March 16, 2003

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The following comments were made by Maryland men's basketball coach Gary Williams Sunday, March 16 following the announcement of the NCAA Tournament bracket:

Opening comments:
"I don't know much about UNC-Wilmington yet, but I'll find out for sure. It's that time of year now where you scramble and prepare. We're on television quite a bit so it's always an advantage for the team that is not on television as much. I know that they have a player [Brett Blizzard] who is very good and can play with anybody. We're aware of their success. To win that many games, they must be pretty good."

On being a No. 6 seed:
"A six seed is fine. To make 10 straight NCAA tournaments, you're not going to be a No. 1 seed every year. Nashville is fine, it's relatively close to here, so our fans will have a shot to get there, which is good. You just look forward to playing. You see some teams got moved around that were seeded lower than us. Connecticut is going out to Washington to play, things like that. You can't complain. I think our first eight years we made it, we played out West six times."

On whether he feels the tournament is wide open:
"Well you still have strong No. 1 seeds. It's wide open in terms of a lot of games. There are a lot of teams that are very even, so that part is wide open. But there are strong No. 1 seeds, so we will see what happens. I think there are a lot of teams out there that feel they can win games in the NCAA Tournament this year, which might not always be true."

On most important thing he can do now as a coach:
"Just really do a good job with the team. In other words, make sure we work really hard in practice but not get tired. At this time of year, you have played a lot of basketball since Oct. 12. You really have to make sure you have your legs going in, because you want to play two games, obviously, each weekend. That means two games in three days, so you have to have your legs going into the first game on Friday."

Has it been more fun as a coach this year:
"The challenge last year was to make sure the players could handle the pressure. We were supposed to be good, we were supposed to win most of our games. The challenge this year is to teach, to try to really blend a team when you lose four starters. That was a big challenge. And I'm really proud we got to the NCAA Tournament. Not many teams lost four starters at the level of our starters and got to the NCAA Tournament this year."

On the season so far:
"I look at our season and I'm very proud of what our guys did. We didn't play well the last few games, but that's two of 28 games. We will be the type of team we can be going into Friday. We have time to work on some things. I think every team, given this opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament, wants to work on a couple things. You see things over the course of the season you would like to get better at. And we have a chance now, starting [Monday]."

On being selected for a 10th straight NCAA Tourney:
"This guy will never take this for granted, even though we have gone to 10 straight. This is a big thing, a big deal. Every year you look at some of the teams that didn't get in, and you really have a lot of empathy for them, because they certainly were good enough to play in the NCAA Tournament, but it just didn't work out. To go to 10 straight, you dodged some bullets along the way."

On the Terps' experience factor:
"I'd rather be experienced than not experienced. I remember the first time we went, you are just so excited to be there you forget you are there to win games. We do have veterans on the team who have won a lot of NCAA Tournament games, and hopefully that experience will really help us in terms of being solid when we walk on the court."

On rebounding from two straight losses at season's end:
"You don't dismiss [those games]. You use those games to help yourselves. You learn from those games. Whatever we did wrong - and we certainly know what we did wrong - we have to correct."

On whether he will carry over any superstitions from last year:
"I still have one tie left [from last year's run]. You will see that tie at some point."