Oklahoma Vs. Maryland

Dec. 21, 2001

Oklahoma Head Coach Kelvin Sampson
On the game:
"We sent a message to everyone in America that Oklahoma has a great basketball team. We had a good game plan tonight and we carried it out, especially on the defensive side of the ball. I also thought we played smart basketball. I really liked our intelligence in this game. We didn't just beat a good team tonight, we beat a great team."

On OU's team effort in tonight's win:
"It doesn't matter who the best player is on this team. All of our players' jerseys say 'Oklahoma' on them and they all contributed a great deal. I prefer our sum to be greater than our individual parts. This team is going to get a lot better in the coming month and that is my main concern."

Oklahoma Forward Aaron McGhee
On tonight's game:
"This game was just a great one for us. This is what college basketball is all about. The crowd was great and we played just a great game. This was such a fun game to be a part of. It's probably the biggest win of my career."

On defeating second-ranked Maryland:
"We had nothing to lose. This is our house and we wanted to defend our house. We just had a lot of fun and got the job done. It feels so good to beat the second-ranked team in the country. We got contributions from everyone on the team, even the guys that didn't play. Everyone was into this game and we proved to the country we're a good team."

Oklahoma Guard Ebi Ere
On tonight's game:
"This feels so good. What a great win for us! People doubted us and didn't think we're as good as we are. We proved a lot tonight and it feels really good. The crowd was great and this is what we worked for in the off-season."

On the significance of tonight's win:
"We came out and played as a team. We didn't worry about anything and just played our hardest. Our team is good enough to win games like this. This was our first really tough challenge of the year and showed everyone how good a team Oklahoma is. I hope there was a big audience on ESPN tonight. It's a really big win for us."

Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
On Oklahoma:
"I liked Oklahoma's aggressiveness, they played hard. They started to dominate inside in the second half and we didn't respond very well. As far as intensity level, I think OU took it to us in the second half."

On Oklahoma's defense:
"It's obvious they dominated the boards in the second half. We led by a few rebounds going into halftime but they came out and dominated. They really got their confidence up when we missed a few baskets."

On the outcome:
"Hopefully, we'll learn a lot from this game. When you're playing on the road you have to do things right and we didn't do enough of the right things tonight."

On Jabahri Brown:
"His quickness out there is special. He has got what they need. Oklahoma was a good team before he got here but he just adds to the team. I think he affected some of our seven and eight foot shots because the guys had to put a little more arc on the ball."

On Juan Dixon:
"I thought Juan fumbled the ball when he had a chance to make some shots. They've got some good defensive guards that caused us some problems tonight."

Maryland Guard Steve Blake
On the game:
"They outworked us tonight. We didn't execute the way we can. They played well and we didn't. We came out strong early on but as the game went on they did a good job play after play and we couldn't dig ourselves out of the hole."

On whether the 10-day layoff affected the team's play:
"Yes, it hurt us a little bit. But we've got to come back and just play strong."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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