Nov. 12, 2003

Recap| Box Score| Notes

Maryland Coach Gary Williams
On the team's emotions coming into the game:
"It was interesting in the locker room before the game, we were nervous. That's really a good sign because our players want to play and when you want to play you get nervous. All the great players I've ever known get nervous before a game. So this showed that they were ready."

On EA Sports All-Stars:
"It was great to play against someone like this team. They're a good team in the terms of that there's tough matchups. They don't have a lot of size, but just about every guy out there can shoot a three, so we all had to extend and play good defense and try to help. That's a good learning situation for us. When you play these games, you're trying to find out where your offense is and your defense is, but you are also trying to find out about your heart and how tough you are as a team. They made a great run on us at the end of the first half. We were then able to come out and get the momentum back immediately to start the second half. That's a really good sign because that's one of the hard things to do once you lose momentum. "

On the performance of the freshman:
"I was pleased with our young guys, our freshman. They were tough and they didn't play as easy as they have been playing in practice, but you have to go through that first college game, even though it's an exhibition game, to get the feel for what it's like out there because for each guy I'm sure everything appears to be a little quicker in the games."

On Maryland performance:
"We're a long ways away from being a very good basketball team, but for three weeks of basketball practice, we're okay. We're in a position where we can really learn some things now and get better.

On Nik Caner-Medley:
"He's been shooting well in practice, and he's been shooting better than last year. Nik really got a good chance when he was hurt to look at things and watch some tape. He knows what he's doing out there. You don't have to tell him a lot of things. He picks up on some things he sees and goes and works on them."

John Gilchrist
On playing the first game of the season:
"It felt great to get out there on the floor and contribute to my team any way I could. We just wanted to get out there and get our feet wet and go against some new competition"

On his goals coming into the game:
"I worked at being composed and poised for the whole game and being a good point guard. I am trying to fill the shoes of a great point guard in Steve Blake."

On his advice to the freshmen:
"I told them that we need to go out and execute. Expectations are alright. We just go out there and play. Coach had us fired up and told us to use being nervous in a good way."

Nik Caner-Medley
On the first game
"It felt good to win a real game. It is different than when you play against your teammates. When you play against your teammates, you just hope nobody gets injured."

On the offensive strategy:
"We talked about getting the ball inside They have problems guarding bigger players since they are a small team. When you do that early, it opens up the outside"

On the playing rotation:
"Coach wants to see what works and who plays best together. In practice, you can not really see it like you can in a real game. We tried to go about this like it is a real game and prepare like we prepare for a real game. EA Sports is a good team. They have some guys who have been good players."

Chris McCray
On the team's preparedness for the season:
"We are going to need everybody to contribute all through the season to win. This is our first year out there together. Everybody is ready to roll."

EA Sports All-Stars Head Coach Phil Bryant

On his team's play:
"We had a day off coming into this, but we had many injuries in the Florida game. I think that really hurt us. We had to add two new guys tonight. They didn't know anything about what we were doing, so we just had to put them out there and hope everything went alright."

On Maryland's performance:
"I thought their inside game was really solid. They're able to get going inside when they want and really finish plays. Their offensive rebounding, especially in the first half, was real tough."

On the his team's run at the end of the first half:
"They started rushing their shots more than Coach Williams probably wanted them to. That created some missed and we were able to capitalize on that."