June 25, 2001

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Maryland men's basketball coach Gary Williams is immersed in the activities surrounding his summer basketball camps, and has begun the summer ritual of evaluating talent and recruiting for the upcoming signing period in November. In the meantime, Williams took a few moments during his summer time in the office, to discuss his thoughts on the year following his program's trek to the 2001 Final Four.

On 2001-02: "What we did last year in getting to the Final Four does not ensure anything about what we do this year. It means we are very capable of having a good year. Each year, the players that are involved have to achieve their own identity. The players have done a good job since the end of last season in terms of working hard in getting ready for next year. Hopefully we will continue that up to the start of next season. Our preparation and our attitudes, and the ability to continue working hard, will dictate how succesful we are in the coming season."

On a sense of accomplishment after last year's Final Four: "The permanent things that may have changed because of our accomplishments last season are what are important to me. The fact that people will always look back to that team as the first at Maryland ever to do it, yes, there is pride in that. The wins and losses have to come and you have to continue winning games in order to stay at this level. The idea of building the new Comcast Center, I think that has been helped by the success of the basketball team. Going to the Final Four is something no one can take away from you and is special, particularly because it had never happened here before. Something I will always remember is the first time, even if we get back there again, because you have to break that ceiling, that barrier, that exists in getting there for the first time. I have to credit the players in making it, because to break that ceiling is difficult. It's hard to go somewhere that none of the other great players of this school were able to get to."

On getting back to the Final Four: "Yes, I like our team and you never know for sure, but I think we have the character that will allow us to get back to the Final Four and not affect our preparation for this year's season. When you do get to the Final Four, you are setting yourself up because every team you are playing the next year wants to beat a Final Four team. We have been in that role the past couple of seasons in our league. There is extra motivation to play Maryland this year, so we have to make sure we understand that because that is the way it will be in every game that we play. On the other side, we are returning four starters that are very important players to us. That gives us an edge, especially early in the season. We have to take advantage of that edge. To be able to have Chris Wilcox, Tahj Holden, and Drew Nicholas -- that were key players in our drive to the Final Four last year -- certainly gives us depth, with experience, that is important early in the year. With the newer players coming in, we will have to see how they fit in with the returning players. The good thing about the new players is that there is no immediate need for them to play great right away. The pressure is for them to get to a place where they can contribute to the team, but there is no demand like there was on a Steve Blake to come in and start as a freshman. It is good for our program that we are in that situation this year."

On primary concerns for the coming season: "What I worry about the most is our depth both on and off the court. We had leadership from two players that did not start last year. Both Mike Mardesich and LaRon Cephas gave us great leadership. Although Mike came off the bench and Laron did not play that much, they were very important to us. Then of course, you lose a player like Terence Morris who is capable of stepping out and hitting a three at anytime and pulling down 12 or 13 rebounds a game. When you lose a Terence Morris, you wonder if you can still rebound the same way. If there was a lot of attention on Morris when the ball was shot, then it opened up a Lonny Baxter, Tahj Holden or Chris Wilcox to pull down the rebounds. We have to step up as a rebounding team this year to ensure we do as good as last year, because we became a very good rebounding team last year."

On Lonny Baxter: "It is great to see Lonny -- who wasn't somebody when he came out of high school that was considered to be an ACC type of player -- overcome a lot of obstacles and become one of the top inside men in the country. With his experience after Obinna Ekezie went down with an Achilles heel injury (in 1998-99), Lonny had to start three-fourth's of the way into his freshman season -- which in the long run was very beneficial. He has gotten better each year and we expect him to get better this year with taking jump shots and facing the basket. You also never want to take away from Lonny what he is good at, which is his ability to catch the ball down low, take it to the basket, take a foul, and put the ball in the basket. Lonny is what basketball players used to be, which is to come in for four years and gradually become a very good basketball player. That is what Lonny has done for us."

