Dec. 23, 2005

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Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
On the game:
"The defensive intensity was very good right from the start of the game. We carried the defense from the Boston College game over to today. I try to tell the players that if they play really good defense all the time, that will break things loose offensively."

On American University:
"American has a lot of good young players. Jeff Jones certainly knows what he is doing, and I think they are going to be very difficult to play come February."

On Chris McCray:
"You don't notice Chris all the time like you should. He had double figures at halftime and that was the quietest double figures I can remember. He does a lot of good things out there for us. He's the glue in our back court right now."

On Ekene Ibekwe:
"He gave us a strong presence inside and pulled down a lot of good rebounds for us in there."

On Parrish Brown:
"Parrish is getting comfortable out there. He knows what we're trying to do. He works hard and he has a pretty good head on his shoulders. He makes some really good plays and he knows where the ball should go."

On Nik Caner-Medley:
"I thought he was very aggressive. When Nik is aggressive, he can overwhelm some guys at the small forward because of his physical presence. When he takes it to the basket like he did, he's really good, because he is also a very good shooter. That combination can be tough to beat."

Maryland Forward Nik Caner-Medley
On getting started after the long layoff in between games:
"We hadn't played in a long time so Coach talked to us about really coming out and being intense and getting the ball inside against a team that was smaller than us. We were able to get some offensive rebounds and finish around the hoop, and that was key for us."

On dealing with final exams in the middle of the season:
"Being a senior, I've been through it before and seen how the guys before me handled it. The most important thing is taking care of your classes, so I did have to focus a lot more on my schoolwork and getting that done. At the same time, one thing I talked to the guys about was still getting some shooting in and staying in shape. When you don't play for a while you can get winded. So we ran some sprints and shot around a lot, and we were well prepared."

Maryland Guard Chris McCray
On the upcoming stretch of three non-conference home games:
"The most important thing is just winning. Whether you beat a team by 40 or beat a team by two, it all still goes in one column. As long as we keep winning and get through this stretch, then we can start thinking about ACC games."

On Maryland's defense:
"Before the game we challenged ourselves. We asked if we were just going to play defense for one game, against Boston College (Dec. 11), or if we were going to continue that trend through the rest of the year. I think we did a great job defensively."

American Head Coach Jeff Jones
On the first half:
"We've had an unfortunate habit of coming out of the gate slowly in a number of games. It's something we've tried to address and we need to continue addressing. Maryland just came out excited. We use the analogy of Mike Tyson. When Mike Tyson fights, you have to weather that early barrage. We weren't able to. They overwhelmed us with their defense and crashing the boards. For a time there, we didn't really respond or fight back. That's a lesson we're going to have to learn."

On playing Maryland:
"We would have preferred if they had overlooked us, and had come out just wanting to get the game over with. Gary is an excellent coach and one of the things that he does well is he motivates his team. In this situation, they didn't have much to gain from playing well. I'm sure they just wanted to win the game and get out of here, but somehow or another Gary got them to play really well and really aggressively, at the defensive end in particular."

On Maryland's team:
"I've been impressed with this Maryland team. They have a lot of long, athletic bodies. They keep coming at you in waves. They tend to score in spurts. Their defense generates a lot of that. I think it's a team that's good and has lots of room to grow, especially with all those guys contributing. They've got different ingredients that can step up on any given night."

American Guard Andre Ingram
On preparing to play Maryland:
"We had not played since Dec. 12, so we had a lot of time to focus on ourselves. We focused on the little things -- being strong with the ball, turning and facing, defense. We then looked at Maryland's plays and what they liked to do and play."

On Maryland's aggressive defense:
"They played an extremely physical game and were strong. They really broke the game open down the lane and kept at us. That's where the game really set us apart. They had a lot of blocks and kept the pressure on."

On American's play in the second half:
"We were able to refocus in the second half and play more of our game. We were a bit stronger in that half and stayed with Maryland more."