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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: KANSAS CITY

March 18, 2009

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

KEVIN KLINTWORTH: Now, up in the interview room, the University of Maryland. Student athletes, Greivis Vasquez, Dave Neal, and Landon Milbourne.

Q. Dave, I'll start with you. Tendency, maybe expectations from around the country, the so-called experts might be a little bit lower than in years past for this program. Is it cool with you if teams around country, people around the country, underestimate Maryland this time around. Are you ready to defy those expectations?
DAVE NEAL: Yeah. I mean, being the underdog, people maybe have a chance of overlooking you. Kind of being a ten seed, people don't talk about the ten seed being a great team. I know how well we're playing the game right now. We're playing extremely well.
We've won some big games coming down the stretch. If you want to overlook us, that's fine. If they do that, that gives us a great chance to make a run here in the NCAA Tournament.
LANDON MILBOURNE: I don't really have a problem with it, personally. I think our team really likes that. You know, I think we've been against a lot of adversity throughout the whole season, and we've done a pretty good job of proving people wrong and showing up for big games. It's just another stepping stone and another way to prove everybody wrong.

Q. This year has been kind of a rollercoaster, I guess, a lot of the criticism, I guess here and there for Coach and that kind thing, Greivis. How satisfying is it to kind have the validation of being here at the NCAA Tournament?
GREIVIS VASQUEZ: We're really happy. We're not satisfied. We made it to the tournament. We definitely are going to try to make a run and win games.
So, I mean, we just only thinking about California because I think we've got a great chance to win the game, but we also know that those guys have -- are pretty good. It's going to be hard for us, but just like I say, I'm happy to make it, but I just want to make a run. I want to go to a Sweet 16 or something so I can never forget about this year.

Q. How has the season been because some criticism here and there of Coach and kind of been an interesting year, to say the least. How have you guys dealt with it from the lows to the highs and everything in between?
GREIVIS VASQUEZ: We have a great group of guys on this team. I think our team is my family. We feel like family. We're all brothers and all care about each other and yes, we did, we went through a lot of whole season, but we were tough, and then we won some big games at the end, and that shows -- that shows everybody how tough we are and how much we care about each other. I think our team is about, you know, winning and playing hard and then just giving the best effort.

Q. To talk more specifically about that, there was a reference made to Coach getting some grief in the middle of the season wherever it was from. You guys had a very close relationship with him, and I know each one of you thinks the world of Gary. Did it blow you away in a way that there was talk about Gary and, you know, his role in fitness and job stability and that sort of thing?
DAVE NEAL: I mean, as a team it made us extremely upset. Coach Williams had a great deal of success at the University of Maryland. Since I've been here ,we've made it to the NCAA Tournament two times in the last four years, and I mean that's tough. That's a great thing.
Lot of teams don't make that four-year span at all. The fact that we're back here for the second time in my career, I think is awesome, and with what Coach Williams did with this team this year, coming in this year, people didn't think we were going to win more than 13, 14 games. The fact we won 20 games and beat Wake Forest, UNC, shows how great Coach Williams can be as a coach.
I think it showed a lot of people that Coach Williams, even though people were talking bad about him, he's not going to quit. He's going to work hard. He loves the University of Maryland and wants to see a team like us be as successful as we are this year, and he's worked hard. He never quit.
He just -- we had his back through the whole entire season. I think we showed him that we loved Coach Williams, because some of the times in the papers they really got him pretty bad. We would come out the next night and play extremely hard and win a game people didn't think we were going to win. We showed it the way we played the next night when we were upset.
I just think Coach Williams, we just -- we love him to death. They're nights he won't sleep for three nights in a row because he's watching so much game tape because he wants to win the game. We used that as motivation just to show how great of a coach Coach Williams really is.
KEVIN KLINTWORTH: Anyone else for the Maryland student athletes? Okay, guys. Thank you.
Coach Gary Williams, the University of Maryland. Coach, a quick opening statement and we'll have Q's and A's.
COACH GARY WILLIAMS: Well, I think our team worked really hard to get here to the tournament. Probably a couple weeks ago, we weren't in there.
We appreciate the fact that we're playing in the NCAA and, you know, it's great to be here, and we've played some of our best basketball down the stretch to get here, and hopefully we can continue to play well.
So, we're looking forward to this and certainly playing a good team in Cal. I've known Mike Montgomery for awhile. He does a great job wherever he's been as a coach. They're playing very well right now, also.

Q. Coach, you and Greivis Vasquez seem to have a pretty unique relationship. You guys sort of share a personality and have kind of a good bond. Could you just talk about what kind guy he is and kind of the relationship you two have?
COACH GARY WILLIAMS: I admire what he's done. He came here from Venezuela and basically had to learn how to speak English as he progressed as a basketball player. The thing about Greivis, he wants to win about everything else, and that's how I've always been as a coach. Winning is the most important thing. And he'll sacrifice; in other words, he'll rebound, play defense, handle the ball, in addition to his scoring, if that's what makes us a better basketball team, gives us a better chance to win.
He's always had that. You get a couple guys on your team like that, then you're going to keep getting better, you're going to keep improving as a team and he really had quite a bit of determination this year for us to make the NCAA Tournament. It was a big goal of his, and I think that can cheer through to the rest of the team.

Q. Gary, I'm wondering if you always saw him blossom into a guy that can contribute as much as he is right now?
COACH GARY WILLIAMS: I didn't know. Dave had a great hight school career, but he was hurt every year. He had a shoulder problem three straight years. I think he had three different operations. And this year he's been healthy.
So I really think this is more the true Dave Neal than our fans have got to see in his first three years because he wasn't really in the kind of basketball shape that you need to be.
Now he's showing just how good he can be, and he's really played well for us. He's given us an inside game that's pretty strong, that knows how to get position, and he's a {good} shooter. He can shoot the ball.

Q. As your lone senior, can you talk about how you maybe leaned on him or how he's helped you communicate with the rest of the players?
COACH GARY WILLIAMS: Yeah. I think Dave knows me pretty well and he's willing to take some heat at practice for the benefit of the team. In other words, I can get on Dave and doesn't really bother Dave. He's ready to go, and it gets the other guys' attentions, and I think that's helped us.
Plus I really respect Dave because a lot of guys, you know, they could have just taken it easy this senior year, because he's been hurt the first three years but he dedicated himself to being a player this year for us and we really needed him. We're not a real big team. We don't have a great deal of size, so Dave has been very important for us.

Q. You've had kind of an interesting year, I guess to put it one way. You've taken some grievance publicly as far as your recruiting approach. Have you had to evolve that approach just over the last seven, eight years to kind of keep up with the way this game changes?
COACH GARY WILLIAMS: I just -- we've been to the NCAA Tournament 13 out of 16 years. So, I mean, the recruiting thing, you know, if you judge recruiting on names is one thing but you should judge recruiting on wins, who wins.
I think people lose that nowadays sometimes with all the attention recruiting gets. The idea is still to win. The idea is to get to the NCAA Tournament. As I've said, we've been here 13 out of 16 years. Either I'm a hell of a coach or we're pretty good recruiters.
KEVIN KLINTWORTH: Any other questions for Coach?
Thank you, Coach Williams.
COACH GARY WILLIAMS: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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