[S1E1] Can't Knock The Hustle
Not a great doctor evidenced by his misdiagnosis of Matthews back (it wasn't broken, you'd hope your doctor knows the difference), but my dude keeps picking up his cheque every week. Whatever man, keep getting those cheques, I can't knock his hustle. Plus his mustache is always on point, and that counts for something.
[S1E1] Can't Knock The Hustle
March 23, 2005Recap Box Score NotesHead Coach Gary WilliamsOpening statement:"We had trouble early, but once we got playing, that's the level we have to play at. We're starting to get more aggressive which is a really good sign. As far as scoring, when you get six guys in double figures, you're tough to play against. We still can shoot the ball much better than we did tonight, but that will come. You need to get used to playing at that intensity level and not let it affect your shooting, and that will be the next thing to come. I was really happy with our guys. James Gist goes 7-of-7 from the free throw line. Nik [Caner-Medley] had 11 rebounds, which is outstanding from the three position. And Mike Grinnon came in and did a great job at the end of the half, not stat-wise, but just getting us excited. Sterling [Ledbetter] is really learning how to be a point guard. He had some turnovers, but he had a lot of assists, too ... We're doing some good things and we've got to keep it up now. We've got to work the next few days to get ready for Texas Christian and go from there."On the crowd:"The crowd was incredible. We had 12,126 [fans] and I was glad to see that many people wanted to see us play. There were some people there that can't get tickets during the season, so it's great they get a chance to see us play ... There's some things with [the NIT] that are really good for our basketball program."On Ekene Ibekwe:"Ekene is so long and quick that, even though he doesn't look really strong, he does some things in there that not many people can do. He gets to the ball very quickly and he really knows how to finish in there ... I'm really proud of the way Ekene has handled things this year. He's really worked hard."On the 16-0 run to close the first half:"Mike Grinnon did a good job. It's one thing to go in there and make some great hustle plays, but the other players have to buy into it, too. It's the other guys that say, `Mike's going to do that, and that's the way we can play.' That was the key. Our pressure really helped us. That changed the game as much as anything. When we went to all-out full-court pressure, that got us playing."On James Gist:"James is one of those players that makes plays that are probably worth more than two or three points in the game because he does get the crowd involved. Plus, he's not afraid to show his enthusiasm, which is really important for our team, especially this time of year."On the mood of the team:"I think they're just enjoying themselves. There was pressure the last couple weeks to make the NCAA Tournament and we didn't make it. We got down for a while, but now we're just playing basketball. I'm trying to make practices as fun as possible and we seem to be having a good time."On Sterling Ledbetter:"We had 15 assists tonight and he had eight of them. The point guard should give Nik Caner-Medley, Chris McCray, the inside guys opportunities to score, and then feed off of that ... Sterling's really starting to see the court and get comfortable with what we do. Every coach has a different offense and this is his first year here and he didn't get the practice time early that he probably needed. Now he's getting a lot of minutes and he's taking advantage of them."Junior Guard Sterling LedbetterOn his pre-game nervousness:"Being nervous will sometimes help you out in the game. I did come out pretty excited, it might have been from being nervous. I had to tell myself just to calm down. I just calmed down and ran the offense and we came out with the win."On Maryland's practices during the NIT: "... We're still working hard. We do have a little bit of fun, but I'm just trying to go hard in practice and trying to lead this team. If you go hard it in practice, it'll carry out on the floor."On Davidson's offense:"They had a lot of patience with the offense. Most teams do a lot of driving and kicking, but they just set real good screens and moved really well. They were real patient with their offense, so we just had to be real patient on defense and stay with our man for 35 seconds and we did that."On recovering from his summer car accident:"I feel like I'm back. My strength is up, my weight is back on me, I can jump again and I can run again, so I feel real good."Freshman Forward James GistOn the game:"We came out kind of slow. In one of the time-outs, Coach [Williams] told us we had to come out ready to play, and me and the guys in the huddle decided we had to get out there ready to play. [We decided] we can't come out there like this, with them up in our house."On the Terps' comeback at the end of the second half:"I don't think it deflated them as good of a team as they are. I do think the first four minutes of the second half was a key part of the game. How we started off the second half was a real key to how the rest of the game was going to go."Davidson Head Coach Bob McKillopOpening Statement:"I think the shooting percentage reveals