Dec. 19, 2004

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Head Coach Gary Williams
On today's game:
"Today was a tough game to play. I'm really proud of our guys. They dealt with a lot of adversity this week. There was graduation practice in Comcast Center the last two days. We had a couple of guys taking exams on Saturday morning. It was tough out there, with guys hanging on with foul problems and guys playing out of position. We stayed tough and hung on, which is a great sign going into the ACC [schedule]."

On the contributions from the reserves:
"Our bench - James Gist, Will Bowers, Mike Jones and, of course, D.J. Strawberry, all were incredible. They all stepped up. Will and Mike played great defense the last few minutes when they got in the game, and that's great to see them come through for us. Obviously, that helps us for the future. Our guys were ready to play when they had to play."

On freshman James Gist:
"He's one of those kids that comes from a good academic background and is very intent on learning. Everyone says he's a good dunker and all that, but that doesn't make you a basketball player. It's you're ability to see situations and think on the move, and James does that real well for a freshman. He doesn't get lost out there very often."

On sophomore guard D.J. Strawberry:
"I've always respected D.J. for a lot of things, such as his ability to pick it up when he has to. Tonight he just made up his mind that he was going after the ball a couple times and got it and converted."

Looking ahead towards the ACC schedule:
"You look at our road schedule the next three away games and it's tough. I learned a long time ago in conference play that every year looks like it's going to be difficult. But if you just stay where you are it usually works out, because everyone's got the same schedule basically. You can't get caught it up that. You have to be tough enough to win the ones at home."

Maryland Guard D.J. Strawberry
On Florida State:
"They never go away, they're a tough team. They're going to keep fighting whether they're up ten or we're up ten. They just keep playing hard and it came down to the stretch and into overtime. I tip my hat off to them."

On surviving the physical play of FSU:
"They have big strong guards and they wore us down in the end. We gave up some easy shots because they had some open kick-outs from driving and penetrating all night. At the end, we prevailed and we won the game."

On the encouragement of Coach Williams:
"He was on me so tough. He wants me to go out there and be fired up just like he is on the bench. That's my job and I was able to do that at the end of the game."

Maryland Guard Mike Jones
On hitting a critical three-point shot in overtime:
"After every timeout, I stretch my legs out to make sure everything is fine. I knew eventually Coach was going to put me into the game. I stayed loose so I could go out there and work hard on defense and offense to help us win."

On bouncing back from the last game:
"Great shooters are going to miss some shots. You can't worry about the ones you miss. You have to be ready for the next shot that's coming to you. I don't really pay attention to the last game or how many shots I've taken."

Maryland Guard John Gilchrist
On his overtime assist to Mike Jones:
"I definitely have confidence in Mike. He's a great player. We have a lot of good guards on our team, so he doesn't always get a lot of minutes during the game. In practice, he hits that shot all week, so I was very confident he would hit it."

On the win:
"It was a see-saw battle and a tough first ACC win. I'm just happy to win."

Florida State Head Coach Leonard Hamilton
On the game:
"I thought Maryland pushed all the right buttons during the crucial parts of the game. They mixed their defenses up just enough to cause us some indecision, and I thought that basically made the difference in the game. When you turn the ball over 25 times, it's kind of tough to win against a team of this caliber. ...But on the positive side, it appears that this team is growing up a little more and learning a little bit more how to compete at this level. We still have a long road for improvement. Obviously, when you're playing as many people and as many youngsters as we are, you're going to have some mistakes, but hopefully we can learn from this and go back and regroup

"Maryland is an outstanding team, and I see now why they're ranked so high. They're a great team. We just have to figure out a way that we can develop our program to the point where we can be as competitive as they have been over the last number of years."

On the play of his team:
"I just think that we made a lot of poor decisions during the last 10 minutes. It's amazing that we had a chance to still win the game at the end. It's positive in some ways that we were able to make those kind of mistakes on the road and still have a chance to win against a team of this caliber. Hopefully we can learn from that and not put ourselves in that position again."

On the future of the program:
"I really, truly believe that Florida State has the chance to really be a premier program in our conference. But along the way when you go through these periods, you have to learn from them and grow. Even though as painful as it is when you come up short like this, you can grow as a team, become closer, smarter. It's not how you start, it's how you finish."

Senior Forward Adam Waleskowski
On the game:
"I think we knew we were going to come out and give an all-out effort. We kind of came out a little slow, but we picked it up and our effort was there. We played it down to the last minute. We just didn't play as smart as we should have. We let this one slip by us."

On the makeup of the team:
"We have a team that really wants to win. We want to fight. We have all the talent in the world. We just have to play smarter, we have to know the time and score of the game and the situation towards the end of the game. We had a couple of situations at the end of the game where we were ahead and guys were trying to force the ball towards the basket. We just didn't knock down our free throws either and that is something that comes along with playing in these environments."

Sophomore Forward Al Thornton
On the game:
"This [Comcast Center] is one of the toughest places to play on the road. I definitely think we came together as a team tonight, even in the loss. We came close as a team and we showed that we can play in a tough environment. I wish we could have played the first half the way we did in the second half. There is no doubt in my mind that if we played that way [in] the first half, it would have been our game."

On his play
"This is my sophomore year. I feel like I have to step up, because I pretty much know the system now. I feel like I have to step up, try to be a leader and try to get some things going."