Feb. 26, 2009

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Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams

On tonight's game:
"We have a darn good basketball team. We played really hard tonight; we played our hearts out. We didn't get the win, but you know what, I know what we did out there tonight and how hard we worked to get where we had a chance to win that game. I'm really proud of the players and the team for what they did in getting ready, especially this last series of games that we've had. We're going to be tough the rest of the way, I guarantee you. We're really going to continue to work, continue to get better, like we've been doing for a while now. This is a good basketball team, and I'm proud to be coaching this team."

On junior Greivis Vasquez sitting out much of the second half due to foul trouble:
"This time of year you hope you can do that because you've had a lot of combinations in practice and in games, and some of them are with Greivis out in practice. It's a shame that we couldn't play those 10 minutes with Greivis, it really is."

On the team's performance tonight:
"I think we've developed a certain way to play that is best for us. We play with a great deal of intensity. Our defense has been good lately, and hopefully we can continue to improve that. Duke is really hard because every play is a struggle. They have a great defense, and it's a struggle to score, at least for us it was tonight. But at the same time, our defense kept us in there. We had our chances. They hit two big 3's when they had to. They stretched to six and we didn't score, so I thought that was the turn-around in the game."

On the team's improvement since the loss at Duke:
"Down there, we just didn't play. There wasn't anything about our game that should've made that game any closer than it was. If you're a team, you learn from that. You don't accept it. It happened, but you don't accept it. You do something about it. Things don't have to stay the same, and I think that's what we've done. We've tried to rise up and be a competitive team with anybody we play the rest of the way. This is going to be another tough test to gather everything together and get ready for a road game against a team that's playing very well. Hopefully we can do that the next three days."

Sophomore Guard Adrian Bowie

On losing Greivis because of foul trouble:
"Losing Greivis was a big loss, he is the best player on the team. We lost a lot of leadership and a big part of our offense."

On playing Duke much closer then the game in Durham:
"It took the hard work and the teamwork to get us to this point. We are playing a lot better as a team and we are going to have to bring It on Sunday against NC State."

On guarding Gerald Henderson:
"It's hard guarding Gerald, he is a great player. As a defender you have to try and stay in front of him and make him shoot jumpshots."

Junior Guard Eric Hayes

On Maryland's defensive strategy:
"We know that most of their scoring comes from three players and we had to do a lot of helping off against Elliot Williams. They did a good job of getting pick and rolls for Gerald Henderson and he played a great game."

On the team's overall play tonight
"We wanted to come out and prove tonight that we are capable of beating a team like that. Even thought we lost, I think we proved to a lot of people we are capable of beating a team like Duke."

Junior Forward Landon Milbourne

On the mistakes that Maryland made down the stretch:
"We had a couple turnovers and we got beat to some loose balls, but all the mistakes we made were things that can be fixed and those things will be fixed by the NC State game on Sunday."

Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski

On Gary Williams and the Maryland crowd:
"Gary Williams is a heck of a coach. The last time we played them, they were going in a different direction. He has changed the direction of this team. The one Saturday [win over North Carolina] was huge, and we knew coming in here that we would be playing a vintage Maryland team and a vintage Maryland crowd. The crowd was great. You could see the union of the crowd and the team together. It's what you expect at Maryland, and it's just a tough place to win it."

On his team's performance tonight:
"Our guys came through with some workman-like performances. We had some really good contributions off the bench from [Brian] Zoubek and [Greg] Paulus. Elliot [Williams] came up with some loose-ball buckets off offensive rebounds that either tied the game or put us two points ahead. He made the pass of the game, when he made the extra pass to Jon [Scheyer], and that three point shot was huge."

Duke Forward Kyle Singler

On coming from behind to win on the road:
"It was definitely a big, big win for us. We knew coming in it would be a tough game. Maryland is playing well after their big win against North Carolina. But we stuck together and at the end of the game, we hit big shots. We were able to lengthen the lead and get stops on defense."

On the play of Duke leading scorer Gerald Henderson:
"Gerald's kind of our catalyst. If we need a big play, it seems like he comes up with it. That's who Gerald is. He's a very good player. If he keeps doing what he's been doing, we'll be much better off."