Quotes: Duke 76, Maryland 52

Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski

Opening Statement
“We played really well defensively tonight against a team that we have the utmost respect for. There's no program that we have more respect for than Gary Williams' program and his kids. We knew we'd have to play really well to win, and we did play really well. Shelden had an amazing night. He anchored the defense, no question about it. Ten blocks, and you get a triple double -- he's just fantastic. We forced a lot of turnovers, and so did they because they're a good defensive team. I thought we were all just ready to play. The crowd was great. We had good energy. We missed some things offensively. They pursue so quickly that they make you miss. Sometimes you think you're open, and they're long, and they don't give up, so they put that late pressure on you that just kind of takes your vision off the bucket. We had some opportunities there throughout the second half. We just couldn't cash in on them. But we never let up defensively, and I'm really proud of our team.”

On DeMarcus Nelson
“DeMarcus had a heck of a first half for us. We don't know if that's the same injury or not. It's so late tonight, instead of taking him to the emergency room we'll just take him early in the morning to sports medicine. Our hope is that it's not the same. I don't want to speculate, but we'll put out the word as soon as we know. We hope it's not the same thing because that had fully healed, and there are screws in there, but who knows. He can't recall just how it happened. He had that charge, but he couldn't say, well this is what happened to my foot. Of course if you just spent six weeks with that injury, it's going to scare you. It scares me. We'll find out right away and put the word out.”

On Clemson
“We've got a quick turn around now. We go down to Clemson, and Oliver Purnell's team is always good, especially there. They won a big game tonight in overtime, so we'll have our hands full.”

On Shelden Williams' triple double being first under Coach K
“It says he's pretty good because we've had some pretty good guys. We've never had a shot blocker like him. Gminski -- and I didn't coach him -- is the other guy in the history of this school and this program, but Gminski was a center. For a guy playing really a power forward -- that's what (Shelden) is -- to block shots like that, he's uncanny.”

On having 18 assists on 26 field goals
“A lot of it had to do because they were pressing, and so there were more openings where you kicked. But our kids are very unselfish. We have a fairly good amount of assists usually all the time, but tonight because it was kind of spread out, there were maybe a few more, and almost each bucket was assisted on, which is unusual. But because of the nature of the game and how they were playing defense it kind of lent itself to that.

On team tiring itself in first half
“I don't think we let up. I just thought we were a little bit tired shooting. But you'd rather have tired playing real well than tired playing awful. I thought we were ready to play the second half. We had opportunities to just get a little bit more of the lead, but we didn't take advantage of it. And Maryland, of course they're not going to quit, so they hung in there throughout that. They kept putting some game pressure on us. We're tired -- happy tired -- and we have this quick turnaround, so I have to use tomorrow wisely. It's almost midnight now, so we have to make sure that we don't wear them out tomorrow.”

On some ACC teams like Boston College being off to unexpected starts
“I just think there are more good teams than everyone gives credit for. You tend to focus on one or two or three good teams, and we will always have a lot of good teams in our league. They're always going to play hard, especially on their home courts, so that doesn't surprise me. Boston College, playing two road games to start with, were knocked back. The one thing you learn in this league is if you do get beat, you better put it behind you. If we get beat, it's got to be like okay, that's it, we're on to the same thing. You have to do the same thing with wins. That's the way our league is because there are no off nights in this league.”

On players signing center court
“We have done different things over the years for unification and motivation. It wasn't for this game. Our first ACC game here, we hit a 45-foot shot to win, and I really felt that we have played better on the road with this team. In that game, we had just won at Indiana and won the NIT, and we got home, and I think you can assume that you're going to be unified at home because you're in Cameron. The signing of the floor is not about Maryland or any particular opponent. It's about us. It's about us reminding each other that this is our floor and don't take it for granted.”

Senior Shelden Williams

On his triple-double
“It's a great honor to be one of three players to have a triple-double here at Duke. It's a great crowd to be in.”

“Meeting Magic Johnson today, and knowing the success that he had in college and the NBA, playing point guard and getting a lot of triple-doubles, it's great to have a triple-double in front of him. Having great company like that watching you, it's a great feeling, and fortunately I did well and had a triple-double in front of him.”

“Basically I tried to do what hopefully I do best and that's be the back line on the defensive end and try to protect the basket.”

