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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: SPOKANE

March 21, 2010

Gary Williams

SPOKANE, WASHINGTON

Michigan State Â– 85
Maryland - 83

THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and have an opening statement from Coach Williams and then take questions for the Maryland student-athletes.
COACH WILLIAMS: Well, I thought we did everything we could to win the game. In other words, you ask your team to put it out there and try to win the game and I thought we did. You have to give Michigan State credit, they hit some big shots to counter what we were doing at the end of the game.
It just seemed like we were going to win that game and then we had it taken away from us. So this is tough. But give Michigan State credit, because when you take a hit like that, to come back and win the game, that's a pretty good accomplishment. These three seniors here will all graduate, this May and they have done a great job on and off the court as leaders, not just as basketball players, but leaders of our basketball program that people look at and they judge by what they see. These guys have been great models for us.
THE MODERATOR: Take questions for the Maryland student-athletes.

Q. Greiv, the way that Durrell was playing in the first half, how tough was it for you guys to be able to make a run because every time you guys would seem to get going a little bit, they would hit a three or something to keep the distance between you two.
GREIVIS VASQUEZ: He was pretty tough. He definitely was hot at that time. One thing about our team, we just never give up. And we didn't give up. So I thought we still had the game won, so he made a big three, just like coach said, you got to give them credit. But even with all that, we took the lead.

Q. Greiv, can you talk about the final two minutes, can you go through what was going through your head as you guys made that push, you scored eight points in 34 seconds and ended up like you said taking the lead for a little bit.
GREIVIS VASQUEZ: I just thought it was going to be my last game and I didn't want that game to be my last. But unfortunately it went the other way. So I'm just proud that we came back and we took the lead. We had a lot of guts to do that. And our team did it. Everybody. So something that is going to make us better not only as a players, but as a person, all of us, especially the seniors. So we got to go from here.

Q. Guys, can you describe how tough it was being physical inside trying to get rebounds? You were outrebounded 42-24. I know that's a tough stat to think about, but do you think that was a big difference in the game?
LANDON MILBOURNE: Even with the rebound margin being so wide we still had the game. We were still up. And they just hit an unbelievable shot. So maybe if we battled on the boards a little bit more it wouldn't have been that outcome, but it is what it is. They hit a crazy shot at the end and that was it.

Q. Question for Eric, I know it's probably a moment for you now, but I wonder when you look back on this game years from now do you think you'll remember that comeback and be able to be proud about that?
ERIC HAYES: Yeah, I think that later on in my life I'll be able to look back on this and see what a great comeback we did and we had the game won there for a moment, so it's tough to think about now, but I'm sure down the road that we'll look back and be very proud of how we came back in this game.

Q. Could you guys kind of take us through the emotions a little bit of having right after Vasquez makes the shot to take the lead and then Lucious hits the shot to win it there at the buzzer. Can you kind of go through that for us?
LANDON MILBOURNE: I knew there was still time on the clock, even after Vasquez scored, but I knew they were going to have a chance to get a shot, but I didn't think that it was going to be a good look like that. And I just can't really describe it. Only thing you can do in that situation is just hope that it doesn't go in. Or at least hope that he didn't make it in time. But he did it, and they came out with the win.
ERIC HAYES: When Greiv scored with six seconds left, you know, I was excited. I knew there was a lot of time left for them to get the ball in and get back down the court and I was just trying to get everybody to get back and match up and I thought we played pretty good defense and he made a kind of a fade away three and there's not much you can do about that. Like he said, hope he misses.
GREIVIS VASQUEZ: It's hard to describe. I thought we had the game won. And they come right back, ended up making a three. I mean give him credit. That he definitely going to remember that shot for the rest of his life.

Q. Greiv, I know it's not too long after the game, but can you look back on your career with these three guys and with Gary and sum up what it's meant to you and the school?
GREIVIS VASQUEZ: It's been unbelievable. Playing with Eric, Landon, and with Coach Williams, it's something that I appreciate so much because they have done a great job. They made a big impact on myself, coming from another country, being roommates with Eric and hanging out with Landon every day, that definitely got me better. And then having one of the best coaches in the NCAA, being your coach, everybody doesn't have that privilege. All I can say is that I'm very, very proud of my teammates and my coaches and everybody involved with us.
THE MODERATOR: All right, thank you gentlemen. We'll take questions for Coach Williams.

