Buzz Williams calls playing Missouri a 'constant tug-of-war'

Texas A&M picked up by far its best win on Wednesday night as they trounced fellow former Big 12 foe Missouri 82-64. In a clash of two very different styles of small-ball, Buzz Williams’ group suffocated the Tigers, holding them to their worst shooting performance of the season by a significant margin. This Mizzou offense was ripping opponents’ heads off and filling up the cup on a nightly basis until they ran into the Texas A&M buzzsaw, which held them to just 64 points — their lowest total so far this year.

After the game, Aggies head coach Buzz Williams was very complimentary of the Tigers and their offensive style, even though his group was able to thwart them. Any team like Missouri, who has just two losses (both to ranked teams) this late in the year, has to be given due respect.

“I think they lost to Kansas, I think they lost to Arkansas, is that right? So I don’t know how many two-loss teams there are in the United States. But at the highest level it’s very few,” said Williams, before delving into how their depth and shooting make them so hard to guard.

“They have really good players and they played — in essence, they played 10 guys over 10 minutes I believe. I know that zero guys played less than that but close to 10. I believe they had four double figure scores going into the game with every single player that had played through tonight having attempted a three.”

Missouri runs deep and can mix and match any number of lineups while always deploying five capable three-point shooters. That’s modern basketball for you, folks, and it’s a headache to defend.

For Texas A&M, Buzz Williams knew he needed to make the Tigers play their game rather than let his team try to run and gun with the group that does it better than anyone.

“And so, yeah, they’re gonna make plays and it’s a constant tug of war. Are you gonna play the way you want to play that gives your team the best chance? Or are you going to try to join them and play what they have proven to be what they’re elite at doing.”

While both teams like to play small, with neither coach playing anybody over 6-foot-8 in their primary rotation, it was Texas A&M who were the far more physical and aggressive side. They slowed the game down on offense and bullied their way in for easy two’s and trips to the foul line. Where Missouri wants space and pace and freedom, the Aggies mucked it up and made it a battle of physicality.

Credit Buzz Williams. He got the Tigers and Aggies to play A&M basketball on Wednesday, not Missouri basketball.