Quotes: Duke 77, Virginia Tech 75

Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski

Opening Comments
“I thought if there was one kid that was really deserving -- you have to be a little bit lucky -- but (Sean Dockery) played so well in the second half. Virginia Tech, I thought outplayed us. We got that lead, and then we missed shots. We missed real good shots. But then the thing that I was disappointed in was we did not play defense. You cannot lose the game if you play defense. You can miss some shots and miss free throws, but at the end of the day you can still play defense. Their kids played great. I thought Sean had won the game when he stole the ball at half court. I was surprised with the outcome of that play. It's a great play. You dive for the ball. But sometimes those basketball gods work in mysterious ways. I thought he made a winning play there, and he ended up making the winning shot.”

On last play
“With getting the clock right with 1.6 or whatever it was supposed to be -- obviously it was more than a second when they made their shot -- Johnny Dawkins made a great call for us. Josh can really throw the ball, so we were going to use Shelden as a screener and then send him to the basket, in the area around the basket in the lane, try to make a long pass to him. You're in the double bonus, so there's the chance that you'll get fouled or make a shot. I mean, 1.6, you can catch it, you can shoot. Obviously there's time to dribble. While they were setting up their defense, Sean was supposed to screen for J.J. We were going to bring him around so he'd have momentum in case Shelden wasn't, so we'd have two options. However, as they were getting set, Johnny saw that they weren't playing Sean. So he just told Sean to go right where Sean went. The pass was a great pass. It was right on the money, and he was open. Johnny saw that he was open and told him what to do. Sean got it and had a great look and knocked it down. So Johnny and Sean really combined to win the ball game for us. It was a heads-up play by my associate head coach and a great shot by my senior guard. I'm glad I was on their bus tonight. The one I was driving was going into the ditch.”

On Virginia Tech and Duke's performance
“As exhilarating as the win is in that regard, having coached as long as I have, I feel very badly for Virginia Tech. They gave a winning effort. They got J.J. out of his game. They made big shots, they never quit, and they were certainly deserving to win. You'd like to win where you feel like you're the most deserving, and I'm not sure that we were tonight. Since Thursday, I've known we haven't practiced well. There's something missing, and I think part of it is, you win the NIT, you beat a really good Memphis team, and you win that game at Indiana, which is a high-level game, and you fall into the trap of thinking you're home, and we always win here. I couldn't reverse that feeling. I feel like I didn't do a very good job of getting my kids ready to play at an emotional level. I've known it for three days, so how we were playing was not a surprise to me. I'm glad we won, obviously, but the realistic view is let's give credit to Virginia Tech because they were sensational and put themselves in a position to win. We just made a great, great play ... I'm a little bit disappointed. I'm disappointed in myself that I wasn't able to get my team emotionally ready to play this amazingly good Virginia Tech Team.”

On big men playing well against Duke
“One of the things is because we're playing good big men. We play good people. People are going to have big games against us. We're going to have runs, they're going to have runs. No one has cornered the market on just having one good guy. Collins is one of the best players in the league. I know that. He's their best player. They have good players, and he's the best one. We need more from our second big position. Josh needs to do more. He just has to do more. We're trying to get him in, and when we started playing really well, we were running motion and just getting exchange action and just playing basketball. Sometimes when we're calling sets, our kids are only looking for J.J., and other guys are open. You really do that if we're not as ready to play because you think someone else is going to do it for you.”

Duke Player Quotes

Senior Sean Dockery

“I was wide open. I know I can make wide open shots. The play was not really for me, but I was talking to Coach [Johnny] Dawkins on the bench, and he was telling me, ?They're not playing you, so go get the ball.' So Josh [McRoberts] and I just sort of nodded at each other, and I feel comfortable with my shot - I feel comfortable about the way I was playing all day - so I just let it go, and I hit the shot.”

“The play was really for Shelden [Williams]. I guess we were going to try and do the Christian Laettner play and go deep and try to get a shot from the foul line. But they just played me wide open, so Josh threw the ball and I just let it go. When I shot it looked like a little J.J. shot - it was rotating really good and I hit it.”

