Feb. 2, 2003

Recap| Box Score| Notes| Photo Gallery

Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
Opening statement:
"I told the players, you play your schedule. Our schedule is strange this year. This was a good game for us; instead of practicing from Thursday to Thursday we were able to play this game today. You've got to give Loyola credit. They came in and played their game and worked hard. They outrebounded us in the first half. We have more depth than they do, and should win the game. We did enough to win the game. But now we move on. We're into it now, we'll see how it goes."

"You respect everybody you play and see how well you can play. Part of being a competitor is you want to play well, you don't just want to win. All the great players I've ever coached have had that same attitude about playing basketball."

"This time of year we're trying to build our team to win. In other words, whoever we subbed today is to make us tougher against Virginia. We're not trying to keep anybody happy right now. At the ACC level, it's about winning."

On Andre Collins:
"He can score. He scores in practice. We're pretty deep in the backcourt this year. If you look at next year, Andre has to hang in there because we lose Drew and Steve. Andre can do some things -- he can do some things for us this year. I was glad to see him make those shots, because he does make those shots in practice situations."

Loyola Head Coach Scott Hicks
Opening comment: "If you look at the final score, certainly it was a bit of a mismatch. The positives are that I thought our guys played hard from the tip until the finish. We had opportunities where we could have quit and had consecutive turnovers, but I thought overall that our team kept its focus while competing against probably the most talented team in the ACC in front of a loud home crowd. Outside of our turnovers, I thought we played pretty well. Certainly making some 3-point shots helped us stay in the game. I think that the biggest thing we did well was our rebounding. I'm not sure how many teams have outrebounded Maryland this year; certainly they played some subs, but we outrebounded them 43-34 and had 21 offensive rebounds. And offensive rebounds come from effort. I thought our kids competed as hard as they could; we were certainly less talented, but I think we did our best."

"They have got a very good 2-1-2 press, which forces you to beat them off the dribble. Charlie Bell, who has been playing solid for us at the point recently, had a tough game. And I probably should have adjusted him to the other side of the court, because he was playing with a sprained left thumb. And a lot of the mistakes happened when he had to go to the middle with his left hand. A combination of good defense and poor ball handling, but Maryland has some athletes, and the passing lanes closed faster than anything we are used to. But I think our ball-handling let us down today."

"Maryland has monsters. They are long, thick and athletic. And I was very concerned if we were ever to get more than one shot attempt downcourt. The surprise came that we were smaller but quicker to the ball. We started the game with our halfcourt offense to spread them out, put our 4's and 5's on the baseline, and figured if we could penetrate then we could try and step those guys away from the basket. We weren't totally effective. But when you have them away from the basket, you can try to beat them to the ball with your quickness rather than trying to post them up and trying to play a power game against an NBA front line."