Q. Did you kind of expect there when Summers was on the bench with four fouls and Lucas wasn't able to go, that that would be the time if you were going to make a run, that that was going to be the time and what did you do to make the run to get back there and ultimately take the lead?
COACH WILLIAMS: We just kept trying different things, to get the right combination out there. I thought we were okay, we just couldn't rebound, so it didn't really matter the size that we had out there. So we went with Sean Mosley at the four a little bit. Just to try to change things up. Cliff Tucker came in off the bench, and we finally hit a combination that worked well, both defensively and offensively. And that's why we got the lead down quickly.
Really in that situation it doesn't matter who they have in the game, you're down, you have to do something, so our press was good. But I wouldn't call this one of my greatest pressing teams, but it was a great pressing team in that situation today.

Q. Gary, a gut wrenching loss. In the tournament where would this stack up?
COACH WILLIAMS: Well, it wouldn't be last.
(Laughter.)
Let's see, where would it be? 2001 in the Final Four we were up 20 on Duke. That one hurt.
I'm sure there's been others. Right now I can't think.

Q. What was said in the huddle? Was there one moment one point during your comeback that you really sensed that your team had it and you knew that they were going to make it close or was there always that feeling throughout?
COACH WILLIAMS: We came out, I thought we played pretty well and then took it out again. We got it down, they took it out again a little bit. All I kept saying is we have got to find a way to win the game. If you work really hard a lot of times good things happen and I thought the second half we worked really hard and eventually good things happened. And what you do is you try to get momentum in that situation. In other words, whenever you're down, the way I coach it is whatever it takes to get momentum, you do. And the momentum has got to come from a lot of times the defensive end of the floor because your offense will flow if you're playing really well breaking some things loose, holding them to one shot, which I think was one of the key things during that stretch.
They stopped getting second shots which they had been doing the whole game. So once we held them to one shot we had a chance to go down and score and we converted when we had to in that stretch. So I'm just very proud of the team that they chose to do that in that situation. I'm not saying that there's not other teams out there, but this team this year for us that's how we played right there.

Q. Especially tough because your last game with Greiv and Eric and Landon and the senior-led team, if you could take stock of their era and what they meant.
COACH WILLIAMS: Well, they got to the NCAA three out of four years. I'm sure that's one way to measure a player's career, but it's also shown up every day in practice, knowing that those three guys are going to give you the effort that would make you a better team each day that you were able to practice. This year's a good example. We lost -- we played Chaminade and then we lost to Wisconsin over in Hawaii. And that was in November. When we came back we heard that the season was over. So I mean you have seniors that are tough and have been through some things and have you a chance, in other words, that thought never got to our team. And I think the seniors were really responsible for that because they have experienced some other tough times and came back from that and they did the same thing this year.

Q. And Greiv as a player and an emotional guy and is it especially sorry to see him go what he's meant?
COACH WILLIAMS: Greiv plays with everything on his sleeve, which is a great way to play. It's a great way to play the game. Unfortunately there's not enough people that do anything in life like that. Everybody's politically correct, especially where we live. And it's nice to see people that aren't afraid to put it out there. And he's one of them.
Eric, he plays to his personality, he's a very quiet person, a very smart intellectual guy on the court, just seeing situations, his dad was a high school coach and I think he grew up that way as a player. I think that a lot of times that determines how you grow up as a basketball player, what your background is there with your family or friends or whatever.
Landon, to me, he just dedicated himself. He just didn't want to hear that he wasn't a good player. I'll be honest with you, when he came in as a freshman I wasn't sure he could ever play for us. He winds up scoring 18 points his freshman year, but winds up as a thousand point scorer for us. So each in their own way they were tremendous.

Q. Going in you have to think that they are going to be tough rebounding and everything, you probably don't go into the game thinking they're going to shoot the ball like they did.
COACH WILLIAMS: No, their shooting surprised us in the first half. We knew that Summers was a good shooter, obviously you know him coming in, but some other guys made some shots and I think you don't want to play teams that are wounded in a one game deal. I think they really got together and typical of Tom's teams, where when you play Michigan State, you know that they're going to come with their best effort, in other words, whether they make shots or not make shots, their effort on the glass, things like that, they're good.
Now we tried to counter their rebounding, we just couldn't rebound obviously with them today. But they had 19 turnovers to our six. So that makes up for a little bit of that. We shot the ball as the game went on better especially from the 3-point line. But the problem is the rebounding thing. 42-24, that covers a lot.
In other words, we shot 16 for 20 from the free throw line, they were 11 for 14. So we gained a couple points there. But we never overcame that first half rebounding, I felt. I felt that's what really put us behind.
THE MODERATOR: All right, thank you, coach.
COACH WILLIAMS: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: SPOKANE

March 21, 2010

Eric Hayes

Landon Milbourne

Greivis Vasquez

Gary Williams