what happened during the game. I thought we had terrific opportunities to score, but we just didn't knock down some shots that normally we do knock down. You sprinkle in some extremely talented shot-blocking performances by [Ekene Ibekwe] that took away some possible lay-ups that we would have had, and it leaves you several empty possessions in a row and gives them a shot of adrenaline and allows them to overcome the [16-point] deficit that they were facing at the end of the first half. But I'm extremely proud of the effort made by our players. They emptied their gas tank, they laid it on the line. It's just unfortunate that we ran out of gas."On the Terps' 16-0 run to end the first half:"Everything that could have gone wrong for us did go wrong, and because of some outstanding hustle plays by [Maryland], they were able to evaporate our lead completely."On the game:"We've been in this situation before. We've been on the road, we've been in front of very hostile crowds, and we've handled it. Nothing's going to be given to you. You have to take what's out there for you. I think our guys made every attempt to take it. There was no holding back, there was no fear, there was no fright, there was no hesitation, there was no being tentative. We continued to fight and be aggressive. Maryland's a superb team. They beat Duke twice. I think we got some open looks that we just didn't convert. That's probably the disappointment that I take out of this game is that we get some of those shots, we normally convert them, and we didn't. Credit that to Maryland's quickness and length and ability to recover."On Sterling Ledbetter's three-point play to end the half:"We did the same thing against Missouri [in the season-opener]. We built a very big cushion, they got back into the game, but we held them off. We never let them get back into the lead. That's why Ledbetter's three-point play at the end of the half was so vital to [Maryland] because it got them into the locker room on equal ground with us. Had we gone into the locker room up, sure they would have had some momentum from the last three-and-a-half minutes of the half, but we would at least have felt, `OK, we're winning.' So that three-point play that he converted was a very big play at the end of the half."On playing without three top scorers during the first-half Maryland run:"Brendan [Winters] is an integral part of our team, he's vital to our team, but you learn to play with players because of foul trouble. During that four-minute stretch, it wasn't just Brendan that was on the bench; Jason Morton was on the bench and so was Logan Kosmalski. We had three very valuable players who are all very effective scorers for us on the bench. We just couldn't make up for the three of them being absent. One, yes; two, maybe, but three you can't."Junior Guard Brendan WintersOn the game:"For the first 16 minutes, I think we played better than we have all season. We played really well, but then they came right back in the last eight minutes of the game. We let them back into the game. They had momentum going into halftime and they played that way the whole second half."On the atmosphere in Comcast Center:"This place is awesome. The only comparable place I can think of is Duke's [Cameron Indoor Stadium]. When we played there, it was pretty loud but here you have so many more people. With the noise and everything, this is an awesome arena."On next year:"We lose two seniors -- Logan [Kosmalski] and Conor [Grace] -- two starters. Hopefully, we can build off the NIT and off of what we have accomplished this season. Hopefully, we can make the NCAA tournament next year."Print Friendly Version var obj = "start":0,"count":10,"name":"story-template-boilerplate","sport_id":null,"count_breakpoints":null,"css_class":"","pinned_id":"","extra":,"context":null,"dummy":false,"type":"ads","id":"26f8c376-8cb4-4c48-a77f-c6bebcd1d6bb","data":"location":"id":0,"title":null,"type":null,"effect":null,"fixed_image_sizes":false,"excluded_sport_ids":null,"slick":false,"dfp":false,"sidearm_dfp":false,"common_page":false,"html_template":null,"name":null,"autoplay_speed":0,"accessibility_icons":false,"sizes":null,"slick_options":null,"dfp_sizes":null,"campaigns":[],"content_id":null,"content_title":null,"content_date":null,"content_url":null,"content_image_url":null,"mode":"web"; if (!("sidearmComponents" in window)) window.sidearmComponents = []; window.sidearmComponents.push(obj); Related Story Content var obj = "start":0,"count":10,"name":"story-template-general-1-1","sport_id":null,"count_breakpoints":null,"css_class":"","pinned_id":"","extra":,"context":null,"dummy":false,"type":"ads","id":"51a4f08c-fa29-4f7d-8a95-63e557e5c46d","data":"location":"id":0,"title":null,"type":null,"effect":null,"fixed_image_sizes":false,"excluded_sport_ids":null,"slick":false,"dfp":false,"sidearm_dfp":false,"common_page":false,"html_template":null,"name":null,"autoplay_speed":0,"accessibility_icons":false,"sizes":null,"slick_options":null,"dfp_sizes":null,"campaigns":[],"content_id":null,"content_title":null,"content_date":null,"content_url":null,"content_image_url":null,"mode":"web"; if (!("sidearmComponents" in window)) window.sidearmComponents = []; window.sidearmComponents.push(obj); Story Links Related Videos Now Playing: Play Video 041b061a72