March 7, 2004

Recap | Box Score| Notes| Photo Gallery

Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
Opening Statement:
"Excuse the end of the game -- the jumping up and down out there. I felt really good because we worked hard ... I'm really proud of these guys because they didn't stop, they kept trying. That is all athletes know -- to keep losses behind them. I thought they responded really well at halftime. I thought our defense tonight in the second half was exceptional ... Our pressure really kept them from shooting well at times. In the second half, we had nothing to lose down 11 [points]."

On the ACC tournament:
"Getting ready for the ACC tournament, we wanted to go in on a positive note. I just found out we are playing Wake Forest. They are a good basketball team. We lost to them twice this season and they are a team that we want to be playing. It is going to be a good tournament."

On Chris McCray:
"Chris is one of these players who was laid back in high school. He could always get shots off when he wanted to, but that doesn't work at this level. It takes a different level of energy. Chris has really stepped that up. Since the Duke game, Chris has really turned on the energy. He's a different player."

On the ACC and the NCAA tournaments:
"We finished sixth in the conference. Everyone has the ACC rated as being the best conference. I think seven ACC teams could be selected to the NCAA tournament. Hopefully, we will get seven into it."

Maryland Guard Chris McCray
On Coach Williams' post game celebration:
"I loved it, I loved it. He's been sticking with us all through the ups and downs all year and we really wanted to get better for him and for ourselves. That's what we did tonight, we went out and made him proud of us."

On the play of Virginia guard Todd Billet:
"I'm glad he wasn't able to get off, because if he had a good day, the outcome could have been different. He had a couple of good looks, so I'm glad he wasn't making shots tonight."

On the attitude when the Terps went down 11 points in the second half:
"It was about which team wanted it more. They're 6-9, we're 6-9. If they wanted it more on our home court, then Coach said he can deal with that. But we wanted to win bad and we played our best basketball of the night after that point. I'm just glad we came out with a win."

Maryland Center Jamar Smith
On how he feels about Senior night:
"It feels great going down to spoil NC State's [Senior night] and then coming back here for mine. It's great to get a win."

On the rest of the season:
"It's all uphill from here. I'm not trying to lose now. We can't lose. We're going to go down and play hard at the ACC Tournament."

Virginia Head Coach Pete Gillen
Opening Comment:
"I thought we played a terrific first half. I think the difference in the game in my opinion were three things. Number one, offensive rebounds by Maryland. Twenty-four offensive rebounds. It's tough to win when somebody hits 24 second shots. Key turnovers by us early in the second half led to baskets by them, the crowd getting into it. We lost our composure for a few minutes. And the third thing, we couldn't make shots, couldn't put the ball in the basket. We got some good looks, but we shot 33, 34 percent total. It's a combination of them really hurting us on the boards, we didn't box out, we didn't rebound as well as we needed to, key turnovers. We got a little bit [shaken] early in the second half for a few minutes. I'm proud of the team. We came back and tied it at whatever it was, 52. We lost our composure but we didn't put our head down. We kept swinging and tied it and then let it slip away at the end. We just didn't make shots. We had some good looks, whatever it was, 3-for-21 from three. You've got to be able to put the ball in the basket."

On how difficult the loss was:
"It's tremendously disappointing. We're up seven at the half. I knew it was a long, long, long, long way to go. We went up 11 and the game was in our grasp. But it's a 40 minute game, as I've said many times. We stopped playing for a couple minutes and some of our guys just got a little bit out of sync, got a little bit nervous, got a little bit hyper, made some turnovers and played too fast. You don't want to play a rat race game. That helps Maryland. The faster the game, Maryland likes it more."

Virginia's Devin Smith:
On focusing on the ACC Tournament
"We just need to put this behind us and get ready for Thursday. Nobody is going to give up. There was nothing we can do about this game. We came out and played hard, but we just didn't make shots and execute down the stretch."

On Sunday's game at Maryland
"Both teams played hard. We just couldn't get it done. We need to get ready for Clemson on Thursday. We'll just put this behind us and focus on the ACC Tournament."