NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 1, 2002

Lonny Baxter

Juan Dixon

Byron Mouton

Gary Williams

COACH GARY WILLIAMS: The reason I'm here is the three people next to me. Just incredible careers. Never doubting what we were trying to do. To have the courage after last year's game in the Final Four to set a goal that a lot of people kind of laughed at because they weren't afraid to tell people what their goal was, to get back here and get the chance, to win it all tonight. It was just a great feeling because we had to come through some great teams to get here, some teams that have won National Championships, have great experience. Their fans know what it's all about because they've won championships. It was a great thrill for us because of the competition involved. I thought Indiana was a terrific basketball team. Their defense makes it very tough for you to run your offense. You know, it took us a good 25 minutes before we really ran our offense like we can. I was really proud of the players because they hung in there. It was very frustrating because we weren't able to score like we thought we should. We kind of got stuck there in the first half for a while. These guys have done that all year. They've never wavered in terms of their confidence, what they do. They knew they could get it back if they kept working; while that was all going on on our offensive end of the court. It's rewarding for me as a coach to see a team play defense like that for 40 minutes.

JUAN DIXON: Steve Blake made a great play. He was able to break a trap. My man helped. He made a great pass. I made a tough shot. We were able to get the lead back.

JUAN DIXON: Well, basically we just tried to defend the 3-point line. They hit some threes in the first half. But coach kept us together. We went out there and played tough defense. Our job was to defend the three and just help on the low post on Jeffries. We played great team defense today. That's a credit to this team. We worked extremely hard this whole year, we were very consistent. Look where we are today.

JUAN DIXON: It means a lot. I grew up a lot in college. I've grown so much. I developed as a person, as a basketball player. It's a great feeling. I feel like I'm dreaming right now because I'm part of a National Championship team. A lot of people back home counted me out, didn't give me a chance. I went out here and I got better each year, led my team to the National Championship. It's a great feeling, man. I'm speechless. I really don't know what to say. I'm going to talk forever (laughter).

LONNY BAXTER: I talked about that yesterday. People asked me was the Duke game on my mind. I was like, "No, it won't be until I win a National Championship." Now it is because we won tonight.

BYRON MOUTON: Well, I just wanted to come in and make a difference. You know, assistant coach came on the bench and said: "We are going to need you in the end, we just need your energy." I just wanted to come off the bench, give a spark, help give our team a chance to win. I guess if hustling is what it takes to win, that's what I'm going to do to help us win.

JUAN DIXON: I don't know what to say about that. I had a lot of fun in college, I developed as a basketball player each year. Really, I mean, college is a lot of fun to me, it's a good experience. I learned a lot. You know, a lot of guys are talented, they're able to come out early. I mean, it's up to them.

LONNY BAXTER: Everybody has different situations, different things they have to face. But me, I don't regret ever leaving college or anything. It was the best four years of my life. We just finished it off tonight the way it should be done.

BYRON MOUTON: Well, I played college basketball for five years, so (laughter). I mean, every year I developed, especially the year Coach Williams brought me in, the year that I sat out. I learned a lot, man. Coach Heinz (phonetic), he's not here, he told me to go and practice and just try to kill the first team. That was my goal coming into practice, try to kill the first team to make Coach Williams mad. I just wanted to come in, work hard. It took me five years to understand what it takes to win, and that's what we did tonight.

LONNY BAXTER: Yeah, we just focused on getting the ball inside like we do every game. That's just the focus that we always had coming to this tournament. We just took advantage of it. We rebounded the ball well and we just really were playing a physical game. We thought it was to our advantage. We had the size advantage over those two guys inside and we just went at them.

JUAN DIXON: Well, I mean, basically the whole game I was just telling the guys that we were going to win. I had a lot of confidence in my teammates that we could go out there and play well. You know, a lot of guys got tensed at times. "Calm down, we are going to win, make plays at the right time." We certainly did. Guys made some big plays. We were able to get the win.

LONNY BAXTER: Yeah, I just wanted to come in, you know, and just be a force down low, just play to my ability, just play as hard as I could to win this National Championship.

