March 3, 2009

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Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams

On tonight's game:
"My players did a great job of preparing for this game. You know we had to rush a lot of things in, and it was a big chance in terms of style of play from NC State to Wake Forest. I thought our guys did a very good job of getting ready. We committed to playing hard and I thought we played hard. The second half, we just couldn't move as well as we did in the first half, and that hurt us. We have to, when we're against a team that size, use our speed, and we just didn't seem to have it there for a while. I'm really proud of these guys. You look at the last four that we've played - they've been against pretty good teams and we've been there. We'll continue to work hard, and we have to get ready for Virginia now. That's what we're pointing towards."

On Wake Forest's size:
"We got inside a couple times, but they blocked everything. Every time we got it in there it seemed they just swatted it away. It's going to happen; we're not the biggest team this year, but you compete. A couple times down there I thought we could have had the ball, defensively, where we gave them the second shot and they scored. In a game that close, the hustle plays are always big. As far as the execution goes, that's my responsibility. In terms of the effort, the players did that. There was no back-up on our part, and we never went away from what we were trying to do intensity-wise. We have to keep that now for the next game. I know these guys pretty well ,and I think we'll come out on Saturday with a lot of determination."

On senior Dave Neal's performance tonight:
"He made some big shots for us, that's for sure. Dave's one of the keys to this team, in terms of what effort they give. You see the games, but every day in practice, it's there. Dave does what he can and from a coaching standpoint, that's terrific that a guy uses what he has to be as good a player as he can be. That's what Dave's done this year."

Maryland forward Dave Neal

On their next game at Virginia:
"We know what's at stake. If we win this game then we're 8-8 and in the past if you're 8-8 in the ACC and make a decent showing in the ACC Tournament, you have a pretty good chance of making the [NCAA] Tournament." "UVA is a tough place to play and it's their Senior Night. Since Wake Forest spoiled our Senior Night, I think we'd have some redemption to spoil their Senior Night."

On Senior Night:
"This just showed how much love Terrapin fans had for me. They went out there and had a great showing for my Senior Night. Personally, I played well, but it's a five-person game and we came up short in the loss. This was a great farewell, even though we lost, I will always remember this game. I had my career high and I was 5-for-6 from the 3-point line. This will always be in the back of my head as one of the greatest games I played at the University of Maryland."

Maryland guard Eric Hayes

On Maryland's offense:
"It was difficult when we got to the basket because they are very long and were blocking shots. But we did a pretty good job for the most part running our offense. We didn't hit some of our shots at the end; we had a bunch of good looks, but we just couldn't knock them down."

On trying to make the NCAA Tournament:
"This year, we're playing very well right now. We lost to Duke and Wake Forest here at home, but we played very well in both those games and we're playing with the top teams in the nation. We have to keep playing the way we are and playing as hard as we can and we shouldn't have a problem."

Wake Forest Head Coach Dino Gaudio

On Tuesday night's game:
"I thought it was a really hard-fought and hard-played game. I thought our kids did a terrific job in the second half and on the backboard. We had 19 offensive rebounds and out-rebounded them 50 to 32. It was a good win on the road, and those kids showed a lot of heart and character. "

On his players:
"Don't underestimate James Johnson's block down there at the end, under a minute. It was a big rebound for us. When Jeff Teague hit that three in the corner, it really helped us. He became aggressive and had a nice dunk for us. It was a really nice win for us."

On containing Greivis Vasquez:
"He was really good early on in the game. Holding that kid to 16 points on 24 shots is pretty good. After that initial burst from him, I thought we did a pretty good job."

Wake Forest Guard Jeff Teague

On the Demon Deacons' resiliency:
"If you want to be a good team, you have to be able to come back like that. We've got to stay together on the road. We stayed together and we played hard, and it all paid of for us"

On adjusting to Maryland's zone defense in the second half:
"We worked on [breaking the zone] in practice, but we didn't work on it a lot. We figured they would play a man-to-man, so when they went to a zone it kind of confused us for a little bit. We had to call a couple timeouts to get settled. Then I think we got used to it. We started running our "man" sets against it and it really helped.

Wake Forest Guard Ishmael Smith

On the victory:
"The resiliency of our team was unbelievable. Coach (Gary) Williams did a great job of changing defenses on us, and it kind of put us outside of our offense. But we made some big shots down the stretch and got the win. "

On the play of Dave Neal on Senior Night:
"He was big. We were up by four or five and he hit two threes in a row and then he hit another. He had a huge game and just kept picking and popping. He's a good player as far as stepping out and hitting that three. He got hot and got going. He played great for Maryland."