Feb. 21, 2012

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COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Postgame quotes following Maryland's 75-70 win over Miami Tuesday night at Comcast Center.

Head Coach Mark Turgeon

Opening statement:
"Obviously that's a great win for us coming off the game Saturday. I told our staff before the game I thought Miami potentially is a Sweet 16 team. They're playing well with their talent. They've got a lot of basketball left to make it to the tournament, but they're going to be a tough matchup. I know they're an NCAA team.

"If we would have lost this game by one, I would have been really, really disappointed, but I would have been really proud of my team. Tonight I really felt the coaching - we'd call a play and they'd actually run it. We changed some things offensively which really helped us. Our guys played as a team. The crowd got into it late. We made all the plays - Sean [Mosley] made a big three, [James] Padgett the and-one, Nick [Faust] the big steal, we stepped up and made free throws. It was just a great win for us. I know the Notre Dame game probably looks like it's better, but under that circumstance and under this circumstance it was just a great win for our team."

On the final stretch of the game:
"I thought we did a great job after time outs. I thought we really executed and got great looks. The last two [plays] we did when [Sean Mosley] took us out of it - that was kind of like the shot he made against Notre Dame. We had nothing going [and] that's what seniors do. [Mosley] had a big guy on him and he backed off of him, I thought it was short when he shot it, but it went in and that was huge. And we got a shot and got the three-point play. So, it got away from [Miami] quick and the crowd got into it. For the most part I thought we really executed. We shared the ball better than we have probably all year."

On his team's defense down the stretch:
"One of keys was Maryland defense. In the three games going into Virginia we held teams to 35% field goal percentage. I'm not sure what [Miami] shot today. What happened [was] we kept breaking down the last five seconds of the shot clock. We'd foul on a drive. We'd guard three ball screens and then we wouldn't guard the fourth one. So I was like here we go again. [We're going to] let this one slip away from us out here late. But, obviously during that stretch we really guarded. We made adjustments tonight and it didn't take three possessions. It happened the first time we tried to make the adjustment and that's just a young team growing up."

On the play of James Padgett:
"I think we went the whole month of December without an and-one. I've just been all over my post guys and they're all such nice guys. They're such nice guys and between the lines you've got to be tougher. I thought James [Padgett] played with great toughness. He got it going early. James is not a good foul shooter and he's made himself a really good foul shooter because he works at it every day and I'm really proud of him."

On the importance of the win:
"That's the kind of win right there that will carry over hopefully for the rest of the year and into the future because we are a young team and we've got to learn how to win. And when you win a game like that, you're learning how to win. And I know our program has won - I understand they won 19 games last year. But, this group hasn't won and so to win a game like that is just going to help our young kids."

Sophomore Guard Terrell Stoglin

On the win:
"It feels really good, getting a good win at home. The Virginia game was really embarrassing, so today just helped out a lot."

On the comeback:
"It says a lot about our team, we don't quit. Coach just told us they were going to make a run, and we just had to make a run back. We did and we sustained it."

On if he's ever seen Coach Turgeon that excited after a game:
"No I haven't, I think he's cherishing this win a lot."

Senior Guard Sean Mosley

On what the win means down the stretch:
"We have three games left, and each and every game is going to count. For us we're just going to try to take one game at a time. We had the game on the road against Miami, but we let it slip away. We had to get the win at home tonight, it was huge for us. I think this is a momentum and a confidence builder for our team."

On Padgett's basket-and-one down the stretch in the second half:
"I just felt the building getting louder and louder to be honest. The excitement and energy was huge going down the stretch for us. We had all the momentum going down with two minutes left, when Padgett got that and-one it was huge for us. He's been coming along slowly but surely, and I think he gave us the lead. It was just a huge momentum change for us, and we knew after that we just had to defend and step up to the line and make big free throws."

On the team growing up during games:
"I definitely see us growing each and every day. Like Coach said when he came in the locker room, `We won the game yesterday in practice,' because throughout the whole practice we had three turnovers and ran one play wrong. Yesterday we were dialed in, focused, and only thinking about executing each play and valuing every possession. Today I think we came out and did the same thing."

