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Quotes: Duke 100, Virginia Tech 65
1/30/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 30, 2005
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery
DUKE HEAD COACH Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement
"I was really pleased with the way our kids reacted tonight. Daniel [Ewing], J.J. [Redick] and Shelden [Williams] played extremely well. It was a very physical game, not free-flowing. So to maintain your concentration and execute was important. Those three kids come and play like that, then we have a chance. Our bench was good. Sean [Dockery] has not been playing as well as he had been most of the season. Tonight he played very well. One of the things we tried to do tonight is speed up the game. Virginia Tech's done a heck of a job winning four straight conference games and in all those games, the pace of the game was really more half-court and slow. We just wanted to speed the game up and we used our bench early, just to try to put them on a little bit of a different highway. We thought that would cause some fouls and it did."
On the physical nature of the game
"I think it was too physical. It shouldn't be that physical. But for both teams. I'm not blaming them. It was both sides. We were playing faster and it was more physical. And I think when you get to the foul line in a situation like that, you go through your normal routine, but you need to have a pause before you go to the line because it's been so up and down and so physical. And I think that's one of the reasons we missed so many free throws in the first half. There were a lot of fouls, but there really were a lot of fouls. It wasn't like people were making them up. When you go to the line like that, it's just disjointed."
On practice this past week
"It was intense. But we have intense practices. We didn't feel good about how we played against Maryland. Maryland played really well against us, I'm not taking anything away from them. But we didn't play like our crowd backed us that night. This is a long season for this team. We've had a lot different things happen and we're not a deep team, so you're more apt to have highs and lows. For the most part, though, this team has had highs. So they've battled that human nature enemy pretty well. Last Wednesday, that and Maryland were too much. We responded realy well tonight. But we're going to have to play this hard just to have an opportunity to win any game we play. We've always known that. We're a good team just trying to get better. We're trying to get our guys back. Once that comes, maybe we'll be a real good team."
JUNIOR GUARD J.J. Redick
"There were a ton of fouls called tonight on both teams. We had guys in foul trouble, guys fouling out, but it didn't seem like it when we were out on the court. It didn't really seem like it was affecting the flow of the game. It was just a physical game, and that's the way the whistles were blowing."
Comparing this game to the loss against Maryland
"We just wanted to play better - not X's and O's, just our effort and our attitude. We played flat on Wednesday night. We wanted to play with some emotion tonight, and I think we did that."
On the upcoming game at Wake Forest
"We've lost at Wake the last two years, so we know it's going to be a battle. They're playing well. They seem to be always playing well. They're coming off a couple of losses recently though, so we know they're going to be ready to go and their place is going to be rockin'."
SENIOR GUARD Daniel Ewing
"After a loss, that's how you have to come back. That's how most Duke teams in the past have come back after a loss, really attacked the next opponent. I think we did a good job with that, attacking on both ends, playing the game through to 40 minutes, despite the way the game went."
"You can't get complacent. You can't be content with this win because we still did come off a loss at home - that's really a bitter taste in our mouth. And we're going on the road, playing against a good team in Wake, one of the top teams in the country, let alone in our conference. We have to bring this type of energy on the road, and we really have to be ready to play on the road because that's a tough environment."
On the number of fouls in the game
"It's just the way it goes sometimes. It's a physical game, and we had to adjust to it. I think we could've capitalized more on the fouls that we had, getting to the free throw line in the first half. We didn't capitalize like we could have to really put the game farther away in the first half."
JUNIOR CENTER Shelden Williams
"We knew coming in that they were a hard and tough team, a hard and scrappy team, and they were going to play hard for 40 minutes. One of the things that we were trying to do is play inside and out, and if I had something inside I'd go up strong and play through contact, knowing it was going to be a physical game. They were a team that kind of drove and stopped and popped from 15 [feet], so there weren't a lot of chances for me to block shots."
"I'm trying to go out there and play smarter and know the value of the ball. That's one of the things I'm trying to concentrate on more and more, just finding the open man and not rushing anything."
"[The difference was] coming out hungry. We were playing with a little bit of vengeance from our last game. That was one of the things that we were trying to concentrate on, where we make a statement. We didn't want to come out here and beat a team by a few points. We wanted to make a statement and play hard for the whole 40 minutes."
VIRGINIA TECH HEAD COACH SETH GREENBERG
Opening Statement
"Obviously I'm disappointed in the way we played, but I'm also proud that we tried to compete. Our mindset is that we're not an opponent in this league. Not everyone wants us to be in this league, but we're in it. We're not going to lie down and we're going to try to play as hard as we can and obviously try to improve our program and build a basketball program. That's a process and we understand that, but the foundation of that process is to play hard and compete. I'm proud that our guys tried to play hard. They played clean, they just tried to play hard. We're a very young basketball team in a very different environment. I did not expect to play the first half with Carlos Dixon, Coleman Collins and Jamon Gordon next to me, but that's the hand that I was dealt. We need to learn from this and this league, I've said all along, is very unforgiving. I'm disappointed in my behavior and I feel like it was not my purpose to abandon my team and I apologized to them. We've just got to better ... Shelden Williams is a very physical opposing player and obviously J.J. [Redick's] ability to come off screens is reminiscent of Reggie Miller how he turns and catches the ball. They do a good job of freeing him up and that's what they did."
On the amount of fouls called against Virginia Tech
"Our guys tried to play as hard as humanly possible and we're just going to continue to work hard and play as hard as we can and try to establish a foundation for our program ... I guess we foul a lot. We've got to get better at that. We've got to play cleaner. We need to play more with our feet and not hold as much, I guess. It's an area that we probably have to look at and improve."
On being ejected from the game
"It's embarassing. I feel bad for my daughters and my wife because obviously I embarassed them and that's not something that I want to happen. I did not use profanity, until I was tossed."
Players Mentioned
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