Nov. 13, 2004

Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
On the play of freshman forward James Gist:
"He's an exciting player, there's no doubt about it. Where his game is at right now around the basket is really good. He's got to get down some things, but he's got potential to be a good basketball player, there's no doubt about it."

On Gist's alley-oop dunk in the second half:
"The dunk was great but everybody did a great job on the play -- setting the screen, making the exchange, the pass was pretty good. Everybody knew it. I think it was a team play. Any time you run a play when three or four guys are involved, that certainly excites you. And I think it excited the crowd, too. Some field goals mean more than just two points and that was one of them."

On the team's defensive play:
"In the second half, I thought we had a good defensive effort. I've always felt it's easier to play when you're down. We were down 20 [points] a couple times last year and got the deficit back to five before the other team kind of wakes up. So I thought we played pretty good defense once we got the lead in the second half and did a good job at keeping the intensity up."

On the play of sophomore center Will Bowers:
"I just thought he deserved a chance. Every other big guy got their chance. He played great. He stayed within himself and played hard. He's big and when he catches the ball in the post he's 7-foot-1, so he's hard to stop. He's gaining confidence."

Maryland Guard Chris McCray
On the Maryland second half intensity:
"For the first fifteen minutes, we were playing within ourselves. We changed our faces in the last four minutes. We picked it up and started diving on the floor getting loose balls and steals, and trapping hard like the feisty Terps that we are. That's how we won last year. Coach told us we needed that effort."

On team depth:
"We've got to get it done. That's one thing about our team this year, everybody knows we have a lot of talent. There isn't any pouting. If I can't get it done, somebody behind me will. It's all about winning this year."

On his rebounding:
"It was a goal. Coach Lonergan always tells me I'm a good rebounder for a guard. He wanted to see me get in there more and be more active on the glass."

Maryland Forward Nik Caner-Medley
On improving from the last game:
"I think we improved on some things. In the second half, we played great team defense. Any time you can come out and play 40 minutes in the preseason, it's going to be good for you. We had a lot of fun today."

On Freshman James Gist:
"James is real athletic and that's something that always gets the team going, when you have some good dunks, and the crowd gets excited. It's great for our team when you have someone who can come in and do things like that for us."

On his focus coming into this game:
"I wanted to come out and play hard on the defensive end and help set the tone for us defensively. I've worked on a lot of individual parts of my game, but we've really been focused on defense for this game and I think we did a great job in the second half."

Maryland Guard DJ Strawberry
On his good shooting day:
"I've been working on my jump shot with the coaches. I used to not follow all the way through on my shot, so I've been working on that a lot this year. It feels a lot better, more comfortable. A consistent jump shot would make me a more complete player."

Carleton Head Coach Dave Smart
On the game:
"For the first 30 minutes of the game, we were only down by 10. We were doing what we had to do, but Maryland is a great basketball team. We certainly did some things today that we haven't done in the last couple of weeks in terms of playing smart. We just simply ran out of gas."

On the team:
"This game was great for us because it makes us more precise. We are just not that good right now and we are not very precise. In Canada, we are 9-1 and ranked number one in the country. To come down here in a situation where we were just physically dominated, it shows our guys what we need to improve on to get better."

On James Gist:
"He plays hard, he is athletic, Gist was a pretty tough matchup for us. It is one thing in terms of what he does in the post, but in transition and on the boards it becomes a two-man job to defend him."