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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 7, 2011

Gary Williams

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by coach Gary Williams from Maryland. We'll ask for a brief opening statement, then go to questions.
COACH WILLIAMS: Well, we've got some work to do this week to get ready for the tournament. We're trying to work on some things, get a little better here. Look forward to getting down there for the ACC tournament, seeing what we can do.
I think the way I've always looked at this is just an opportunity, it's completely different than the regular season and you try to do what you can do in the tournament situation.
We're looking forward to getting down there.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Williams.

Q. I was wondering if you could talk about playing NC State. They run a lot of different sets. What kind of challenge is there playing against this offense?
COACH WILLIAMS: They run a lot of different sets, they do. Really when there's that many plays, it's difficult to prepare for each play like you can for some teams. You try to look at tendencies, react more than try to remember each play.
I think if you're playing good defense, that works pretty well. But the effort has to be there defensively in order to cover that. They have talented players, guys that can play. If you make a mistake defensively, they can certainly take advantage of it.

Q. Is that what concerns you most about the teams that he coaches, did I analyze that correctly?
COACH WILLIAMS: Yeah, I mean, they run good offensive sets, just like a lot of teams do. Some teams come back to the same plays more. They run a variety of plays which makes it difficult to prepare. There's no doubt about it. So we'll do the best we can.

Q. Gary, you've lost three in a row, five out of seven. What do you see as the areas that have let you down in this stretch and that you need to fix coming into the tournament?
COACH WILLIAMS: Well, our defense hasn't been as good as we'd like it to be. There's a lot of things that go into being a good defensive team. Hopefully we can look at some things this week getting ready to play Thursday.
We haven't been moving the ball as well as we've done in the past. I don't think it's as much plays you run as being able to just to really hit the open man, that type of thing. We've got to get back to doing that. Whether we can or not, we'll see.
We've played some teams that played really well against us, to their credit. You have to give the other team credit sometimes, too. I think we can play better, and that's what we're going to try to do coming down for Thursday's game.

Q. Having been through the ACC tournaments for a lot of years now, how much of a different feeling is it? You have said it has a different feel to it. Can you explain that a little bit?
COACH WILLIAMS: I don't know when I said it had a different feel.
Every team has a different purpose going into the tournament. I mean, we want to see how far we can go this year, obviously see how many games we can win. I think there's a lot of teams like that. Some teams are playing for seeds in the NCAA tournament, to improve their seed, keep their seed, whatever. There's always different reasons you play.
I think the biggest thing you do when you approach this is the regular season's over. In other words, once everybody finds out their seeds, it's like the NCAA tournament, it doesn't matter after that, you have to play. That's what I like about the ACC tournament, you play. I mean, it's time to play again.
Every game is critical. Obviously you're done if you lose. I like that feel of those games where the players can't feel like, Well, if you don't win this game, we can get the next game. Well, there's no next game. You have to get the game you're playing. I like that type of situation this time of year. I think it's good.

Q. Gary, you're one of a number of teams that have turned to freshmen at point. Does it surprise you so many teams have gone up with going with freshmen at point guard?
COACH WILLIAMS: We lost two point guards last year, Eric Hayes and Greivis Vasquez. I guess Greivis played more. We brought in two freshmen guards. Terrell Stoglin and Pe'Shon Howard have played the most minutes there.
It's just the way it worked with us. I don't know about the other teams, how that works. That's been the best way we've had to go. I think anytime you have freshmen point guards, they're going to do some things you really like, some things you don't like. Might cost you for a year. But hopefully the experience they gain this year certainly will be of value next year.

Q. First time you played State was a high-scoring game. Do you see that again or is there something you can do, you expect to see them to do to try to slow it down?
COACH WILLIAMS: Basically by this time of year, you're set in a lot of areas how you're going to play. We won playing the way we played last time. We scored a lot of points. We were in the 80s. That was good enough that night.
Now whether that's good enough... I think the thing we'd like to do is play better defense just in general going into the tournament. I think we've either gotten tired or whatever. So we're going to try to amp up the defense a little bit here, see what we can do.
But State is a very good offensive team. They have a lot of ways to score. It's not easy to play defense against a team like that.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, I think we're finished for today. Thanks for being with us. Good luck this weekend.
COACH WILLIAMS: Thanks a lot.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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