Quotes from Gary Williams
2/14/2011 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 14, 2011
Head Coach Gary Williams
Opening statement:
"We have to play better than we played here, especially at the start of the game. When you get in a hole like that, it's very difficult against a good team to come all the way back. We came back but didn't get all the way back. I think we have to get off to a good start. We can do that. That's something that we can do. Hopefully we'll do a good job of that."
"[Malcolm] Delaney is one of the really good guards in the country. He's not afraid to pass and he scores, coming off of a 33-point game, where he really shot it well. He's playing at home for the second straight game, which helps you build some momentum. He's going to be very difficult to defend. Once again, we have to play very good team defense. It's not about one player stopping one player, it's about our team stopping him. [Jeff] Allen has really turned it on in the second half of the season for Virginia Tech. He's playing at a very high level. He does have really good ability. When you don't play a lot of people, you [get] very comfortable in your rotation, especially with your seniors in that rotation. They go six, seven, maybe eight in their rotation. I think it has helped that now, the way the game is played with TV timeouts, you play four minutes and you get two minutes off. I think it's a lot easier to play 37 or 38 minutes a game [than] when you only had two timeouts in a half that you had to call yourself. That's where the game is today and I think Duke has been taking advantage of that for a long time, in terms of the short rotation. Virginia Tech is doing the same thing this year."
On Pe'Shon Howard and Terrell Stoglin playing together:
"It worked well. They gave us energy. They both compete. They did a good job for us. They kept us there and we had a chance to win that game. Since both those guys are playing point guard, you can wind up getting caught and tired at the point guard position. That is the only problem. They both like to play, it doesn't bother them. They are more than willing to play. You look at each game and if something worked then you certainly take note of that and you move on to the next game. They're both about the same size, which is the only problem with that. You don't have a bigger guard playing there."
"Your ball handling is always better when you can have guys that can handle the ball. Teams, Villanova for example, have done that and done a pretty good job at that. Last year I thought one of Duke's strengths that got overlooked was [Jon] Scheyer and [Nolan] Smith on the court at the same time. [They were] two really good guards and they can handle the ball. There are some advantages to that, no doubt."
On Virginia Tech Forward Jeff Allen's recent improvements:
"He's taken advantage of his physical ability. He's a great athlete. In terms of running the court, there's probably not a guy that does that better at that 6-foot-8 size. He's doing that really well. He gets a lot of put-backs and he's staying out of foul trouble, which has helped. It seemed like there was always something that kept him from being on the court a lot. And he's a senior. That probably helps you too. He's three-and-a-half years into it now and he's figured it out."
On his biggest concern in tomorrow's game at Virginia Tech:
"It's Allen, it's Delaney. But [Victor] Davilla hurt us. He played well against us. [Erick] Green played really well against us. It's not just [Delaney]. They have a nice blend of upperclassmen who are good leaders. They take advantage of that."
On the continued progression of Jordan Williams:
"It's tougher now. We talked about it before, being an inside player versus a guard. As a guard, you have the whole court to use, as an inside player, where Jordan traditionally scores from, it's a very small area on the court. With the way the college rules are, compared to the pro rules, you can put a lot more help in there to guard the paint area... It gets tougher as you go along. Teams figure out as you go. Jordan came into this year with people saying `Yeah, he had a pretty good freshman year. All-Freshmen team in the ACC with [Greivis] Vasquez, [Eric] Hayes and [Landon] Milbourne.' Now they watched him play and he's really coming on. The focus shifts and all of a sudden you get a lot of attention as a player. You can really help that out by making shots. In other words, if you knock down shots, it's almost impossible to double or triple team. We've been a little inconsistent with our shooting which certainly would help. If we would play great defense and break a lot of balls loose, we could get a lot of points and things like that that just get the game going and pick things up. That's what we have to do and that'll help Jordan. But Jordan has to understand that part of the deal when you get notoriety is that you have to keep working to get better for the reasons we just said: you get more attention. Jordan is good enough to handle it and still score and still rebound. That's the next step. He's a sophomore. All of this is new...This is another step. He never used to get this much attention. The attention he got in high school was [when he played against] a bunch of 6-foot-2 guys. Now he is getting attention from Jeff Allen and people like that. It's a little different this year."
On Cliff Tucker:
"You have to concentrate on the whole game. You can't judge how you play whether the first couple go in or not because everyone misses shots, that's nothing new in the game. You have to be able to focus on stopping your man and helping to run the offense and things like that. Usually, the shooting comes along once you stop putting so much pressure on yourself. I think Cliff has struggled with his shot and it's affected the way he plays. He has to relax and play his game."
On if Maryland is in must-win mode:
"I've been doing this a long time. You can always win the ACC Tournament if you have to. I don't get caught up on that. That's wasted energy. It's amazing how many really good experts there are out there that have it all figured out about who is going to be in the NCAA Tournament when it's going to depend on how you do the next three weeks...for everyone but eight teams. That's what you have to do. You have to focus on what you can do, and what we can do is go down and get a win at Virginia Tech. That's what we can do right now. That's it."