On Steve Blake: "Steve Blake has done everything you can ask any point guard to do. What he did his freshman year was just incredible, when he started immediately and we won 25 games. To come in and play the type of guards in this conference, and against Kentucky twice, and do all those things as a freshman is just great. If he didn't do that, we would not have been a very good basketball team because we did not have anybody who could play that position. Then last year, I think he had a great year in getting the ball to Juan Dixon, Lonny Baxter, Terence Morris, and people that could score. He sacrificed his own game in terms of how many points he could score. Steve is smart enough, going into his junior season, in knowing that his offensive numbers will go up because not only does he know where the basketball needs to go, but when he is open, he has to shoot the basketball. He has already won some big games for us with his shooting. An example was against Penn where he didn't score a lot of points, but when they made a run at the end of the game, he was able to step up and hit three key shots that allowed us to win. It is going to be fun for him because after starting every game since he has been here, he has established himself as one of the best point guards in the nation."

On Juan Dixon: "Well, everybody knows Juan's story by now, but what I like about Juan is that he is not satisfied. He has already won a tremendous amount of awards, but what is great is watching him score against teams whose defense is really geared to stopping him. It's just really incredible. His play in big games is great because there are some guys who can score a lot of points, but when it comes to the big games they may not want to take the big shot. Juan is the kind of player that just wants the ball in key situations against good teams. He has dramatically improved his ball handling, and he has become a very good outside shooter to complement his scoring ability as he drives to the basket. The thing I like most about Juan is that he has no fear of anybody that plays against him. He is not afraid to place himself in pressure situations."

On Tahj Holden: "When we recruited Tahj, the report was that he was a very good player but that he was kind of soft. To his credit, Tahj has become one of our strongest and toughest players. He made a big difference in our team last year when he came back from his broken foot. Without Tahj, we would not have been in the Final Four because his inside defense was key against teams like Stanford. I expect Tahj, very much like Lonny Baxter, to improve each year. As a junior, he has a great chance to be a starter for us."

On Byron Mouton: "Byron changed our team last year when he became a starter after the Maui tournament and Wisconsin game. Last year's team was interesting because we had some laid-back guys on the team, and Byron is not afraid to show his emotions. That, along with his ability as a basketball player, has really helped us. Byron is a scorer and he finds ways to score, but he also is a very tough defensive player. You need all five guys on the court who care about playing defense and that is what we had last year. Byron added to that when he came into the lineup because he was another guy who wanted to stop his man. He made his contributions on both ends of the court."

On Drew Nicholas: "Drew was probably as valuable, and has made as much of a contribution, as anybody in our program in the past year because we needed somebody to back up Steve Blake at the point. Yet we didn't want to lose Drew's shooting abilities, so he really wound up playing three positions. Drew is long enough to be able to play the 3-spot, when you want to go with three guards, and he certainly handled the ball well enough in some big games when we asked him to play the point position. Even though he is still mostly a shooting guard, his ball-handling experience has made him a better basketball player. He is a good ball-handler now and he hasn't lost the ability to shoot the ball. He's become a very well-rounded player, and we're able to use him more this coming year because of that."

On Chris Wilcox: "Everybody knows Chris dunks, and he blocked shots, and things like that. But now Chris' next step as a sophomore is to develop his offensive game to where he can make shots out of the offense, not just follow-ups or dunks on fast breaks. He's got to be able to help us run the offense. And then on the defensive end, I'm not one to ask a guy to lose the ability to block shots because very few people have that, but Chris has also got to become a solid defensive player where his man doesn't beat him off the dribble. He has to be able to keep a guy from catching the ball in the post. He has to master the little things that most talented big men have to learn their in college because at the high school level, they're able to play a one-man zone and just block anything that comes in there just because they're the most talented athletes. So, with Chris, that's his next step, to become a more complete offensive and defensive player."

On Earl Badu and Calvin McCall: "Well, both those guys played a key role in practice. You don't become a good team at the end of the year without working hard in practice every day, and Earl and Calvin both gave us that. They were tough to play for the first team. They didn't have their bad days where they didn't feel like practicing. As long as they keep that attitude, they can really help us this year."

On Matt Slaninka: "Matt is interesting because he worked very hard last year and it was nice to go against a guy 7-4 in practice, when we're playing against a big team like Stanford or somebody like that. This year, I am going into the season with an open mind in terms of Matt. I'm not sure that he can't help us for a few minutes every game in what would be his freshman year, because he redshirted last year. So if he can do that, and be ready in case we get in foul trouble with our big guys, then he's going to be very valuable to us. Matt has a tremendous opportunity to develop during his career here, into a position where he can play after college, because there are very few players at that size, ever. As long as he keeps his work ethic, with which he did a good job this past year, there's no limit on what Matt can do."

