If you’ve read the game story in the previous post or in the paper or elsewhere online, it had no quotes because of the 9 pm start. So here is what the Hokies and their coach had to say about the 60-55 loss to Maryland:

Cadarian Raines on the latest close loss: “We’re almost there. I see improvement in our team.”

Raines on his game, which included 14 points and 5 blocks: “(It was due to ) just being confident. I know I can score the ball. The coaches and the team know I can score the ball, so they give me the ball and I just go to the net and do my moves. … I know I can score the ball, I don’t care who’s guarding me — just make a move, score the ball.”

Raines on his hook shot: “I’m working on it more, being more confident in it.”

Raines on needing to step up with Eddie and Brown struggling in the game: “I had to step up for Erick. He was scoring the ball and needed somebody else scoring the ball too, so I wanted to be that guy.”

Jarell Eddie on the losing streak: “It’s getting more  and more frustrating each game. We want to get wins and it’s tough losing these close ones like that. … We know we’re getting better, we know we’re taking steps forward every game even if we’re losing by these close margins.”

Eddie on his 1 for 8 shooting night: “I just missed the shot tonight. I had good looks. …. I just wasn’t making the shot tonight.”

Eddie on he and Brown both having bad shooting nights: “When both of us don’t come and perform, it really makes it tough for us to win. …. Rob’s in a funk right now. We’re trying to get him out of it, we stand behind him. … We’ve just got to wait. He’s going to get out of it.”

Erick Green: “We’ve got to have more guys step up. We’ve got to play harder. …. We’re not hustliing, we’re not doing the things that we need to do to really win a game. And at the end I’ve got to make more plays — not just for myself but I’ve got to do more to help this team win.”

Green on Brown’s missed layup with 34 seconds left: “We ran a side out of bounds play for him. That’s the play Coach designed. We felt like Rob could get a good shot off because he had Allen on him. It didn’t turn out that way. We’ve just got to make more plays….. We’ve got a lot of confidence in Rob and he’ll be back. …. I feel like I should have the ball (in that situation), but it’s okay. Rob had the ball, he tried to make a play Me, Rob or Jarell at the end of the game, whoever has it, it’s fine with me. We’ve just got to make plays.”

Green on the 2nd half: “I don’t know what it is with us but every time we come out at halftime, we’re up and then we let them come back and punch us in the mouth and we never respond. That’s something we’ve got to get right with our team, We’ll fix it. We’ve still got nine games left. We’re not a bad team. We’re right there in every game. We’ve just got to fix little things.”

Green on his UNC performance: “I let the refs get to me (at UNC) because I wasn’t getting a foul called. … I just played like a little kid, I let the little things get to my head when I need to step up and let that thing go and make plays.”

Green on his performance tonight: “I had some fire. Guys out there talking a little stuff to me (Nick Faust was the one doing the talking), so that brought some fire to me. … I just wanted to come out and show people that I’m not going to let nothing bother me in this game and get back to the Erick Green that’s been playing all year.”

Green on the supporting cast: “Raines, he was the best player on the court, one of the best players on the court. In my eyes, he was killing Alex Len. We need to give him the ball more. But as a team, we’ve got to have other guys step up. Rob and Jarell, we can’t have them having less than 10 points a game for us to be able to win. You give them 10 points a game, we can win this thing by five or six. … If we’re going to win a game, two guys can’t just carry us. We’ve got to have three or four guys put points on the board. And if you’re not putting points on the board, guys got to understand it’s not about points — rebound, steal, defensive rebound, you can score in so many different ways other than just having the ball in your hands. And I think we’ve got to figure that out, because once you get going on a steal or get going on a tip in, that gets yourself going … We need to mature a little bit. Who cares if you go 2 for 10? Make other plays, get steals, get rebounds, do something else other than just worry about scoring.”

Green on Brown’s bad season: “He’s been in the gym working hard. He’s just in a slump. I’ve been through that. I’ve probably been through one worse than that. We live together so we always try to stay positive and keep his head up. … Things will turn around for him.”

Green on Saturday’s game: “We’ve just got to come to play. We’ve got to let all the outside stuff, drama, whatever … is wrong on this team, we’ve got to let it go. …. Just go out and have fun, play hard, and just enjoy this. I don’t know why guys are stressing, why guys are putting their head down. You only get to do this thing one time so just enjoy it and play your heart out. … Some guys are having bad nights and they’re stressing. So what — you’re going to have bad nights. You’ve got to get over that and just move on.”

