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Men's Basketball
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Quotes: Maryland 72, Duke 60
2/11/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
“They played with amazing energy, especially at the start of the game. Our team hasn't experienced that level of energy and it knocked us back to where we were down by 20 points. We played at a pace, and with an understanding of the game, that allowed us to get back in it. In the second half we played better and got it down to six. But we had three empty possessions and couldn't get closer.”
On losing four straight games:
“We've got to get ready for the next game. Of the four games we've lost, three we had a chance to win. The game is not an easy game and when you lose you don't look at it as you played well ? you lost. That's the way it's recorded and that's the way it is.”
On Maryland's full-court press:
“It sped us up and when we did break it we sometimes turned it over because the pace of our offense never adjusted. We were scattered. Their presses had two residual effects ? they forced turnovers and forced the speed and pace of our offense.”
Duke Guard DeMarcus Nelson
On bouncing back from the game:
“We have to get ready to play the next game. In this game, obviously there were a lot of things we could have done better. At the end of the game we had some players in foul trouble, our team defense and transition defense could have been better, and we gave them too many second-chance shots. We have to work extremely hard in practice to get those things corrected before we go on the road to Boston College.”
On facing Maryland in Comcast Center:
“We were on the road playing a tough team in their environment. The environment was amazing, and we didn't do a good job playing in it. They came out with a really big surge and they played with more energy. For 40 minutes they out-played us.”
On Duke's defense:
“We gave up a lot of second-chance shots, transition buckets, and lay-ups. They didn't even take a lot of threes, but they got a lot of lay-ups. That's something you don't usually see from a Duke defensive team, giving up that many lay-ups or offensive rebounds. They were quicker to the ball, and they wanted it more than us.”
Duke Guard Greg Paulus
On Duke's fourth straight loss:
“It doesn't feel good. It's not panic mode, but we have to get better. We're not playing well enough. It's that simple.”
On Maryland's press:
“We would break the press, then we would be in a rush to try to make the play. Sometimes we turned it over, other times we should have slowed it down. It's my responsibility to make sure we get everything we need to get done on offense.”
On the possibility of a comeback:
“We felt that if we chipped away and kept playing every possession, we would have a chance down the stretch. In the second half we kept chipping and chipping, and we did have some empty exchanges, but we had it down to six points.”
Maryland Coach Gary Williams
Opening Statement:
“That was a players' win. They came out with great intensity. We had two great practices that were much more competitive than you usually get this time of year. Usually it is just trying to get ready for that next game by walking through some things and doing some drills. We played hard the last couple of days in practice and the players really responded well to that.”
On the early lead:
“I thought starting with the zone pressure helped us in terms of focusing on having to play really hard because you get embarrassed against a team like Duke if you get trapped. Duke passes very well and seems to be able to find the open man. If you are not doing a good job of transferring out of your pressure that can really hurt you.”
On the seniors:
“I thought it was the seniors' best game as a group. They played well at different times during the year, but I thought all of the seniors were fine. That really helped us because we could rotate quite a few players. That helped level the pace that the game was played at.”
On last weeks' practices:
“Everyone kept asking the players and myself what was wrong. We just went into practice everyday trying to prove that nothing is wrong. That was the motivation to play and play well today.”
On Greivis Vasquez:
“He has played great for a freshman, just like Eric Hayes. That is what you want. You want those guys to be able to compete at the highest level. You don't get a more pressurized college basketball situation than today.”
Maryland Guard Greivis Vasquez
On getting off to a fast start:
“I was very focused coming into this game. I knew that I had to get it going early and hit some big shots, and I got a good shot in the corner. That was a nice shot for me to take. It got me going and it got the team going.”
On driving to the hoop:
“I felt like I had the confidence to drive to the basket. I knew that if they were going to stop me from finishing, I could pass it to James [Gist] or Ekene [Ibekwe]. And if they were covered, I knew that I could just take the lay-up and create something myself.”
On moving on from here:
“Coach [Williams] knows that I want to win. I wanted to win this game so bad. I'm happy that we beat Duke, but we have to come out on Wednesday. This is not the end of our season. We have to keep playing hard and keep coming focused.”
On the atmosphere:
“I love to play in an atmosphere like this. I love playing for these people. I just want to thank the people that came out to support us. We did this for us, but we also did this for them. They really helped us get this win today.”
Maryland Guard D.J. Strawberry
On the game:
“We knew we were going to have to come out and play hard if we wanted to get this win, and we came out with a lot of intensity. We knew that it would be better to make them match our intensity than the other way around, so we made sure to get out to a good start.”
On preparing for this game:
“We know that we've brought this situation upon ourselves. We have had games where we didn't play up to our potential, so everybody took it upon themselves to get this win. Today was a start. We have to continue to bring the intensity that we brought today and keep getting better every day.”
On withstanding Duke's run:
“We didn't do anything differently. We just kept doing what got us the lead in the first place. We knew that we had to handle their pressure a little better, and run our plays like we had earlier.”
On Greivis Vasquez:
“Greivis had a big game. They pressured us a lot, so we knew that the driving lanes were going to be open. He had a couple big tip-ins, too. He played great today.”
Maryland Forward Ekene Ibekwe
On the seniors' play:
“We didn't rush anything. We just did what we had to do. We didn't try to do anything extra. We played hard and if we play like that, we'll win games. We just have to realize that we don't have to do too much extra. We just have to keep playing hard.”
On the importance of the game:
“To win this game against Duke in this big rivalry, we knew we had to get up for this game. I'm really proud of my teammates, especially the bench. [Bambale Osby] and Eric [Hayes] and Dave [Neal] and especially Will [Bowers] came in there and gave us a spark when we got in foul trouble. We have to keep the intensity that we had today and bring it into Raleigh on Wednesday.”
Players Mentioned
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