On Andre Collins: "Andre gives us a quick guard. Andre's as quick as anybody we'll play against. He has the ability to get the ball downcourt in a hurry. He is a better shooter than people think. It's going to be interesting to see how he fits in. The great thing about Andre is that I think he has the confidence in his game to be able to play right away, and you never know when there's an injury. Which, if there ever is, he becomes a very key player for us right away. Having a guy like Andre gives us a lot more flexibility. I still want Drew Nicholas to handle the ball, I will continue to do that, but I can envision Drew, Andre and Steve Blake on the court at the same time, if we wanted to be really quick. That would make us a great ballhandling team. Andre's going to play a lot of basketball at the University of Maryland."

On Michael Grinnon: "Mike is one of those guys that really came on his senior year of high school. It's amazing, Juan Dixon did the same thing up in Baltimore. People rate players nowadays from the time they are freshman in high school. And if you get on somebody's "list" early, you're going to remain on those lists for the most part through your whole career. Mike wasn't on any of those lists early, but by the time he was a senior, he was playing against guys that were on those lists and doing very well, so I think Mike is really going to surprise a lot of players. What he is known for is shooting the basketball, and nowadays that is a tremendous edge, especially with the three-point line and the fact that a lot of guys aren't really good shooters any more. If Mike can come in and shoot it, it can really help us. With the loss of Danny Miller, a guy that size that can play a little bit of guard becomes a little more important to us than if Danny was still here this year."

On Ryan Randle: "We lose Laron Cephas, Mike Mardesich and Terence Morris, so it's important that even though we have inside guys returning, we bring in another big body -- and Ryan is 6-9, 260 pounds. But he also has very good skills. He can shoot the ball, he can pass, and put it on the floor a little bit. So, as with any new player, it's going to be interesting to find how he fits into the rotation. Like I said, we do have some good inside players, but if you want to go big and play three big guys at a time, Ryan certainly is talented enough to help us in that situation. It helps because he's more advanced and he's played in big games. His team played for the National Junior College Championship last year. It's also where Steve Francis went to school, and those guys come out of there as basketball players. It's funny, when a lot of guys come out of high school, they might not be as good as some the big guys you hear about, but after two years at the junior college level, they've caught up. I think Ryan is one of those guys."

On moving to the Comcast Center for 2002-03: "I think it's going to be a great thing for Maryland basketball because, let's face it, while Cole Field House is one of the great places to play on game day, at any other time it's not as great a place as many others because it's a tough building to recruit to, and it's simply very old. The new building gives us an on-campus arena which is really the key to me -- and one that is as modern, as good, and as technically sound as any building we'll play in all year. The other thing is, with a side gym built into the Comcast Center, we'll always have a place to practice in our building, which isn't true at Cole Field House. That's a big asset to our program and I just think once the fans see what the Comcast Center is going to be, the crowds will be every bit as good as they have been in Cole Field House. I really believe that Cole is as good a place to play as there is in the country in terms of game day."

On the schedule: "We've tried, since we've gotten the program back in the past seven or eight years, to get the best schedule we could, and this year is no exception. With the Coaches vs. Cancer games in New York at Madison Square Garden, you have three other teams that all think they have a shot at the Final Four this year, and with Illinois being our matchup with the ACC/Big Ten Challenge here at Cole, that's a tremendous game. Illinois might be picked by a lot of people as the number one team in the Big Ten, plus we have to go to Oklahoma, we play the BB&T with Princeton and Connecticut as the two outside teams, and that's all before you get to the ACC schedule. Once again our schedule will be ranked right up there with anyone else's this year. I do that for two reasons, because I want Maryland to be thought of as a great basketball program, and secondly, I think it really makes us better as we get into the league. We don't fear anybody in our league, in part because of who we've already played."

On defending the nation's longest non-conference home court win streak: "It's going to be tough. It's not just Illinois. There are a lot of good teams out there that will really get up for us next year, so if we have a letdown we could certainly lose, and Illinois is certainly one of the top teams in the country that can beat us. It will be another fight, but it's kind of neat having that streak. It says something about Cole and our fans, but it also says a lot about the quality of the players we have had in the program. They show up every night ready to play, and that becomes important if you have any type of winning streak on the line."