Maryland-Duke Matchup: Quotes From The Terps
1/16/2002 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 16, 2002
Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
(On the advantage of having an experienced team in big games)
"It's good, but it's not an advantage when you look at Duhon, Williams, Boozer, Dunleavy, Horvath ... Sanders. So we don't have an edge in this game. We're not the veteran team in this game."
(On coaching in big games)
"I've always enjoyed games where you know you're playing against a very good team and you know you have to play well if you expect to win. You know in those situations, for myself, that I'll be ready to play, and the players will be ready to play, so there's a lot of things that make that type of preparation a little easier than when you're the big favorite and you're supposed to play at a certain level."
(On the toughness and resiliency of Juan Dixon)
"I think there's a lot of people that have been through things growing up, maybe not as tough as Juan, but have survived to move on and do great things. Juan is one of those people that has survived a very difficult situation.
"When he practiced the year Steve Francis played and ... Juan could compete. He showed he had the toughness because Steve was such a tough, physical guard."
(On Duke guard/forward Mike Dunleavy's versatility)
"He plays so many positions for them. I've seen tape where he's the biggest guy on the court - they'll play four guards and him. So they go a lot of ways with him. And they can be a very big team if they want to be - if they put Christensen, Boozer and Dunleavy out there at the same time then that's as big as anybody."
"[Dunleavy] is shooting the ball as well as [Shane] Battier did last year. He's really stepped up his production. The sign of a great player is to look at a team and see what they need, and I think Dunleavy is smart enough to see that with Battier leaving they needed a guy with that kind of size that can shoot the ball."
(On matching up with Duke)
"We're going to play our game. We're not going to adjust to everything somebody else does. We play a certain way and we have to stick with that. You get messed up if you try changing things for every game. You have to have a basic way to play and then adjust a little bit for who you're playing against, but there's adjustments made on both ends of the court."
(On keeping a win or loss in perspective)
"I think any time you beat the No. 1 team in the country on their court that would be a great win, but you move on. By 11:30 tomorrow night it is over and you still have 12 league games to play, so you better not dwell on one game, win or lose. You'd better get ready to play these next 12."
Maryland forward/center Lonny Baxter
(On the matchup with Carlos Boozer)
"It has always been a big matchup [against Carlos Boozer] every time we have played them. We're both the same height, same size, and same build, and we are just going to be going at it like we have been going at it in previous years."
(On coming off a close game against Georgia Tech)
"We realize we have to get tougher, yet go out and execute for 40 minutes and just play our game."
Maryland guard/forward Byron Mouton
(On playing consistently)
"It is very important to play consistent [against Duke]. We have got to keep our turnovers to a minimum, and we have to play hard every play and keep our focus. I think the reason we got our win last year against Duke was we were really focused and guys didn't get frustrated by turnovers and played hard every play."
(On playing with emotion)
"Emotion is big for us. I think emotion plays a big part because when you play off emotion it is hard for you to get tired. You play something like 38 minutes and don't even know that you are tired because the emotion is running through you and keeps you really pumped the entire game."
(On the competitiveness of college basketball)
"On any given night a team can come out and beat a great team. That is what is so great about college basketball because on any given night a team can come out and be victorious."
Maryland guard Juan Dixon
(On playing at Duke)
"I have had the chance of experiencing it [a win at Cameron Indoor Stadium] two years in a row so I definitely know what it is like and know what to expect. I knew in previous years that I had to feed off the crowd to play well and we definitely did that as a team. It is a lot of fun playing down there."
(On the pressure of playing Duke)
"There is no pressure on us, we know we can play with those guys and we are definitely capable of playing with them on any given night. As long as we go out there and execute the way we are supposed to, we should be able to give ourselves a chance to win."
(On the keys to the game)
"Get the ball inside. We definitely have to take advantage of that and get the ball to Lonny [Baxter] and Chris [Wilcox] and hopefully those guys can finish and open up shots for the guys on the perimeter."
