Dec. 28, 2004

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Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
On tonight's game:
"John Gilchrist did a good job; he was excited early. That helped us a lot, as the team played with a lot of energy. We were pretty good at keeping the energy up for an extended period of time. We had a pretty good energy level and now we have to maintain that in practice with Mount St. Mary's coming up [on the schedule]. It's very important we practice the same way as we played tonight."

On the play of the reserves:
"The bench did a great job with sustaining the momentum we had going. Will Bowers really handled the ball well in the post position. I thought James [Gist] did some good things; he's learning. He's far from a complete player, but he certainly shows he belongs out there on the court."

On the focus of upcoming practice:
"We're going to work on some things; you can always get better. There are games coming up where you have to be ready to run for 40 minutes. [Liberty guard] Larry Blair got off in the second half and you can't let that happen over the course of the game. We're close, we're getting close. It's close when you hit conference play, too, so we're looking forward to that."

On point guard John Gilchrist:
"I told him all great players do things to get the team going, and I thought that happened tonight. John got off to a pretty good start in terms of being aggressive. I think that helps everybody be aggressive. He did do a good job. John's a good player and he's got the ability to make everyone else better. That's when he's really good, when he can do that."

Maryland Forward Nik Caner-Medley
On his five steals:
"I watched a lot of tape over the break of some of my best personal games. Offensively, I found that my best games come when I get deflections, and get a lot of rebounds and when I'm very active and vocal with my teammates. I am more involved in the game and I feel better. It also helps the team a lot because it gets a lot of guys going."

On the relationship between offense and defensive play:
"Any time you get going on the defensive end, you don't think about offense as much. It just comes more in the rhythm of the game and helps you a lot."

On the upcoming schedule:
"I think we're in a good position right now. It's very important for us to prepare for Mount St. Mary's in the next few days and win that game. Then, the season really gets going. That's what we've been looking forward to. It will be interesting to see how we react when we have a couple of road games. It's going to be tough. We're going to have to play good basketball to get wins in those situations. We need to be focused and dedicate ourselves to basketball 100 percent on and off the court."

Maryland Forward Travis Garrison
On combining for twenty-three rebounds with Ekene Ibekwe:
"Coach emphasized rebounding. We took it upon ourselves to go out there and get more rebounds. That's what we should be doing. That's what Jamar [Smith] was doing last year so we have to make up for his loss."

Maryland Center Will Bowers
On his increased playing time in recent games:
"I have an opportunity to step in and solidify myself in the rotation. The more I play, the more I get comfortable so I'm playing pretty well right now."

Liberty Head Coach Randy Dunton
Opening comments:
"Obviously we're a team that's struggling to find ourselves right now, and we played a team that's a top 25 team. You have to give [Maryland point guard John] Gilchrist a lot of credit for coming out and establishing himself from the get-go and just never letting down. They wore us down with their athleticism."

On the Terps:
"I thought that for them, obviously, when they can establish themselves from the perimeter by knocking down some shots, it really puts a lot of pressure on people because they're such a good rebounding team. Their length is just incredible to battle. We played NC State, and I really felt like Maryland is a lot longer and puts a lot more pressure on you around the rim in the rebounding phases of the game than what NC State did with us. Those things are tremendous factors in the game because they lead to second shot opportunities that stymie runs, and they also lead to your kids getting a little more discouraged."

On his team's play:
"We've got to do a better job on the offensive glass. The rebounding disparity tonight is as big as the point disparity. We were an NCAA tournament team a year ago. We feel like as we get into our conference we're going to be competitive. I'm playing six sophomores and freshmen right now."

On how this game will help Liberty prepare for conference play:
"You're not going to see pressure that's going to have the length that this pressure has, so you should be able to relay it back to this as you get into conference play. It's going to make us tougher. We're really striving with our attitudes to get back to the level that we were a year ago in our pursuit of a championship, and we're excited about trying to make a run as we head to conference play."