Dec. 28, 2007

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Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
Opening statement:
"Some of our veteran players did a good job working hard the past few days in practice getting us to level where we can play hard in this game. I think our intensity level was good for most of the game, I didn't think there were any lapses."

On starting Cliff Tucker over Landon Milbourne:
"This is the type of team where it takes a couple of guys at some positions. Whatever it takes to win, that's fine with me. It was good to see Landon respond."

On James Gist:
"James is too good to play like he did the last two games. I just told him to `let it go.' We tried to go to him early to get him involved. "

On the 23-2 run:
"It felt good. I felt we were capable of sustaining offense like that. It was good to see 40 up there at halftime. We have to play aggressive to score. We did a good job."

On inside scoring:
"I felt we were missing some inside looks (previously). We definetly wanted to look inside early in the game. I thought we had the advantage inside."

On the team's toughness:
"We haven't been tough for a couple of weeks. We were tough tonight. We'll see if we can continue to be tough."

Maryland Sophomore Eric Hayes
On the team's first half play:
"We wanted to come out and dictate the pace of the game and score. The last three losses we have come out and scored about 20 points in the first half, so it was good to get forty points in the first half [tonight]."

On scoring points in the paint:
"We definitely saw by watching film that the inside game was something we could take advantage of. Once we started feeding the ball inside it opened it up for Greivis [Vazquez] and others to get open shots."

Maryland Senior James Gist
On the importance of the win:
"I told everyone after the game, `This is Maryland basketball right here.' This is the Maryland basketball I am use to playing and seeing over the years. I told the other players, `We can't be satisfied with this win. We need to keep pushing and get better with every day of practice.'"

On the meaning of the game:
"The win means we are capable of playing hard and doing these types of things. It's just a matter of getting better at what we are doing."

Maryland Senior Bambale Osby
On team rebounding:
"The last two games we got outrebounded and we have not been scoring off the offensive glass. Myself, James [Gist], Landon [Milbourne] and some of the other forwards just said, `We have to go out and rebound.' We made the effort to do it."

On the importance of having a good inside game:
"I think the inside game is really important. It is what will break the opposing team. I think it is a key [component] to us winning."

Delaware Head Coach Monte Ross
On the game:
"One of the things we talked about was the fact that, when you're playing against a team that is wounded like they were, is coached by a Hall of Fame coach to be like they are, they're not going to continue to play like the way they've been playing. I guess we did run into a desperate team, and showed some of our holes. We'll go back to the drawing board and see what we can do ."

On what disappointed him about his team's performance:
"Rebounding the basketball. That was an emphasis, and we didn't do it. Any time you give up 22 offensive rebounds, you're going to have a difficult time winning. I don't care what conference you're playing against. Specifically, against a team like Maryland, you're going to have problems. One of the things you can control is boxing out and we didn't do that well enough tonight."

On his feelings after the first five minutes of the game:
"I was actually concerned, because they were scoring the ball inside and that's one of the things they haven't really been getting a lot of. There were things we could have done, like play zone, but we're not really a zone team. So the first five minutes really worried me more than anything else."