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Men's Basketball
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Quotes: Duke 102, N.C. Central 42
11/10/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement
“We played much better in the second half than we did in the first half. I thought Central did a great job of staying in the ball game and with their composure. They really attacked the offensive boards in the first half. Offensively, I didn't think we had a purpose in the first half. A purpose should be to establish Shelden and J.J. and play off of them. We just didn't do that. In the second half, we played really good defense. If we play good defense then we are going to have a chance. Overall it was good. I think we are really anxious to get games going.”
On DeMarcus Nelson
“I don't think it is that he is that much stronger in the upper body but he is stronger in his head which controls the body. He understands who he is and he has a mental toughness right now. Not that he wasn't tough last year or that he didn't help us but he is just a much more mature basketball player. I thought he played really well.”
On timeout in first half
“I don't remember what our guys said. We made a lot of mental errors in the first half. I think our guys came in thinking they were going to play defense, run and create easy shots. This is the second game in a row that we ended the first half poorly.”
On Greg Paulus
“I think Greg is getting better and better. He is getting more comfortable. He has put together a week and a half of excellent practices. When we started the season he would have a good practice and then the next day look like a young guy. The last week and a half, every practice has been good and he has been sharp. You end up playing like you practice. He is developing good habits. The best stat for Greg was that he didn't have any turnovers. To play hard in fast break and do that is excellent. Sean (Dockery) was the same. The two of them had 15 assists together which is good with the amount of running that we have done.”
On Boston University
”We have seen the tape of their game last year. Dennis (Wolff) has established a program there. I think they have won half the time since he has been there. That is pretty good. They are well-coached. He has always played a very good non-conference schedule. I know they will be well-prepared. His kids know how to play and he is a very good basketball coach.”
Sophomore DeMarcus Nelson
“We thought as a team we didn't play as well in the first half as we wanted to. We thought that our chemistry was a little off. We didn't close out the half the way we wanted to. That was one thing that we wanted to get to in the second half come right out, execute on offense, get some defensive stops, and try to get our team chemistry the way we normally play. That's what you saw in the second half.”
On the freshmen:
“We'll be a lot more versatile and a lot deeper team [than last year]. Our freshmen are playing well. Right now, with these scrimmages, we want to try to work them in, get all the jitters out, get them used to playing in front of our crowd. Our freshmen are playing pretty well in front of our crowd, and they're only going to get better.”
“We've been working so hard to start the season off, and it's right here. In a couple of days we'll be starting our season off on Monday [against Boston University]. We're just going to rest up, get prepared, and start getting geared up for Monday. We haven't talked about [Boston University] at all. Our task was to go out there and play Duke basketball tonight. That's what we concentrated on. But now that we have that behind us, first of all we'll go back to the tapes of our game tonight, see how we could've been better, and then we'll move on and focus on Boston.”
Senior Lee Melchionni
“Every senior has been on teams that have been ranked number one before, and [the freshmen] haven't, so I think that we have to tell them that being ranked number one right now doesn't mean a thing. There's a lot of hype and stuff like that, but we want to be number one when March comes around. We're looking to bigger things than being number one in November.”
On Duke freshmen Josh McRoberts and Greg Paulus:
“I think Josh [McRoberts] is just a freak of nature athlete. He's a great passer. Once he gets to know the game and the little nuances that the coaches teach him, then the sky's the limit. [Greg Paulus] has tremendous vision as a point guard, and it's something that's great for this team and Sean [Dockery]. I think those two guys specifically are going to help us a lot.”
“Monday [versus Boston University] is big. If we lose, that's the end of our tournament, so we're excited and want to get after it. We're looking forward to getting [the regular season] started. I think it's pretty obvious that we can be a pretty explosive team offensively, but that offensive explosion needs to come from our defense. We need to feed off our defense. I think we've shown we can be a deep team and play a lot of guys and hopefully just keep up the way we've been playing on the defensive end and turn that into offense.”
Players Mentioned
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