Nov. 8, 2006

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes

Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
On the game:
"It was a good win for us. Vermont is a tough team to play as far as to shake them from their tempo. We felt that we had to play at our tempo. It took us a good 16 minutes to get us to our tempo. Once we did, we were okay. We changed up our press a little bit and that is when we picked things up. I like the way our team is developing. I think right now we are picking each other up. If one guy is not playing particularly well in a game, another guy seems to step up and that is always a good sign for the future."

On Neal and Osby:
"Both Dave Neal and Bambale Osby did a great job tonight picking us up. We were down a little bit. That's great to see because you do not know where your team is going to go bench-wise as the year goes on and it is nice to see guys like that developing into players that you can put on the court at any time. Hopefully this is a big step forward for both those guys so I was really proud of them tonight. They did a great job."

On Strawberry:
"D.J. Strawberry had a very good intensity level with him tonight. I thought he was battling all the way. He is a very good defensive player. I haven't coached many guards that are better defensively than D.J. with his size and his quickness. He deserved the MVP award of this region."

On rebounding:
"I was not happy at halftime with the rebounding. We were outrebounded 25-to-19. We just could not get to the glass. You did not see many Maryland guys up against the offensive glass. We have to look at that and find out a better way to rebound against big people like that."

On Vasquez's and Hayes' play:
"I think both of them are able to help each other out. That is the toughest position to play as a freshman. I think they talk a lot to each other. Greivis [Vasquez] can play at the one, two, and three. Eric [Hayes] can play at the one and two. Eric is a very good shooter. When he relaxes a little bit, he is able to see his shots and knock them down. Point guards gradually over the course of their career see opportunities to score out of the offense. I think both Eric and Greivis are starting to get a feel for their offense so hopefully the shots will follow along."

Maryland Guard D.J. Strawberry
On the game:
"I tried to go out and play as hard as I could. We had a lot of people step up today. Mike Jones had a great game. We're working on coming together as a team."

On Vermont:
"It was definitely hard for everyone to adjust to a slow-paced game after such an up-tempo game yesterday. I thought we played into their hands in the first half and didn't push the tempo enough. In the second half we wanted to get up and force the tempo, and I thought we did that pretty well."

On the newcomers:
"I love playing with them. I think we're gelling really well. [Bambale] Osby takes up so much room in the paint. He's been grabbing every rebound and pushing people around. That's what we needed. Greivis [Vasquez] brings a great spark off the bench, and Eric [Hayes] is so solid. He's our floor general, getting everyone where we need to go."

Maryland Guard Mike Jones
On putting things together offensively:
"I knew that I had to find my shot somehow. Tonight I basically made a living off the curl shot, and after I started hitting that, I felt like everything was going to go in. As a shooter, sometimes you're not going to find your stroke in a game. To come out and hit your shots the next time feels good."

On advancing to the semi-finals of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic:
"Going to New York is always special. Madison Square Garden is one of those legendary places that every kid wants to get a chance to play in. This is big for us, but for right now we have to focus on Florida A&M and get ready for that game first."

On playing in a 3-guard offense:
"We're very confident. We have a lot of guys who can get up and down the court, and Greivis [Vasquez] and Eric [Hayes] have brought a lot of energy to the court."

Maryland Guard Eric Hayes
On halftime adjustments:
"I think we became a lot more aggressive on the defensive end in the second half, and that really worked for us. We wanted to get the tempo up. The first half was pretty slow, and we decided that we didn't want to let up on our press. That's what we've been working on."

On running a 3-guard offense:
"We're trying to get the ball into transition and get easy buckets early in the possession. We want to rebound and go down and score as fast as possible. If we can do that, we'll win a lot of games."

Vermont Head Coach Mike Lonergan
On the game:
"Our shooting was really bad, and our turnovers. Those were the two things. Maryland did a really good job not allowing us to run any of our sets with their defensive pressure. Their press really hurt us. Only one point guard had an assist. Everyone else, we were just turning the ball over. It was hard to stay in the game because we couldn't make shots, and we kept turning the ball over and giving them more possessions."

On Maryland guard Mike Jones:
"We knew he could shoot, and he wasn't supposed to get any open looks, but they did a good job getting him the ball and we did not guard him well at all tonight."

On out-rebounding Maryland:
"I thought we missed a lot of shots and maybe we got some of them back on offensive rebounds, but stats can be misleading at times. I think we're a pretty good rebounding team but I don't think we should put much into that."

On Maryland guard D.J. Strawberry:
"Mike Jones shot the ball extremely well but I thought D.J. Strawberry dominated the game defensively. We couldn't run our offense. He had six steals but there were probably five other plays that he was involved with creating havoc on defense. I feel like he's probably one of the top three defensive players in the country. I saw it for a year (as a Maryland assistant coach) and I tried to warn our guys but we just continued to throw the ball in the press on his side, which we weren't supposed to. I thought he was definitely MVP of that game. He scored too and did a good job from the free throw line, but his defense was awesome as usual."