Jan. 20, 2009

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Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams

On the game:
"It's hard to shoot free throws when you're tired. We were tired at the end and made our free throws, so I was proud of our guys for that. I was proud of the way we stepped up when Dave Neal couldn't play the rest of the [first] half. I was proud of Dino [Gregory] and proud of Braxton [Dupree] and Jin Soo [Kim] coming in and what they did in that situation. I was proud of Dave for coming back and doing what he did in the second half. He hit the big three and he gives you a lot of stability out there on the court in terms of talking on defense. It was a great team effort. I thought Eric Hayes did a good job with the ball tonight. Eleven assists and no turnovers - you don't see that very often out of anyone. It was great to see."

On coming off two tough losses:
"We held on, but we were due. We were due to get one of these and we did. We could have very easily won [four] in a row in the conference right now. It was tough to come back tonight. I said out there that there were a lot of demons you have to get out of your head when you get a lead in that situation after what happened in Miami. I was really pleased with the team in terms of what they did at Florida State after the Miami game and then coming out today without much rest. We had to go pretty hard on Sunday and Monday to get ready for today's game. We just have to keep up our toughness and keep getting better. I like these guys, I like coaching them."

On Dave Neal's second-half return:
"He was hurting pretty good when he came back, so I left it up to Dave. He was good. I'm not sure that he expected to play when he came back to the bench. He wanted to play. I asked how he felt and he said he'd give it a go. Dave's a tough guy. I think when you're a senior, you know you only have `X' number of games left. When you're a sophomore you feel like you have a thousand games left, but when you're a senior you don't have that luxury of being able to miss out on big wins. Dave wanted to be out there and he did a good job."

On Virginia's attempted comeback:
"They made shots, and that's just one of those things. It's like the last two shots at Miami. We played good defense. What do you do, put eight guys out there? The thing we did tonight is we stayed aggressive. Once they got it close, we ran four straight plays where we went to the basket and got to the free throw line, and once we did we were okay."

On Dino Gregory:
"He's a sophomore. He didn't play much last year and he's playing now, and he's had some good games. Every day in practice has to be a good day, and tonight he did make some great plays in the first half and that's what we needed. He was very valuable to the team. I think Dino sees that it's right there, now go take advantage of it."

On getting free throw attempts:
"I thought we did okay. We're a good free throw shooting team, so that's an advantage for us against most teams. We didn't shoot many free throws until the end. You have to look at your offense in those situations to make sure you take the ball to the basket."

Junior Guard Greivis Vasquez

On the victory:
"I still need to find myself on the court, but as a team, it was a great effort. It's a great win. We sustained a lead. We got the lead and [Virginia] never took it away, but every ACC game is wild."

Junior Forward Landon Milbourne

On Maryland's play:
"We had a really good passing game tonight, everyone was doing their part and everyone was hitting their shots. There was good hustle from the whole team, besides that little slump that we had. Overall, I think it was a very good win. We had guys like Dino [Gregory] coming off the bench when Dave Neal was hurt and play big for us."

On his second-half scoring surge:
"In the first half I just couldn't seem to get the ball in. I missed a couple shots, got my shot blocked once, I was just trying to find a little bit of energy. I tried to come in [the locker room] and relax myself a little bit, and then go out with a little more energy than I had in the first half. I think it turned out well. I got a couple offensive rebounds and hit my free throws."

On Maryland playing with injuries:
"We're hard-working. We get banged up, but that's not a problem. That's what happens when you play basketball. We have no problem with it, and Coach [Williams] is a tough guy, so he rubs off on us. It's just the type of people we are - get iced up, get stretched out and get ready to play tomorrow in practice."

Virginia Head Coach Dave Leitao

Opening Statement:
"It's not going to be a situation that's productive to winning when you dig a hole as we did in the beginning of the game and throughout the first half. The tentativeness on offense got us turnovers; not playing basketball north and south got us turnovers. Bad shot selection led to fast-break points on their end, and when we don't get good possessions we tend to not play as well on the defensive end. We gave them 45 points in the first half that we obviously just couldn't climb out of that hole."

On defending against Maryland's offense:
"I think they've changed from years past and they're playing with the ball much more in the hands of their perimeter players. I think the biggest challenge that they gave us and they give every team is how often they get the ball in the middle of the floor. Getting (Adrian) Bowie and (Greivis) Vasquez in the middle of the floor allowed them to challenge the defense and to make plays out of that. There were times when we were able to defend it well, but there were many more times when we were not able to keep the ball out of crucial areas."

On helping his team get back into the game in the second half:
"More energy on defense. Keeping to assignments. When you can defend and rebound, you get a chance to have some early offense, and I thought that we were able to do that. Today was more getting the ball inside to Mike (Scott). It starts on the defensive end. We have to continue to figure out a way to get that energy we had to show up earlier in games."

On falling behind by 15 points at halftime:
"In sports in general, when you get down, especially on the road, to work your way back expends so much energy. Sometimes you just don't have the physical and mental capabilities to finish the deal off. If we had been down five or six points at halftime and done what we did, the mindset of the game and the execution of the game in those last six or seven minutes, it probably would have been different."

On Jamil Tucker's play:
"Getting better is something that he has obviously been able to do. He's older, and he's a little more understanding of what we're trying to do. I'm still trying to raise the bar for him. There's a lot more left in him that I'm still trying to get out. What we see from a productivity standpoint is good; what I'd like to see overall from everybody, including him, is that we play much more solidly in all of the important areas."

Virginia Forward Jamil Tucker

On being down by 15 points at halftime:
"We got lackadaisical at the end of the first and we didn't disrupt their offense enough. We were not aggressive enough, and when you play lazy like that, you can really dig yourself a hole."

On feeling better after making a comeback in the second half:
"I don't feel good about it because when you play as hard as we did to fight back in the second half and still come up short, it is frustrating."

On turning the ball over 19 times:
"Obviously you make it hard to win when you turn the ball over as much as we did. We talked about it before the game and we knew we were going to have to come out and not turn the ball over in order to win, and we didn't do that tonight."