Everything Buzz Williams Said After Crazy Win vs. Ole Miss Rebels

The No. 13 Texas A&M Aggies escaped Oxford with a 63-62 win over the No. 16 Ole Miss Rebels Wednesday night thanks to a go-ahead 3-pointer from Manny Obaseki with 12.5 seconds left, giving the Aggies their only lead of the night.

Texas head coach Buzz Williams met with the media after the game. Here's what he had to say:

On the toughness of his team:

"Well, I think the belief is a direct reflection of the parents of our players. ... But I think our guys play with great belief in one another, and in 2025 sometimes that at least gives you a chance when things never go your way. I don't know that we ever led in the game, and so you see it often in sports these days where, hey, we'll just try it again the next time. And for whatever reason, other than how our young men were raised, I think they just kind of hang around and see if we can try real hard and see if it can turn into something positive."

Jan 11, 2025; College Station, Texas, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Buzz Williams watches the action on the sideline against the Alabama Crimson Tide during the first half at Reed Arena. Mandatory Credit: Erik Williams-Imagn Images | Erik Williams-Imagn Images

On Ole Miss:

"I think it would be foolish of me to take any credit for any of this, nearly every single possible thing analytically had to go right for us to even have a chance. Coach (Chris Beard) is a Final Four coach. He's done an incredible job everywhere he's been, including here. I love their team. They have two losses at the buzzer, and now they have three. It just speaks to their talent. It speaks to their staff."

On defensive stops down the stretch:

"We didn't have a choice. I don't exactly know. ... So many things had to go right, because we're trying to overcome math that's really hard. 20 turnovers is really hard math, if the opponent shoots more balls at home and you have 20 turnovers, it's probably not going to bode well. But I thought that last stretch, the things that Coach Johnson was doing and the execution of our guys subbing in and out for a variety of reasons, I did think some of the chaos was beneficial to us."

On if he preferred Ole Miss to miss the free throw before Obaseki's go-ahead triple:

"It depends on if we're down one, two or three. It depends on who's in the game for us. And not to act like I have all the answers, but some of those filters that we try to go through are based on those things. ... As good as Ole Miss is from a dead ball situation, I was hoping something good would happen so that we would have at least a long close out or a semi-clean look. If you call a time out, they have their defense set. And it doesn't mean that you can't score, but they are phenomenal when they have, I mean, statistically speaking, their top 25 defense. And so now it's game point side out, and they switch everything. So whatever play you're going to run, I think our third time out, I called the Time Out side, out of bounds. They switched everything, and it ends up a one footer falling out of bounds from the deep corner, which was what we wanted a shot. But because they're so physical and because their switches are so effective, that's why we struggled to score so much. We couldn't force them into rotation. They hold their shell as well as any team that I've studied thus far in the league. And so I would have called the time out, and you never know. Obviously, the result makes it look pretty, but I didn't want to, because they're so good when their defense is set."

On if this type of game prepares his team for the craziness of March Madness:

"I think that's the appropriate question. I think, without sounding condescending, we went through like, four different stops to get here, and we're playing the late game on Wednesday night, and we're very thankful, because there it was a quad one a game. They're ranked ahead of us and all of the analytics that matter. And now we'll get home at three o'clock in the morning and we play the first game on the road in another important game on Saturday. And so we all want to have success in March, but it just seems like an eternity away relative to what's required to go through this the league, the success of the league and non conference and even like crazy play in Starkville for Ole Miss to get their first loss, crazy play Tonight, in essence, for them to get their second loss, crazy, er, in my opinion, their loss against Purdue. But like that's the margin that all of us are jousting with. And to talk about March, it just seems with, again, without sounding condescending, it just seems like literally an eternity away.

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