Green on Johnson: “He;’s doing everything he can. He’s a great coach. It’s our fault. We’re not putting the ball in the hoop. We’re not making plays. He’s calling all the right plays. .. This game should’ve been won.”

James Johnson: “I feel like it’s Shawshank Redemption. I love that movie and every time it’s on I watch it and I see the same thing. I know you guys hear the same thing — a hard fought game tonight, had a chance to win, in position to win, didn’t make the plays to win. … I’ve seen it (before). Erick Green does what he does and we need other guys to step up. I’ve seen it. And we have a chance to win and we don’t finish. I’ve seen it before.”

Johnson on the team: “I like what I see from Raines. Erick Green, he’s amazing. Maryland, a big strong, physical team just running bodies in and out at us. We had opportunities, didn’t make the plays, didn’t finish another game. … This team is getting better. It’s not showing up with the wins and that’s very frustrating.”

Johnson on the Terps: “We gave up too many offensive rebounds. They were bigger, stronger, more physical, fresher and they kept the balls alive.”

Johnson on the supporting cast: “We just don’t have enough guys playing well enough to finish. Green does what he does and then we got Raines playing the way he’s capable of playing, he’s been consistent the last 3 games. And then Eddie and Brown … they had the same shooting (woes) up at Maryland. …. I look down the bench and just look and see, Are there any answers? Who can we put in? Marshall Wood is gradually, slowly but surely getting back around. Tonight you don’t have Marquis Rankin. When Brown and Eddie are struggling, who do you go to? I thought Will Johnston did a great job … and made what I call winning plays to help the team win. But you just don’t have a lot of answers when you look over there (on the bench).”

Johnson on Brown’s missed layup (you will notice here he differs from Green on whether the play was called for Brown or for Green): “No, it (the play) wasn’t for Brown. They did a good job on Green. At times, especially late in the game, somebody else is going t have to step up. I’m going to probably go to Green and they know it and there’s nothing that we can do about it. … They did a good job defensively on him and it left Brown open. Basically it’s the same shot that he hit in the Wake Forest, driving to his left, getting into the lane. And tonight it fell short. The play was for Green, to bring him off another stagger action and they jammed it up. They did a good job, they put Wells on him late.”

Johnson on the FT woes and whether fatigue is to blame: “We’re struggling a little bit there, I’m not sure what it is.  … We are fatigued, there’s no question.”

Johnson on Raines: “He’s being a lot more patient in the post, he’s catching it and he’s surveying the area and letting the guards move and trying to feel out how they’re guarding him. … They’re playing him one on one.”

Johnson on Brown: “He’s going to have to play. ….  He’s got to try to play his way out of it. Sometimes that’s difficult to do. …. The first 10 games of the season he’s shown that he can be a scorer, he can knock down shots. And even in practice he’s still showing that he can score the basketball. It’s just not carrying over to the game for some reason. We’re all trying to figure that out.”

Johnson on Rankin: “He’s very weak, hadn’t eaten in like 3 days. Taken in a lot of fluids but just can’t keep anything down.”

Johnson on Eddie: “He had some good looks. He had the tip back for the dunk and he missed it, point blank. Robert’s point blank right there for the layup, missed it. Missed the reverse layup in the first half, just point blank. .. Jarell had some pretty decent looks. … Just not going down for him.”

Johnson on 18 offensive boards but just 4 second chance points: “We did a real good job getting to the glass but didn’t turn them int points. We’ve got to do a better job of that. … That was due to Maryland’s size, that part of it was due to their defense. We get offensive rebounds back and you’re shooting over 7-1, and then there’s another 6-9, 6-10.”

Johnson on the rematch with Ga Tech: “In that game, we had Robert Brown in overtime made the pull up jump shot and the layup, and Jarell Eddie made the big 3 from the corner in overtime. Those guys are going to have to play well for us. We’re going to need more than 1 or 2 guys to beat those guys. … I think one of them is going to break out here pretty soon … We just need a soldi performance out of them, we need 10-12 points out of them and not turn the ball (over). Robert had 4 turnovers in this game, I think he had 4 or 5 (5 actually) in the last game. You just can’t have that, you’re not scoring and turning the ball over, that’s not a good combination.”