Feb. 11, 2006

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Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
Opening Statement:
"I thought early in the game, we did a really good job on [J.J.] Redick, but they made some shots. [Greg] Paulus was very impressive early. They did a good job of getting the ball into Shelden Williams, which didn't surprise us. It took us awhile until we were able to be really competitive in the hustle statistics in the first half, but we were able to put ourselves in pretty good shape, down only four points at the half. But we came out in the second half, and we just weren't ready to work as hard as necessary to match up the way we should have."

"Today was a game where we did some things pretty well and had some pretty good efforts, but you need great efforts to beat the No. 2 team in the country. Now it's about winning our next six games. Hopefully, the competitiveness of the last three games will help us do that."

On play of Shelden Williams:
"He is the best inside player in the country. Generally, nobody stops him."

On Maryland's intensity:
"At times tonight, we played with the intensity we needed to win, but we have to play highly intense basketball for 40 minutes. Intensity is a trademark of good teams, and we ebb and flow a little bit with that."

On Duke's play:
"They made their foul shots. They have a lot of players who have played in big games. Paulus plays very under control and [Sean] Dockery has a lot of experience. And of course Redick, because of his shooting abilities, I think the other things he does on the court can go unnoticed, but he's an all-around great player."

Maryland Guard D.J. Strawberry
On the tough loss:
"We definitely wanted this game so bad. We fought our way to the end. Duke is a great team. You have to do everything right to beat Duke. If you make a couple of mistakes, they capitalize. They're a team that when they capitalize on mistakes, they get the momentum. Next thing you know, Redick hits a couple of three's and you're down 10 and that's what happened tonight.

On the play of J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams:
"They are great players. They're All-Americans. They play so hard and at a high level every night, you know you're going to be in for a long night with those two. When Shelden is hitting the boards and J.J. is making his shots like he was, it's definitely going to be hard to beat them."

On the Duke guard play:
"The guards played tremendous today. They hit their open shots. We tried to make other people beat us early and Greg Paulus and Sean Dockery stepped up and made shots."

Maryland Guard Mike Jones
On J.J. Redick:
"He's tough because he does a lot of running around and he has guys that are willing to get him open at any time and at any point in the game. In crucial situations, he has the ball in his hands. He's a great player and a great shooter. You try to play as great defense as possible and hope that he misses and that we get the rebound."

On the difference in the game:
"They probably beat us on the boards. When we went to help on their key players, other guys stepped up and made key shots. In certain situations, we couldn't put the ball in the basket. Sometimes that happens. Then you come back and play good defense on their premiere players, and other players step up and hit big shots. It's tough. Duke is a great team. We fought back as hard as we could to make it a good game."

Maryland Forward Nik Caner-Medley
On defending Duke:
"A lot of times we played really good defense in transition. We got to JJ like we were supposed to or we got to Shelden, but they just got second shots. They had a lot of back-breakers, a lot of shots down the stretch that they hit. They hit big shots and they've done it all year."

On being out-rebounded:
"Their biggest weakness is rebounding. They've been out-rebounded all year. We went into the game thinking we have to out-rebound this team and they out-rebounded us. A lot of them were easy second shots and lay-ups. It isn't like they were getting back into their offense."

Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
"That was a heck of a game. Their crowd was great and their team was terrific. Maryland seemed to have an unbelievable energy to their play. I thought that each team was attacking each other, especially early on. It was such a high-paced game. Greg [Paulus] and Sean [Dockery] really asserted themselves tonight and that's what made the difference. We're happy about the win because we beat a really good team today."

On Maryland's defense of JJ Redick:
"JJ came out today and got 35 points in a very workmanlike way. Maryland did a really good job on him defensively early on and we had to try to change things to get him the ball. At the end, when they had to foul, we tried to put him in a position to be the guy who got fouled. Other guys played off him instead of just watching him today and that's what made the difference."

On Shelden Williams:
"Shelden is a great defensive player. He ended up with seven blocks, but I think he altered many more shots. We're very lucky to have him, I wouldn't trade him for anyone."

On Maryland's play:
"Maryland played a hell of a basketball game today. They played like Gary's teams always play. They came out in the second half and made a good run at us too, but we were able to keep them two or three possessions away. It came down to the wire. They hit every 3-pointer, but we were able to inbound the ball and make our free throws."

Duke Forward Shelden Williams:
On his defense in the low post:
"My job is the last line of defense. If I don't block the shot, I still have a presence where they know I'm coming over. Even if I don't block the shot, I still have the presence of mind to be there to alter the shot. I think that's a great thing for our basketball team to have that low-post defensive presence."

On his team's outside shooting:
"Greg [Paulus] and Sean [Dockery] were shooting the ball well from the outside, so they couldn't just double-down every time we got the ball to the low post. Once I see my teammates stepping up and hitting those shots, it makes my job a lot easier."

On playing at Comcast Center:
"It's great getting a win here, especially with the fans they have. We kind of silenced the crowd and it was a great feeling walking off the court. It's always great to get a win on the road. Hopefully, we can win out the rest of the league games and end with a special ACC season."

Duke Guard Greg Paulus
On the outside shooting of the Duke guards:
"We get a lot of chances and a lot of opportunities to shoot the ball. Sometimes we try to pass it off or sometimes we try to make another play. When it's the right play, we'll shoot it, especially when we have good rebounding position. We're pretty good shooters. We're very confident in that and today they went down for us."

On playing at Comcast Center:
"We got the win. We did a good job of silencing them. We kept getting good starts to each half to keep them out of it. It was a good position for us to be in."

On Duke's strategy against Maryland:
"We felt that we could get some good looks by running our sets. Defensively, we tried to rebound and keep them off the glass."