots, we couldn’t make a shot at the rim, they made every shot at the rim.”

The Aggies shot a poor 34.2% from the field versus Arkansas in their last game, which paled in comparison to the Razorbacks’ hot 50% shooting night. Texas A&M did still win the rebounding and turnover battle, but despite this, Williams had some rather dismal words regarding their past and future matchup with Arkansas.

“Yeah I thought they were just more physical, played harder, and we never even matched any of those categories. And I think that’s what tomorrow will be, I’m not saying that we’re good enough to beat them, but I want to see if we can at least be better than we were the last time we were there because we weren’t at our best,” Williams said. “But I don’t know if our best is good enough, but I at least want to see if our best gives us a chance. We were playing from behind from the beginning and however Four and Henry said that, they’re right.”

Williams’ seemingly lacking assurance could be some sort of cerebral coaching tactic, as the Aggies currently rank second in the SEC standings with a 7-2 conference record, only behind No. 1 Alabama. Regardless it will be all settled on the hardwood Wednesday, as the two teams will square off at 9:00 p.m. ET in a game airing on ESPN2.