Gillespie on Derik Queen and Kevin Willard on the guy who won it for Maryland basketball "and it's not even close"
The Terps coach talked about his team's win at Penn State.
Julian Reese has hit an offensive road bump after a torrid stretch of double-doubles and high shooting percentages, scoring four points in each of Maryland basketball's past two game. But don't be fooled by the 'points' column in the scoreboard; his performance against Penn State was worlds better than his rough night against Michigan State.
Reese played one of the best defensive games of his career Saturday in Maryland's 68-64 escape at Penn State, piling 15 rebounds, six steals and three blocks. Tiem and again, he poked away or grabbed entry passes by the Nittany Lions. He accounted for nearly half of Maryland's rebounds on a day when they were outrebounded by six. Time and again, he played goalie in the paint to turn away Penn State possessions.
"Julian Reese won this game. I mean, it's not even close. Obviously, he kind of struggled early offensively. They did a good job of really kind of sending three guys on his post moves, but he kept his head into it. He acted like a guy that's been around before, and he made every pick-and-roll, two huge of what we call 'Hibberts' at the rim to save buckets. He was just the difference in the game," Willard said.
The Terps coach also admitted his team was still stinging from that buzzer-beater loss to MSU.
"I'd be lying if I didn't say we were all [recovered]. It was a brutal loss on Wednesday with the atmosphere we had, with the crowd, with the opportunity still staying for the Big 10 championship. To lose the way we did, it was gut-wrenching," he said.
"But at halftime, I told these guys, like, 'Hey guys, like, we're only down six.' To me, that was a huge win because I knew we just weren't going to have a ton of energy. I knew emotionally we were a little bit drained, but I thought we came out and passed the ball really good. We got two quick assists, a three and a layup. And I just thought that gave us a little, good mojo.
Willard on Penn State beating them on the glass: "I was trying to play a little zone in the first half just because of trying to save Ja'Kobi and Rodney. They had played so many minutes. But what happens sometimes is you're not in good defensive rebounding position. So I think our man-to-man defense [and] I think Julian being the anchor down there was a difference."
Willard on Derik Queen picking it up in the second half: "When you have Rodney in one corner and Selton in the other corner, if they're going to switch and put the smaller guard on them ... I think the biggest thing was, I got on Derik about, it's time to be physical. And I think sometimes he tries to show his skills, but he was physical tonight and that was the difference, too.
Gillespie on hitting Queen in the pick-and-roll: "Just depends how they play the pick and roll. If they're gonna focus more on me and leave Queen with the roll, I'm going to hit him every time, and he's going to make something good happen. So, I feel like we got a good two-man connection going"
