March 10, 2001

Recap| Box Score

Maryland head coach Gary Williams:
"Obviously a great game. The intensity level out there was tremendous. It was probably going to end that way. Juan was right in front of me and it was just a little left all the way, but he had a really good look. Messing around in practice, Juan can shoot the ball pretty well from that distance, so he had a chance. Duke made a great play to get the follow. I thought we played pretty good defense in that situation to force a tough shot. We just didn't react as quickly to the glass as they did. Nate James made a great play.

"I told our guys after the game I don't think there is anybody out there who is better than us on a given night. That is going to be important in the upcoming weeks. I'm really proud of our players for the way they responded after getting down like we did. We didn't play particularly well early and Duke came out on fire to start the second half. We made a great run to get back in the game and did what we had to do to put ourselves in a position to win the game.

"It's a game where we could have handled the ball better and could have rebounded better, but to shoot the way we did down the stretch and to make some defensive stops when we had to, that's all you can do against a team like Duke. We didn't waver. To a man, we knew we could get back if we could just do a couple of things. We did get back and put ourselves in a position to win the game. I'm really proud of our team and I told them, 'Let's go play next week and see what happens.' I think we're playing as well as anybody right now."

On NCAA seeding:
"With the upset losses this week, I really believe that the committee has a tough job. I wouldn't put any pressure on the committee about where we should be seeded. I know we're a really good basketball team and we proved that. How you play at the end of the year has a lot to do with your seeding."

Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski:
"It was one of the best games I've been a part of in this tournament. You talk about two teams fighting and clean and just going after it. That was a great basketball game. We were fortunate it win. I thought (Juan) Dixon's shot was in. It was right on line. He's a very special basketball player, that kid. And it was right on line. He went onto the next play and almost put it in. I thought after we got off to a poor start, we played a terrific basketball game. We had to to beat Maryland. Maryland is just really good. Our big guys did a great job - Casey (Sanders), Reggie (Love) and Matt (Christensen). Casey, in this tournament, has been like a veteran player. Just keeping the ball alive there at the end and Nate (James) putting it in was huge. Although we were out-rebounded, I thought the turnovers we forced balanced that out. That's what made it such a tight game. They got some extra shots and we got some extra possessions as a result of forcing a good number of turnovers. I thought we handled the ball well. We had limited turnvovers. Nate made a huge play there at the end. This is a good year for the ACC to go to a dome. We've had some sensational basketball here. Hopefully we're not going to be worn out for tomorrow because we play another outstanding team tomorrow afternoon real quick."

Duke guard Shane Battier:
"It's under our contract with ESPN. We're allowed to provide a certain number of Instant Classics every year. Maryland is a great team. We knew we today for 40 minutes. As it turned out it went down to the last 1.8 seconds and the other way with (Juan) Dixon's shot. But Maryland is a great team. And I think that the ACC is going to have great representation at the NCAA Tournament and receive multiple teams possibly. Maryland certainly has the ability to do that."

Duke guard Nate James:
"As soon as Jason Williams started to penetrate, I said to myself, 'I'm going to get a tap' because I knew they had big guys back there that were going to fly in and I wanted to make a difficult shot for them so I just focused in on the ball, went up and tapped it in."

[On importance of shot after recent struggles] "Coach always tells us to go on to the next thing. I struggled toward the end of the regular season, but I took it as tournament time is a new season for us. And I know that I need to bring my leadership and the type of player that was performing in the middle of the season in time for the tournament. I knew that Coach had confidence in me and my teammates so it was just a matter of going out there and playing up to my capabilities."