JUAN DIXON: Really, to tell you the truth, I don't remember seeing the score at that time. I knew they had a big shot, the fans went wild. But we were able to break a trap. Steve Blake made a great pass. I had an open look, so I took the shot. We were able to get the lead back.

JUAN DIXON: The program came a long ways. They were in a lot of trouble, I guess in the late '80s. Coach came in, he did a great job. We're one of the better programs in the country now. That's a credit to the guy to my right. Hopefully they can continue to be successful. You know, it took a long time, but we finally got a national title for the State of Maryland. Hopefully we can keep on winning.

LONNY BAXTER: Yeah, we feel we accomplished a lot this season. We definitely wanted to get coach a ring. He's comes into Maryland, turned this program around tremendously. This was his year. It's about time. He got what he deserved.

BYRON MOUTON: Well, especially for the State of Maryland, man, everybody that supports the program. Everybody worked so hard. Coming in, I looked at coach at practice, intense all the time. He deserved it, man. He went through a lot of stuff with his family. He is just a great coach. Did nothing less than deserve a National Championship.

JUAN DIXON: He played good defense. I wasn't trying to come out and shoot a lot. I was trying to do other things because I knew that Indiana was keying on me. They thought I was going to shoot a lot. I only shot the ball nine times. I was trying to let the game come to me. He tried to be physical. He played good defense, but I was able to get some open looks. I think I played great help defense today and able to get some steals. I helped my team out in different aspects of the game.

COACH GARY WILLIAMS: Well, having played at Maryland, coming back at a time I hate to even think about it, because there was so much mistrust, so much doubt about the place of the basketball program at a University. We had to work all those things out before we could even think about having a good basketball team. The guys played, Walt Williams, people like that, during that time had a lot of people keeping the crowd at Cole Field House even though we couldn't participate in the NCAA tournament or be on television. I'll always remember those guys as well as the guys that played on this team. I'm not sure we could have recovered if it weren't from the people involved back there, say from '90 to '93.

COACH GARY WILLIAMS: It's special. There's been so many good teams. When Lefty was coaching, the rules were different. It was so hard to make the tournament. They probably were the second or third best team in the country a couple years and didn't get into the NCAA tournament. Things have never worked out quite right. This year they did. I hope everybody feels a part of that because it's the result of a lot of hard work, but it's a lot of people getting that feeling back that we could be as good as anyone in the country. I think you have to feel that way before you can do this thing for the first time.

COACH GARY WILLIAMS: I think our players -- that last minute tonight, that was more just to stay focused for me. There was a lot of things I was thinking about there in that situation. If you're going to be a good basketball team, you have to play every play. I preach that all the time, that players get tired of it, we don't want to waste any plays. I kind of coach that way for that, to back up what I say. Our players have really bought into our whole philosophy the last couple years. A guy like Byron Mouton was a leading scorer on his team at Tulane his first two years. He comes in, winds up being one of our best defensive players, doesn't get that many shots. That just says something about Byron. It's just great to see this group come together and do what they did because none of them, I guess Byron probably was the most heavily recruited player when he went to Tulane of all these guys.

COACH GARY WILLIAMS: How did you know I was a great soccer coach (laughter)?

COACH GARY WILLIAMS: I was a high school basketball coach. Tom Davis, who retired a couple years at Iowa, got the Lafayette job. I knew Tom, he was getting his doctorate at Maryland when I was there. He asked me to come up and be the coach. The only problem was they never had a full-time assistant basketball coach. But the soccer coach left. Here I come in as the soccer coach. I read two books and talked to one guy before the first day of practice. It went okay.

COACH GARY WILLIAMS: Just the seniors. You always want that to happen. I was thinking about this. Here is a group of seniors that have had tremendous number of wins over the four-year period. They get to play for the National Championship, and now win the National Championship the last game of their college career. How many guys ever get to do that? I was thinking about that. Just the idea that we were a very unselfish team. We always have a lot of assists. We're willing to pass the ball to each other. You get a scorer like Juan Dixon, that can be tough on a team to have one guy that gets a lot of attention, because he gets the points and things like that. These guys all understand how we can win. I think our experience really helped us in this situation to get to that last minute.

