Courtesy Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

(February 9, 2009) Marquette basketball coach Buzz Williams lost his temper on air on Saturday when asked a harmless question by Golden Eagles radio game analyst Jim McIlvaine after a victory over Georgetown.

The question McIlvaine asked that set Williams off was: "Coach, you have an 11-game winning streak, 8-0 in the Big East. Obviously the number, the ranking, is going down. How do you keep your kids focused and not buying into the hype and all the ancillary stuff on the other side? How do you get them focused for the next game?"

Williams responded: "We pay absolutely no attention to anything said by the media, said within the media. I'm not trying to be condescending but I don't think you win 11 straight games, eight straight games in the Big East, if you are focusing on the wrong things.

"So I'm somewhat offended that you would even ask that because what you should talk about is the character and heart of our players. That's what should be talked about. Talking about how we focus for the next game – why don't you talk about, Mac, how we focused on this game? Why don't you talk about how we focused on every single Big East game?

"For you as the home team radio announcer to be asking some sort of question like that, it sounds like you are employed by someone other than Marquette. It's disappointing that you would ask that, being that you are a former player.

"You should be as proud of the collection of 12 guys that put on the uniform and absolutely played their heart out, at 6-6 and under, against great teams on a nightly basis."

On Monday afternoon, Williams called in to "The World's Greatest Talk Show with Homer" to apologize for what he described as "my diatribe." Steve "The Homer" True isthe radio voice of Marquette basketball.

McIlvaine also was on the call.

Williams apologized to McIlvaine, True and the listeners.

"I did not handle things appropriately," Williams said. "I am hell-bent on protecting our players. That had absolutely nothing to do with Mac, and there is no justification for the way I handled things."