Gary Williams on Jordan Williams' play against Longwood: "I didn't think he was ready to play"

Maryland's 106-52 defeat of Longwood on Wednesday didn't offer many logical subplots to follow up on.

But one thing did stand out: Jordan Williams, who has avoided foul trouble nearly all year, had three fouls in the first half. He finished with nine points and 11 rebounds, only the fourth time all season he didn't record a double-double.

And so came a throwaway question, posed more out of curiosity than any great insight, about just why Longwood could get Williams in foul trouble when so many others could not.

"You want the truth?" Maryland coach Gary Williams asked.

Sure. Always.

"The truth is I didn't think he was ready to play," Gary Williams said. "I think he thought that Longwood was ... the double-doubles just keep on coming. It was good for him, because just like any other player, you have to prepare every game. And they did a little thing on him where they just put a guard in front of him and they kept him there, so if he was going to get the ball, it was going to have to be on the offensive glass or setting really good screens where they had to help on the screen and open him up, and those things weren't happening. So that's the result."

Indeed, Jordan Williams was never a factor in the first half. And granted, it didn't much matter; the Terrapins (16-8) did win by 54.

But let's look at his nine points against the Lancers:

* Split two free throws after getting fouled upon grabbing an offensive rebound (16:46, 1st)
* A fastbreak dunk (13:32, 1st)
* A layup off an offensive rebound (16:36, 2nd)
* A layup off an offensive rebound (8:14, 2nd)
* A layup (7:03, 2nd)

So basically, Jordan Williams had two points in the flow of the offense.

"College basketball's a funny game," Gary Williams said. "If one team has one really good player, I can put four guys on him if I want to. There's no rules like the NBA. And all they did is they took a guard, said 'Someone else is going to beat us' and they put him in front of him. I thought it was a really good move. It did open up [things], we shot the ball well and that type of things."

As for Jordan Williams, his seemingly inevitable run at Tim Duncan's ACC's single-season double-double record of 29 hit a bit of a speedbump --- and could act as a bit of a jolt as the Terps return to conference play.

"In that case, you have to be ready to play," Gary Williams said. "That was the message. It's like 'What's wrong?' Well, you might be the problem. You have to face it sometimes."

Comments

[Bill]

Good writeup Patrick. I think if you look at Jordan's points this the majority has come in transition and on layuos from offensive rebounds, especially since the start of ACC play. He needs to develop some post moves within the offense. He does stand around quite a bit without the ball.