COACH GARY WILLIAMS: I've never done this before, so I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be like. I'm very happy. It was a thrill. There's no doubt about it. But I'm really tired. You know, knowing these guys, you deflect into your players whatever you feel. I'm just so happy for the players, to see what they did, because it's just an amazing thing to watch Juan Dixon, Lonny Baxter for four years - know both those guys for four years - what they were and what they are now. As a coach, can you tell players what to do, this is what you have to work on in the summertime, but you can't make them do it in the summer. Those guys just did it. They somehow got to this level where they're two of the best players in the country.

COACH GARY WILLIAMS: Like up until a couple years ago, we probably pressed all the time before then. We've gotten away from that a little bit. But we still know how to press. I just thought with Coverdale, you have to do it in a contest, if his ankle is bothering him a little bit, maybe that makes him work harder, tires him out a little bit. Sure didn't look it. He's just a great competitor. But the pressure, the traps, we tried to mix up straight man with the traps just to keep them off balance. I thought if we could get them out of being able to walk up the ball to get into their halfcourt offense, break up that rhythm, that they do a great job with, hopefully they wouldn't shoot it as well. We did a great job rebounding, team defense, all that, except from the three-point line. I thought they made some great shots. I thought we were pretty good on the three-point line, but they still made them. They made some really good shots. They have some great shooters on that team.

COACH GARY WILLIAMS: I thought it was really important as we went along to start to get former players into the program because they know the school. It makes my job a little easier on campus, having those guys there. Matt Kovarik was a great backup point guard for his four years. He was an amazing defensive player, did a lot of things for us. He's gotten a lot of that into the players. Dave Dickerson is just a class individual. He does everything. He's not just a recruiter, he's an on-the-floor coach, does a terrific job scouting, breaking down tape, thing like that. Jimmy Patsos has been with me for a number of years, went to Catholic U. We told him we had to get a Division III player on our team just to show the players what it is to work hard. Jimmy has done a great job for us. He's been with me for 11 years. I hope I keep those guys for a long time, but I also want them to be head coaches.

COACH GARY WILLIAMS: I think you can't have the fear of failure. I think you just have to take that shot, like the shot he made against Connecticut when we were three down. Not every big scorer wants to take those shots. Juan has never backed away from a shot in that situation. You know, you can't worry about what happens if you miss. Like that shot he took against Connecticut, the way Connecticut was playing, they probably would have gone down and scored, we'd be down five with two and a half minutes left. Tonight we had to counter right there. I thought the crowd was starting to get into it from Indiana. We needed something to happen big. Juan just did what he did all year for us.

COACH GARY WILLIAMS: Lonny never says much. I know how he felt after the game Saturday night because he just didn't get a chance. He was sitting behind me the whole game. I know he was frustrated. But the thing about Lonny is that he never changes what he tries to do. He's not always successful, but that doesn't stop him from coming out the next night if he doesn't have one of his games. Tonight you saw what he's like double-double with the rebounds and the scoring. He just seems to have to work so hard for his points a lot of times. It's like you're in there with him hoping he can put the ball over the rim to score. He can look bad on a play and yet you look at the end of the game, you look at his statistics, he's an amazing college basketball player.

COACH GARY WILLIAMS: I just thought they had some guys that went through -- you know, you don't want to see players go through any controversy during their career. You'd like them to just be able to go out, play, be able to go to school, get what any college student athlete gets. They had to go through the thing with a coaching change, whether Mike Davis should have been there or not. A guy sticks a microphone in front of your face, "What happened there? What happened there?" It's really hard to concentrate on basketball. As the year went on, they were able to really focus well. They have some good players and they're willing to play hard for their coach. Any time you get a group of good players that plays hard, you have a chance to win every game.

COACH GARY WILLIAMS: Well, I know -- I think we've been to six or seven Sweet-16s during that time. You see other schools are very happy about getting to a Sweet-16. We've had to live for the last couple years with the idea that if you don't win it all, you haven't had a great year, when you win 25 or 26 games. It's been tough at times. I think that's why we won tonight. It's made everybody a little tougher. Probably made me a better coach. I know it really helped our players in terms of motivation. We're just glad we came through tonight when we had to.

COACH GARY WILLIAMS: Thank you.