Pregame Quotes: Oral Roberts At Maryland
3/15/2005 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 15, 2005
Head Coach Gary Williams
On the Oral Roberts game:
"We have to win this game and that's how we have to look at it. Just play to win and by doing that you can look at some things for next year. Most of these guys are coming back next year, so you'll get a look and see how some of these guys respond to this situation."
On playing hard in the NIT:
"You can always have an excuse if you want to. You are playing a basketball game against a quality team that beat Georgetown and played Indiana to a one point game. The players are aware of that. My only thing is that every time you have the chance to play a game it's a good time. That's the fun of basketball. If you are a competitor, you walk out there and it should be exciting. I'm certainly involved in basketball more than any of the players and I'll be excited tomorrow night."
On playing at Madison Square Garden if the Terrapins advance:
"I grew up with the NIT being the big tournament at the end of the year. It's a great experience. I've always thought the NIT has done good things for many schools. And that's why I wanted to play its part of basketball and it's an important part of basketball."
On Oral Roberts:
"They were 1.2 seconds away from the NCAA tournament and that guy made a great shot from Oakland. They can play. They've got inside-out scoring from a guards and like I said they feel that they are one of those teams that if they were in a bigger conference, they might be in the tournament, so that's there feelings coming out."
On Maryland's team:
"You find out a lot about guys in different situations and we'll see how they respond to this. We won't know until they take the court Wednesday night. I think it's very important they understand that there is no going back and that they know that because we are Maryland, we are supposed to be going."
