March 10, 2002

Recap | Box Score | Video Highlights

2002 ACC Tournament on TheACC.com | All-ACCess

NC State Head Coach Herb Sendek:
Opening Statement: "I thought that was an incredibly hard-fought game played at a high level by both teams. Certainly we are extremely proud of our guys. Once again they showed a lot of grit and determination and really played well together. Maryland is a great team. You watch them on tape preparing and you have nothing but the highest regard and respect for them. Our guys really put some things together and hung on there at the end. I'm really proud of them."

On Julius Hodge three towards the end of the game: "Sometimes the randomness of things-we are missing free throws down the stretch. Julius just stepped up and made a great shot. Great players do that. He has made big baskets for us all season. Obviously, that is not a part of our offense but we will take it. We have had a couple banked in against us this year. Sometimes it just works out that way. "

On defense of Steve Blake: "We just have so much respect for Steve Blake. He is a sensational competitor and point guard. Maryland is so explosive in transition. We just tried to the best of our ability to deal with that. I thought our guys did a pretty good job of executing that game plan in such a short turnaround. Maryland is so deep, so talented, so deep up front. That is not necessarily a description that fits us. We had to help down some."

Anthony Grundy
On feeling of winning and confidence: "We feel like we all had the confidence to do it. It was just a matter of us going out and doing it on the court. We just did our daily routine and prepared the way we normally have this year. We feel that we match up well with any team in our conference."

On last free throw: "It would say it was the toughest free throw of my life. There were a lot of things going through my mind. I just blanked it out and pictured me being on the playground back at home. I'm always the guy who likes to keep people on the edge of their seats. I knew it was important. It was a big shot, the biggest of my career. I'm glad I made it and it helped."

Marcus Melvin
On hot start: "Coming out Coach told us we had mismatches, but we knew that we had a great offense. We just wanted to come out and assert ourselves. I just wanted to show them that I was here and by doing that Anthony (Grundy) and Julius (Hodge) came through. Everybody just started contributing after that."

On three-point shooting: "A lot of teams don't really respect us as a whole because we have four or five that can shoot. We think that it's a really great advantage for our basketball team. That is how we win games."

Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams:
Opening statement: "We knew going into today that NC State was shooting the ball well from the perimeter and we had to shut that down, we didn't do a great job of that. Offensively, we were really out of sync- early in the game, especially. We've been able to score against NC State in the previous two games. We didn't have that consistency in our scoring today.

"I really like our team in terms of their heart- their effort there twice to come back in the game and get looks to tie the game. State hit a really tough shot-that line drive that Hodge made. That was a big shot for them. We had two pretty good looks in that situation. I'm really proud of the team, I'm proud of what we've done this year winning the regular season championship and I really believe we deserve a number one seed off what we've done to go 26-4. Hopefully it will go that way because I think we've earned it.

On NC State: "They really played well. They played hard, they made some big shots. We've beaten NC State quite a few times in a row. The law of averages, sooner or later in close games, will catch up with you. I know one thing, these guys did everything they could to win the game at the end of the game."

On shot selection at end of the game- missed threes: "To be on the floor in that situation-it's really tough to do. I'm proud of those guys that they had the guts to take the shots.

On NC State's "unconventional" offense: "They do a lot of the same things as when we played Princeton in December, except State has better players running that offense. When you have senior guards I think that's very important to that offense because they know how to reset very quickly. Both Grundy and Miller do a very good job of that. I think that's the key to running that offense."

Steve Blake:
On the loss and going into the NCAA tournament: "The loss is very disappointing. One of our goals was to win the ACC Tournament and we didn't achieve that. But, we'll put it aside as soon as we find out who we're playing in the NCAA Tournament and we'll get ready for that team."

On Maryland's offense: "We had to settle down and get into our positions on offense and run our plays correctly. Sometimes guys were in the wrong spots and were running cuts hard. We didn't execute some of the game today."