Jan. 10, 2011

Recap |  Final Stats

Maryland head coach Gary Williams

Opening statement:
"I was proud of my team tonight. We came in with the intensity level necessary to compete against Duke here, and we did some good things with our offense here. The best thing we did there early when we weren't making any shots was we hung in there. Our defense was good enough to keep us there until we started making some shots. And I thought we played pretty well for quite a few periods in the game. You know you just can't afford to make any mistakes as the game goes on and you know, that can happen. But our guys are coming. You know, we're getting better. We're better now than we were in November. And that's the key for us for the rest of the way. This is a tough one out of the way. Even though we didn't get the win, I think this game can give us some positives for the rest of the year. We have a very tough week this week. We're at Wake on Wednesday and Villanova on Saturday up there in Philadelphia. So it doesn't get any easier for us, but at the same time, hopefully we're growing as a team."

On Duke changing its strategy after Maryland was up six early in the second:
"Well we had gone small in the first half because we didn't have to sub to go small. We were just small. But I mean we were prepared. They had done that before. It wasn't the first time they'd done that this year. So we were ready for it. I'm sure we didn't do a great job in that situation but that's something we had discussed in practice."

On this being the best defense Maryland has played thus far:
"It was better. I think we improved defensively. We'll tell by the way we play defense Wednesday night. In other words, it can't just be tonight. That has to be, we've been working hard the last two, three weeks on some things. That was good to see tonight, but we have to have that for the rest of the year now."

On defending Duke seniors Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler:
"I think if you ask people for a list of the top seniors in the country, both those guys would be on anybody's 10 seniors, and they have national championships experience which kind of separates them form the other seniors in the country. And they're both excellent shooters. They don't tire, I think is one of the great things about them. They don't get tired out there and they are very difficult to defend. We did a pretty good job at times, and probably a good job on Smith if he does five for 18, but he felt that he missed some that he should have made. But if you take away one, then you still have Singler and Curry I thought did a good job for them tonight coming in. He hit a couple key shots in the second half and kept their momentum going."

On the sense that Duke wouldn't lose or be challenged in the league:
"They're really good. You know you have to prove it coming in here. In other words, you can't say because this was relatively close tonight that that means they're not a good as people say. Because I think our league gets, any time something happens in our league it seems like it's a major catastrophe where other leagues lose games, and it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. I think Duke is the best team in the country, so whether anybody can come in here and get them or not, I know they'll have to play well to do that. Because the one thing that Duke, you can count on, regardless of how they shoot, they will play with a certain level of intensity every time. They never go below that. I've never seen it so I think that's to their credit. And you know that walking in, especially here, which can be intimidating. There's no doubt about it. So you have to figure out a way to get your team to play at that level and you know, that's hard to do. You can't do it all the time. To their credit, they were able to take a pretty good hit tonight and come back and win the game."