Nov. 23, 2007

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Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
Opening Statement:
"In the second half I thought offensively we stayed with the flow of the game. In other words we didn't try to make great plays, we didn't force anything. We just took what came from executing our transition and our half court offense. And our offense is much better for it. We've been trying to get to that really since practice started and the second half, that stretch was good because we have been playing good defense."

On Braxton Dupree:
"Braxton started to play better in practice last week. He played very well against Missouri in a pressure situation and today we all walked in this morning around 11 o'clock and found out Boom [Osby] was sick. So I liked to see the way we handled that because Boom would've started if he was here. We had to make a quick adjustment and I thought Braxton handled it really well."

On Freshmen Expectations:
"You never know, you don't judge freshmen until they get to be sophomores because I think people a lot of times put wrong expectations on them ... I've always felt there are probably 20 great freshmen every year that come out of high school and there are a couple hundred that are pretty close. Certain guys develop pretty quicker than others."

On what he liked about the team's ball movement
"It was good, the way we tried to play. Twelve [turnovers] is a pretty good number for us. I can live with 12. Lehigh didn't press us so maybe that had something to do with it, although Missouri's a pretty good pressing team and a lot of our turnovers didn't come from their pressure. It came from us making mistakes in our half-court offense so it was a good sign. Now we have to do it against Illinois. We have to handle the ball against Illinois."

Maryland Senior Forward James Gist:
On the team defense:
"That's pretty much the whole thing, our defense is good. Over the years, since I've been here, we have always had to work on our defense. From the beginning [of the season] our defense has been top notch but you don't really get to notice it because we're not winning games like that, winning the big games like Missouri and UCLA. When we put it together and we get our offense going and we start playing with each other, it really shows."

On the play of Braxton Dupree:
"I told Braxton [Dupree] before the game, you never know what's going to happen. You've always got to be ready. When today is your opportunity, don't let it pass you by. I told him, `Braxton, you keep playing like that and you're going to get some minutes.'"

Maryland Sophomore Guard Greivis Vasquez:
On running the offense:
"I was really concerned about running the offense better and I think we did a pretty good job. The guy who will go out and score 40 points and lose the game, I don't want to be that guy. Coach put a lot of emphasis on that, making the team better by passing, making the easy passes and hitting the wide open man so we can hit better shots."

Maryland Freshman Forward Braxton Dupree:
On his effort:
"Everyone was just trying to come out with energy and as hard as possible so that's what I was trying to do. I was missing some shots but I was just trying to go harder after every ball and then finish."

Lehigh Head Coach Brett Reed
On today's game:
"It was a disappointing loss for us, but obviously we're going against a very quality program in Maryland. I thought they played well. Their pressure disrupted us at times and forced a few turnovers where they were able to capitalize. When we got in to the half court, we weren't necessarily able to execute or get some of the same looks that we normally would. In order to beat a team like this, we have to be playing on all cylinders and unfortunately, tonight we were a little less than perfect."

On Maryland's 15-0 run in the second half:
"I think we ultimately just got out of sync. We had some shots that we didn't make and a few turnovers that led to some easy possessions. We had some mental lapses during that time. Unfortunately, they took advantage of that and we weren't able to quite recover. It was certainly a slow leak for our program."

On Maryland's defense:
"I give them credit for their defense, but also, by the same token, we have to do what we need to do to make plays during that situation. They have to score 15 points during that run and certainly we have to knock down a couple shots during that run as well."