Quotes From Gary Williams' Final Four Press Conference
3/26/2001 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 26, 2001
Maryland Coach Gary Williams
Press Conference Quotes
March 26, 2001
Opening Statement
"I would like to thank everybody for coming out today. You try to anticipate how hectic things will be, but there is no way of knowing until you go through it. It is a great feeling...it's great to be busy this week for the first time in my coaching career and it is a great experience for my players. It is one of those lifetime experiences that only a few get to go through and I feel great for them.
"We're really proud for the university. I have always felt that this school - a place that I graduated from - is a great university and if this helps the university...whatever we can do to help sustain the university, then that is a great thing. We are proud that the University of Maryland is able to take this step with our program."
Q: Can you talk a little bit about what life has been like for the last two days?
A: "It is a great life. It has been really hectic from the time the game ended against Stanford and just the different demands on your time. But it is great for me and I wouldn't trade this experience this week for anything as a coach and, you know, it's not something I planned on or didn't plan on - if it happens, it happens - but now that it is here...it's great."
Q: What do you think about all this (making the Final Four) - has it started to sink in yet?
A: "I am trying to really dwell on what I have to do this week in getting ready for Duke because there is no time to focus on what has happened so far because we want to give our players the best chance of winning the championship. That requires me to be focused just like I have been able to all season, so hopefully I am able to do that."
Q: Can you talk a little about the matchup with Duke?
A: "I think we matchup pretty well in terms of us playing Duke - in other words, Duke presents matchup problems with everybody they play against, they have a pretty unique style. The amount of threes that they take and they make and the fact that they usually have four players on the court that can shoot threes, separates them from most of the teams you will play against. For instance, Stanford had two people that could shoot three-pointers very well but they didn't have four. Now you go against Duke and they have four plus with Boozer - their inside scoring threat -- coming back, they should be in pretty good shape. So it is a very well-rounded team in terms of their ability to score, they take a lot of pride in their defense...we've had great games with them. I think we have played well in each of those three games and that is what you have to do against them. We have some very good players and we have a chance to matchup well against Duke but we know what we have to do to defend them and that is where it becomes difficult."
Q: Talk a little bit about the selection committee and the path that they laid out for you to the Final Four.
A: "It looks from here like the selection committee did a great job. They put us in a region we could win. The first three games that we played (because of the local flavor) made it a little different but at the same time, our team had to focus all year, I felt, and narrow it down to focusing on whoever our next opponent was. That ability helped us in games where there were other stories to really focus on the job at hand and I feel we were able to do that. Hopefully, we can do the same thing on Saturday."
Q: Were the three games this year with Duke as intense as any series that you have been through?
A: "Well, the three games this year were just great basketball games. I don't think it gets any better than those three games when it comes down to it in terms of players playing well. What I like about all three games is that both teams played well - there was never a bad performance by either team and that is what makes for a great series. Duke has traditionally been a great team, program, whatever you want to call it. I thought this year as we got into position in March, that we were becoming a very good team that could play with the likes of a Duke or Stanford or whoever. Hopefully, that will enable this fourth game to be a great game, too."
Q: What did you say to your team after the Florida State game that turned it around for them?
A: "Well, I don't have any magic words. The players turned it around. They just made up their minds that they were going to give it their best shot and I think the thing they realized after the Florida State game was that we have to do it ourselves - no team is just going to give up and let us win a game, we have to go get them. They just made up their minds...we have some outstanding character on this team and they just decided that they were going to do that."
Q: Does getting to the Final Four make your career more fulfilling?
A: "Well, no, this is an extra thing getting to the Final Four. But in terms of coaching, when it was all over, I would not have judged myself on whether I got to the Final Four or not. I would have looked at the players who have played for me and how they did and things like that...that becomes very important as you get older. I have seen too many great coaches that I respect not get to the Final Four, but that should not take away from anything that they have done as a basketball coach."
Q: What is the same and what is different about Lonny Baxter between now and when he first came to Maryland?
A: "What is the same is that Lonny Baxter has wanted to play basketball at Maryland since he was in the 10th grade. When we were recruiting him, there were other players on his team that were much more heavily recruited than him and I think Lonny appreciated the fact that we only recruited him. That was the guy that we wanted to play at Maryland because he wanted to play at Maryland. Obviously, he was good enough to come in and had the character enough to work on his game and developed into the player that he is today."
Q: Have you ever coached against a team four times in the same season before and would you rather do something like that now as opposed to playing somebody for the first time?
A: "If you look at the four teams that are there, you know, Duke is a great team, so is Arizona and so is Michigan State. We are familiar with Duke just like they are familiar with us, maybe that is good, I don't know, but I think it is great that two ACC teams are in the hunt for the national championship after people questioned in the first week of the tournament if we were a very strong conference. Given the fact that we only have nine schools in our conference, we obviously have a very strong conference from top to bottom."
Q: Why do you think that Jason Williams does so well against so many players but seems to have the most trouble he has with Steve Blake?
A: "I have seen what Jason Williams has done in the NCAA Tournament so we know that playing a team defense is what we have to do. I mean, you have your individual matchups, but with certain guys you have to give a little more. Steve will probably guard (Williams), but that doesn't mean that that is it for our team. It is one of those things where he is a great player and we know that going in and we have to do some things to try to stop him defensively. But it is not just stopping Jason Williams. They have players like Battier and Boozer so we can't just focus on stopping Jason Williams, we have to focus on stopping Duke."
Q: You learn a lot about a team and about people through how they deal with adversity. What did you learn about your team after that first Duke loss?
A: "As a group, they are real people. You know, we were all devastated by that loss. You don't lose many games like that so that was tough to deal with. But we stayed together...there was never a point - even before we finally won - that we split. When we finally got out of it, we never lost sight of the fact that we never split, even in all of the tough times."
Q: Is your team tired and how do you get through this week to play the best game that you can play this weekend?
A: "We're not tired. You know, this is a great time. The old coach may be tired but when you are 18-22 years old, you're not tired. We have to keep these guys under control a little bit because of their excitement. And that is the great thing, to watch the players be excited. The good thing about our guys is that they are not afraid to show it, just to see their faces against Stanford was a great thing for me."
Q: After the last few postseasons and what you went through earlier this season, is there any sense of vindication on your part?
A: "No, I never personally wavered from how I feel as a basketball coach. I don't judge things in terms of wins and losses, I look at the team and how good we are. Publicly, you are going to get criticized because the NCAA Tournament is what you are judged by like we talked about before. It is a shame that the way things are, but I don't coach to get vindication. If I coach a bad game, I coach a bad game. People are certainly willing to point that out for you. But that's okay, because they are fans and that is the nature of the business. But having coached in the BIG EAST and the Big Ten and the ACC and against most of the great coaches who have coached during that period...I enjoy that challenge and whatever my record ends up when it is all over, at least I will know that I have gone up against the best."