Junior Forward James Padgett

On his productivity inside:
"I saw that I was productive against them in the first game going in the paint; and today Coach told me we were going inside, we were putting in a new offense that would get us the ball more and I was making plays and making my shots. I just kept being aggressive, and it was working for us."

On what the win does for the team:
"We needed a big win over the top 50 in the RPI so that was a pretty good win for us. We needed this to keep the momentum and not get satisfied going forward."

Freshman Guard Nick Faust

On whether this was the best win of the season:
"Yes. Last time we had them down to the wire and let it slip away, but this time we got it done. It was a great win."

On responding to Saturday's loss:
"Yesterday we had a great practice, and I would say that's when we won the game. Everyone was just together and passing the ball very well and today we just came in and did the same thing and got the win."

On how the win will carry over to the rest of the season:
"I would say this is a win that will carry over. We've seen that we can play as a team and overcome. Even when we're down we can still get back in the game; so this is a win that will carry over."

Miami Coach Jim Larranaga

Opening statement:
"I don't think we had a sluggish start, I think Maryland played great. They were making every shot and everything they did connected. We fell behind by 10, 13-3, we then changed our defense and we were up by half time. Second half, we had a five-point lead then couldn't keep them off of the offensive boards. They went hard to the boards and we just didn't make the shots. They got the offensive rebound and biggest basket of the game; they scored and got fouled when we were up by two. We needed to just play a better two minutes, defensively and offensively and we could have had a nice road win. It was an exciting college basketball game and you need to give them credit, they did some very good things and specifically offensive rebounds."

On the game plan in the final two minutes:
"We were trying to do what we were doing the entire second half, which was ball screening. We had two turnovers that you can't really explain. Guys tend to think too much towards the end of close games. They think you need to do something special; the fact of the matter is you have to do something simple. We tried to make it as simple as possible for them but we were unable to convert."

On Maryland's free throws in the second half:
"They got to the foul line and that is a huge difference. They are very good at getting to the foul line and we couldn't stop that."

On playing Mark Turgeon:
"Mark [Turgeon] does a great job. They have a very talented team. They are very deep and have a lot of different ways to hurt you. The biggest strength they have is their ability to get to the foul line, and their offensive rebounding. Defensive rebounds and backboards have been a real issue for us. It is something we have to adjust and something we have to get better at."

On Terrell Stoglin leading the ACC in scoring:
"He is a high-octane scorer, he gets a lot of touches and he gets a lot of shots. He is very, very hard to guard in the outside shots and in the ball screens. You cannot relax on him because he can shoot the long distance 3s but he can go by you and get the layups. I think during the game, we did some pretty good things but not enough to build up a lead. They shot 45 percent from the field and that is too high when we only shoot 40 percent. We need to do a better job defensively and their offensive rebounds. Although they only had eight second-chance points, they all came in the last five minutes of the game."

On how the loss affecting ACC rankings:
"It hurts. We were right there. We don't know what's going on in the other games tonight so we have our work cut out for us these next three games. They are huge."

On the bench's play:
"The bench has been playing well, Trey McKinney Jones, DeQuan Jones. We ended up losing the rebound battle and that's the difference in the game. Both teams only turned the ball over nine times which is good ball handling. But in our last two possessions we turned the ball over."

Miami Junior Guard Durand Scott

On the early turnovers:
"We had some good possessions. We had a couple of baskets. That's how things go; we made some plays and fought back into it."

On what changed the game:
"We made some key plays. We had some key shots and got some big rebounds. At the end of the game they were the ones making the plays. That's why they came out with the victory."

On what they need to do to improve going forward:
"Whatever coach wants to work on. He knows exactly what we need to do. Whatever he tells us at practice we need to work on. That's what we are going to try and improve."

On guarding Terrell Stoglin:
"Our game plan was just to slow them down; it wasn't necessarily to slow him down. We just wanted to go out there and make good plays. We wanted to get stops, and rebound the basketball, and get good shots. We fell short tonight though."