Instead of Kentucky thoughts, Buzz Williams breaks down the block/charge call

It’ll be Cats vs. Aggies for a spot in the SEC Tournament semifinals, Texas A&M taking out Ole Miss to advance in Nashville. The game was — well, a tough watch, if we’re being honest. It was a rock fight early and then the Rebels refused to die late, delaying the inevitable and keeping us from moving on with our lives ahead of the next round.

Once that 80-71 slugfest went final, Buzz Williams went to the podium and talked about what you’d expect from a coach during postgame media: how his team pulled off the win, growth since the last matchup vs. the upcoming opponent and general mindset going into postseason play.

Oh wait, he didn’t? Damn, guess not.

Instead, Williams went on a heartfelt rant about the status of the block/charge call in today’s college basketball landscape, stemming from a question about Mississippi State coach Chris Jans going away from charge attempts completely. Four minutes straight on blocks and charges with a hint of goaltend calls.

“I think Jans is among the nation’s best, period. So whatever Jans said, I would support,” Williams said. “But this is what I want to say. I don’t know the exact answer. In my research for Ole Miss, I know you study numbers, too, so last year in the SEC Texas A&M finished third in points per possession. We had the third best defense in the league last year, SEC only. Our points per possession was .97. This year we finished third. Our points per possession was 1.06. When I saw that, I thought it was a mess-up. I asked one of the smart guys on the staff, This can’t be right. This number is wrong. It was confirmed it was right. Then I said, Are we an outlier? I would like to know the numbers on every OER and DER in the SEC. It’s staggering. Do I think that’s exclusively it? I would have to study it more in the spring. I think it’s a big part of it. I also think another big part of it is the goaltending. Every shot that is close, automatically goaltending. I’m not smart enough, nor am I on an committee, but if every ball that’s close to a goaltending is immediately a goaltending call, there’s empty possessions throughout the season that impact this number. If every 50/50 call is 100% a block, it’s just become the NBA. Let’s score a bunch of points. Let’s make it pretty, et cetera. But I think we have to figure out are we going to keep playing defensively the same way because so much of what we’re doing, and Coach Jans for that matter, and Coach (Chris) Beard, I don’t know if you can keep playing that way. Neither team gets in the bonus in the first half tonight, but there’s 36 foul calls in the second half. Okay, well, then it’s going to be choppy. You don’t need any rim protection, because if you try to make a play, it’s either a goaltending or a foul. I think you’ll see defenses, as this rule continues to morph, you’ll see defenses evolve, just like you have in the NBA. Ball screen coverage has changed. Even with us. I think you have to make a decision on the weak side because the numbers – and I don’t know what you’ve studied – but I would study the Power Five numbers based off the last 10 years. It has to be correlated. It has to be. I’m late to the party, but we’ve got to figure it out. When I saw this, I told ’em to text all these numbers to our staff. I told them two days ago. Now is not the time, but there’s a lot of lessons we’ve got to learn from this because we can’t keep doing this. Like our offense was fourth last year at 1.10. That’s pretty good. This year our offense is 10th at 1.07. So .03 difference, and dramatic difference. Our defense is still third, and it’s one point difference. That’s dramatic.”

So there you have it.

As for his thoughts on Kentucky, your guess is as good as mine.