“It feels great [to beat Maryland], especially after losing to them at home [last year]. Anytime you lose at home, it feels kind of like an embarrassment in front of your own fans and in front of your own family and friends, just having that kind of downfall. I think today we redeemed ourselves in trying to protect our home court.”

“[Defense] is something that we try to keep consistent in every game. We can't control whether the ball goes in a lot of the time because sometimes the ball goes in and out and sometimes we have a hot night and everybody is hitting. But something that we can make sure that we're doing night in and night out is play defense. That's something that hopefully we'll keep building on and become more consistent.”

“This is really the first big-time ACC game that we've had, and in the first one it was a close game and we weren't prepared for it and we kind of got lucky with Sean [Dockery]'s last-second shot. And the whole atmosphere with our fans was great, especially for our freshmen who've never been in an atmosphere like this at home. I think it was a great response from them to play like they did, and hopefully they'll keep building on that.”

Senior Sean Dockery

“They're a great team, great coach, everything. They play hard and they're going to give it their all. You can't take anything from them. We played a great game today, and our defense won the game. But you know we have to play them again, and I'm pretty sure they're going to play us tough.”

“It's a great feeling. Yesterday we saw our fans camping out. This is the most I've seen ever against Maryland. We just wanted to do this for our fans - they're out there in the rain you know. We just played hard, and it's a great win for our program.”

“Our defense was great. We were together on every play. If a man beat us, we knew a teammate could help us out, and that's the way we want to play all year round.”

Senior J.J. Redick

On Shelden Williams's triple-double
“That's obviously an unbelievable accomplishment. He's come close a few times, and he definitely deserves that. That's something that not a lot of people can do.”

“We don't run a lot of complicated stuff on the offensive end, so if a team does a good job scouting and we're not on top of our execution game, we can really get some stuff off our defense, and tonight we did that. We got out in transition, I thought we did a pretty good job of breaking their pressure and attacking.”

Head Coach Gary Williams

Opening Statement
”The first thing is when you turn the ball over 29 times you are probably not going to win the game. I don't think I have ever been involved in one. Give Duke credit for their defense. I am very critical of our ball handling. It is not just the point guard situation. We drop a lot of balls in traffic. Duke came up with quite a few of them. Offensively we dropped some that would probably have led to easy scores if we catch the ball so our shooting percentage is way down. You miss some open shots which can happen but when you drop some easy scores it takes you out of it. Duke is too good. You can't make plays like that and expect to win the game, especially here.”

On Duke overplaying the wings
”I expected us to score the first three times we had the ball when we were just a few feet from the basket, but we didn't score.”

On Shelden Williams
”He was great. He is a dominant inside player and there are not a lot of dominant inside players around. He had great timing tonight. I thought he had some really great plays off of his man, blocking shots and things like that when it looked like we had lay-ups but didn't get them. There is the intimidation factor which I thought took place as the game went on. You do a decent job on (J.J.) Redick, where he doesn't go completely lights out, he is a great player and you spend a lot of time on him but then the other guy gets you. That is why they are a great team. I try to think of any other team that has the inside-out combination. We played Gonzaga over in Hawaii and their guy is a great player but they don't have the guy inside to go along with him. This is a tough match up for anybody as it has obviously been.”

On intimidation factor
”We seemed not comfortable in running our offense. Duke plays nothing dirty, good physical defense like you are supposed to play, like we are supposed to play. We couldn't handle it tonight. We have handled it before but couldn't handle it tonight.”

On Maryland
”We are 1-2 with two road losses and we have two home games coming up in the league. We played Duke as well as Texas did, as well as anybody has. This is a tough game. We are not going to win here every year. We play a great schedule and really good teams. This is tough coming in here and playing the number one team in the country. I am proud of what we have done in the past, we didn't do it tonight, but it doesn't mean we are a bad basketball team because a lot of teams that were ranked higher than us couldn't get it done. “

On this year's Duke team
”These guys are really good. The fact that J.J. and Shelden (Williams) are seniors doesn't hurt. They have that cumulative experience of over three years. They know how to play. It is really good when your two best players can play off of each other. They know how to get each other the ball. I thought Williams made a great play when he got an offensive rebound and kicked it right to Redick on the three-point line. Not many guys that are as good as Williams would do that. They would be in there trying to get theirs. It was a very unselfish play. The other players understand about Redick and Williams. They know that if there is a choice, those guys shoot rather than I shoot. It is very clear in their team and that is why they are so good. They have very good players who are willing to play roles, subsidiary roles to Williams and Redick.”