Feb. 24, 2010

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Maryland head coach Gary Williams

Opening Statement:
"That was one of those games where you find out a little bit more about yourself as you go through the year as a team. There was nothing really good that happened in the first half except we shot the ball pretty well. I think we shot 50 percent in the first half. That's another reason we were within nine points at halftime. We couldn't stop them. We couldn't keep them off the glass.

"Their press hurts a little bit in terms of getting us out of what we were trying to do offensively. We had to change those things at halftime to be able to get into our offense when we didn't have it against their transition. Against pressing teams, everybody tries to do the same thing which is attack, score when you have the opportunity, but then pull it back and run a good offense when you don't have a shot. That's easy to say but with the pace of the game and the crowd and everything, that is very difficult to do. That is what we had to do in the second half and we did that along with playing better defense and not giving them the second chances to tap the ball in, which happened so many times in the first half.

"It was a good test for us, not that we wanted to be in that situation against a team as good as Clemson. But we were there and we had to handle it and we did a good job in the second half."

On Clemson's postseason hopes:
"You can't tell me that a team like Clemson is not good enough to be in the NCAA tournament. It just seems like it is okay for other conferences to play great games between two good basketball teams with the loser has said they didn't their chances. I think Clemson will show down the stretch that they are a worthy basketball team."

On halftime adjustments:
"[Clemson] shot 8-for-16 from the 3-point line in the first half. We came in really worried about Trevor Booker. They hurt us with what we were trying to do so we just changed some things up and gambled a little bit. Jordan Williams and Dino Gregory could handle Booker on an individual basis. We still gave some help but we didn't leave people and I think that was one of the key things in the second half."

On Clemson Forward Trevor Booker:
"Booker is such a great player, every time he touches it you just feel it on the bench. He is such a threat to score and he is a great leader for the team. [Defending him] worked okay tonight. Hopefully if we do play them again in the ACC tournament, we can figure out something that can work then too."

On Sean Mosley's performance:
"Sean is a sophomore. Off of last year, he came in really shooting the ball well because he worked hard at it. Teams took notice of him because he was really shooting well. It is a matter of us getting him the ball and him getting aggressive. Tonight, he was very aggressive right from the very start. Not just in terms of shooting the ball, but going after it. When you have the opportunity to score, you have to take advantage of it. That is what Sean did early on and that really helped him all night."

Freshman forward Jordan Williams

On getting the lead in the second half:
"We just wanted to keep trying to push it until it was over. We were excited to be up by 10, but we didn't want to get too excited and lose what we'd done to get there. That's a sign of a good team. We started to attack and we wanted to keep pushing it and not let up."

On Trevor Booker:
"Trevor Booker's a great player. He's a great rebounder and he plays inside out so I was chasing him a little bit out to the 3-point line so it was tough for me to get rebounds tonight. Like I said he's a great player. They have a great athletic player on their team."

Sophomore guard Sean Mosley

On Jordan Williams:
"He's doing a great job by positioning himself to score. Like I tell him, every time he gets the ball, look to score because guys get tired and they don't want to play defense, so keep banging inside and taking advantage of what they're giving you. Jordan did a good job of getting [Jerai] Grant in foul trouble early and I think that helped us out a lot."

On his confidence in today's game:
"After I hit the first shot early in the game that got me in the flow right there. Like I said my teammates did a great job finding me when I was hitting shots and every time I got it I was just letting the ball go. Even if guys were playing me I was just finding the open man, for instance finding Jordan [Williams] in the first half for the dunk. It was just me playing aggressive. My teammates did a good job of finding me today and every shot I took felt like it was going in."

Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell

Opening statement:
"Defensively we didn't play well enough to win. Obviously offensively we had a good first half and I thought that certainly the pace was what we liked and that's probably why we scored so well. Defensively, we stopped getting into our pressure; as a result we started to give them some easy baskets. [In the] second half we had a chance to really pad our lead. We got out of our pressure and went to a man [defense]. We didn't guard the ball the way we were supposed to consistently. Maryland scored fifty points or something like that in the second half. We've got to dig in and guard at that point. The guys were prepared and ready, but throughout the course of the game we didn't maintain our defensive mindset. We got a little bit, I don't want to say happy on offense, but we're involved mentally with our offense and defense. As a result, we didn't beat a really good team on their home court."

On Clemson's performance:
"No, I was really happy with them. We came out ready. I don't think there is any question about that. We didn't maintain it throughout forty minutes. Maryland is pretty good so we've got to give them some credit."

On Clemson's shooting performance:
"I think if you probably break down the shooting percentages in the first half, or the first three quarters, that last quarter is when we started to slip. But we were scoring. We came out in the second half and continued to slip. We slowed down scoring and there you have it. "

On Jerai Grant fouling out:
"Well obviously that is a big key not having [Grant] out there. That's something we have gotten away from, getting into foul trouble, but we got in serious foul trouble tonight. He only had two in the first half. He picked up two very quickly in the second half. Then he was in 30 seconds and picked up his fifth."

Sophomore Guard Andre Young

On the game:
"We just didn't make the shots we had to make and they capitalized on that."

On Maryland beating the Clemson press:
"We just didn't get enough players back fast enough and were caught out of position and they took advantage. They really like to push the ball and they score."

On getting too comfortable in the second half:
"We didn't put enough emphasis on defense and getting in our press and we didn't make the stops that we needed to make toward the end and they got the win. We put a good half together [in the first half] but we have to put a whole game together and come out and play 40 minutes. We definitely have to step it up on the road because these next three games are on the road. We only have one home game left. We just have to play better when we're not at home."

On the atmosphere at Comcast:
"I can't really speak for everybody but we just have to be better. Whenever they make runs their fans do get into it and the home team is going to feed off that energy so it's important we bring our own energy and try to match theirs or exceed it."

Senior Forward Trevor Booker

On the game:
"We had a strong first half offensively, but defensively, we didn't play that well. We played poor defense in the second half and they capitalized on it."

On Maryland beating the Clemson press:
"A couple of times we didn't get back in the press but a couple of times we did get back, they broke it and scored on it. They were prepared for it but sometimes we didn't get into it. They were ready for it."

On the atmosphere at Comcast:
"It was crazy. It was a good crowd. They got the team back into it once they hit a couple of big baskets. We need to feed off our own energy in the second half."

On preparations for this weekend's game with Florida State:
"Once we get a big lead, we just have to capitalize on it."