Feb. 22, 2003

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Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
Opening statement:
"Today I thought was going to be a tough game for us. Given the situation this week, it has been our third game since Monday, and we have been traveling a little bit, too. I was really pleased at the way we really had to grind it. We didn't look like we had our legs, but we were grinding defensively hard enough that there weren't a lot of easy looks for them after about the first eight minutes. I think they made five 3-point shots in the first eight minutes, and that was all they made for the half. Once we took that away, I think we did a pretty good job of clogging up things. We were able to score quite a few points; to have 45 at halftime, I was pleased with that."

"The second half we started flat, which happens a lot of times to teams with big leads at halftime. We gave up the first two and I knew we had to get some energy from somewhere eventually. Certainly Andre Collins and John Gilchrist, like he did in the first half...Jamar Smith....all those guys who came in really provided that for us. Calvin McCall has been as good a sixth man as there is in the league right now. He's just playing great for us. It's an amazing feeling to be able to put him in the game and see him play that well."

"It was really a team effort; we had a lot of guys who contributed. They kept the tempo up where we wanted it. I was really pleased to get that win against North Carolina, which had won three of its last four. Hopefully we can get ready again for Tuesday, and then finally we can get a little bit of rest before we have to play again. Today was a big day for us."

North Carolina Head Coach Matt Doherty
Opening statement:
"I'm obviously disappointed with the outcome of the game. I give a lot of credit to Maryland; I'm a big Steve Blake fan. I thought we made a pretty good run coming out at halftime to cut it to seven. But Blake is just cold-blooded. He hit that 3 and I think he hit another shot; it's like he's playing with you a little bit. They are a very good team, they are a very good basketball team."

"My biggest concern is that this game doesn't impact our game coming up on Tuesday. I wish we had that game on Wednesday."

"It's important that we don't let this game impact us."

"They make you pay quickly for your mistakes. If you make a mistake, they make you pay."

"They move very fast down the court. They shot 65 percent from the field in the first half, and I do believe we did a pretty good job in our man to man defense when we were set. But when you miss shots, or take bad shots, or turn the ball over, they convert that into points really fast."

"I was proud of the way we battled. I wish [we weren't down] 13 at half. But I thought the fact we came out and battled and showed some fight was impressive. We lost to a good team, a very experienced team. The guards are extremely talented."

On the delay in getting to the arena affecting his team:
"Maryland had more to deal with this week than we did. They had the delayed postponement of the Wake Forest game, and they've got to go to Duke and come back."

On what caused the delay in getting to the arena:
"We left the hotel actually 15 minutes earlier than scheduled. We left the hotel at 12 o'clock. We always stay at the Watergate Hotel. It's always been a 45-minute drive, but it was an hour and a half today. They were removing snow [on the roads]."

Atlantic Coast Conference associate commisioner Fred Barakat
On delaying the start of Saturday's game by five minutes: "We wanted to give [North Carolina] a reasonable amount of time to prepare. We talked to the TV producer and they agreed to a 2:12 p.m. tip. We talked to Maryland and Carolina about the change, and made the decision to go at 2:12 p.m."