“I can say it was pretty much like slow motion. The shot was probably like 10 seconds in the air. It was a long time. It was a great shot, but I'm really excited that we won the game.”

“It's unexplainable. You dream about shots like that you know, just shooting on a crate or on a little hanger in your room. Just hitting that shot is unbelievable. When I made it, I was just lying on the floor like, ?Oh my God, I can't believe this.'”

“I don't think we played as well as we're capable of playing. But that's a great team also - unbelievable coach and unbelievable players. They came out and they were ready to play today, so you have to give them all their props today.”

Freshman Greg Paulus

On his first ACC game
“It was very competitive. You always hear about all the great teams down here, and I guess sometimes you have to learn the hard way. As freshmen, we have to play better, but [Sean Dockery] hit a great shot, and we got lucky to win this one.”

On Dockery's shot
“It's like it was in slow motion. You hope and you pray that it's going down. Coach [Mike Kryzewski] drew up a great play, and we had all the confidence in the world in Sean, and he made an unbelievable play on it.”

“Any win is great, but winning a game in the last seconds with a guy hitting a halfcourt shot can bring a team a lot closer together. I think we got a sense of that because [Sean Dockery] played a great game for all 40 minutes. We just have to get everybody to that level.”

Senior Shelden Williams

“If [J.J. Redick]'s not hitting his shots, we still have to have other guys stepping up and playing well during the whole course of the game just in case. Fortunately, especially in the second half, Sean [Dockery] came down and hit some big threes for us and Greg [Paulus] hit one too. I think that we have to have our players step up on every occasion and not just wait until somebody's not shooting well or not scoring.”

“[J.J. Redick] brings a lot of attention when he's on the court, and even if he's not shooting the ball well, he's still going to bring a lot of attention. I still don't fully understand why teams will try to double- and triple-team me and leave him wide open the way he shoots so well on the perimeter. It still kind of boggles my mind. But I can't get too wrapped up in that though. If teams want to double down on me, it's going to leave players like J.J., Sean [Dockery], and Greg [Paulus] open for threes.”

Freshman Josh McRoberts

On Dockery's shot
“I don't even know. I don't know what I was thinking. It was kind of surreal. I threw it and I kind of walked down and I saw the ball go up, and I was like, ?That has a good chance to go in.'” Then when it went in, I don't even know what happened. I just saw a bunch of people on the floor.”

Virginia Tech Quotes

Head Coach Seth Greenberg

Opening Statement
“I am very proud of our basketball team. We did a lot of things that gave us a chance to win the game and we got beat by a great team and a great shot. We wanted them to catch the ball going away from the basket on the last play and I turned to James Gordon and said if the guy makes it from half court then he makes it from half court. That is not a shot that I think anybody expected to go in. I feel for my kids. They competed extremely hard for 40 minutes. They deserved to have a chance to win and they had a chance to win. Not many people thought we had a chance to win. Most people thought we were bait. We have a competitive, proud group of guys. Hopefully this is something that as a coaching staff we can learn from and get better.”

On team's potential
“I wish I could give you that answer right now but I can't. I think our team has potential. I think that today was the first time we started to compete the way I wanted us to. We were a team today. We are growing as a team. There are not too many teams in the country that has been through what this team has been through in a three-month period. It is exhausting what these kids have been through on a daily basis. It has nothing to do with basketball. I think it shows that if we stay together as a team we have a chance to get better.”

On shutting down J.J. Redick
“I thought we did a really good job of staying on the ground. He is so good at lifting you, getting you off your feet and getting you off-balance. We really put an emphasis on staying on the ground. We were quick to help off the passer and screener.”

On speech during under four minute timeout
“Our theme is to just play 40 minutes and see what the score is at the end. I told them to stay active defensively and get one stop at a time. If we get a stop lets be aggressive. That is the way we play. We were in the game. We wanted to just make one stop at a time.”