Following his team’s tough win against the Buzz Williams Aggies, Coach Bruce Pearl sat down with Jaylin Williams and the media to discuss the win.
Here are a few highlights with some words from Jaylin as well.
Head Coach Bruce Pearl
On his team’s physicality against Texas A&M…
I think one of the things that makes Texas A&M so successful is their coach (Buzz Williams). Nobody else in the league plays quite like they do, especially on the defensive end, with their 1-2-2 press which slowed our breakdown. They disguise, whether they are in man-to-man or zone, and they are hard to play-call against. They switch all the time, so basically that cuts about 75 percent of your playbook completely out. So we were having a hard time finding things that would be successful. (Associate Head Coach) Steven Pearl had the scouting and did an outstanding job. When you hold a team in this league to 55 points, and when you hold a team in this league to 39 percent shooting. I challenged my guards with Wade Taylor (IV), who was the SEC Preseason Player of the Year, and he was 2-for-16 and 0-of-8 from three. We sent them to the foul line, but I thought our guards did a tremendous job defensively. If we could continue to guard and get a little offense from our defense, we could win (more) nights.
On winning by 11 in the last four minutes of the ballgame…
I think they showed some poise. We took a great punch in the mouth from Texas A&M in the second half and got a lead, but we just didn’t panic. We talked about it in the last timeout with seven minutes to go, ‘man, we are in good shape. We haven’t played good offensively, but we are in position to be in a good position,’ to give the guys some confidence.
F Jaylin Williams
On his clutch three in the final two minutes…
A couple plays before, BP (Bruce Pearl) had established telling me to take the first shot, because I had the same exact look. I knew as soon as I caught the ball the next time, I was like, ‘man, I’ve lost to these dudes too many times, I have to knock this down to seal the deal.’
On Texas A&M’s defense…
I think because they’re kind of long, they’re athletes, they’re SEC players, they just played really hard like they’ve always played (against) us. It wasn’t anything really special, it was just what we knew they were going to do.
On the team’s winning streak and his play…
Before games, I haven’t been feeling well. I’ll wake up in a little bad mood, but it’s working, so hopefully I wake up every morning in a bad mood and keep playing the way I’m playing.
Transcript via Auburn Athletics.
