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Postgame Quotes: Duke 81, N.C. State 68
1/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski:
Opening Comments:
“It was a great game. This is the best team we've played as far as they know what they're doing, and they do it well. For us to be fortunate enough to win this game is a big win for us. I think both teams played excellent defense. You can't take everything away from everybody. We tried to limit their three-point looks, and it opened up for some drives inside. We were hoping we could limit that, and we did. That was a big part of this game -- the defense of the three.
“I thought Shelden (Williams) had a fabulous game. I know he broke Mike Gminski's record for career blocked shots tonight, but he was a force inside. The play vs. Simmons right towards the end of the game was huge. For him to have that energy and be out there like that, that was one of the plays of the game, really. But Shelden also had five steals.
“I'm proud of Sean Dockery too because on Monday we didn't know if Sean was going to be able to play. He hurt his foot, and we were a little bit worried that it was going to be serious. It wasn't as serious, but he played hurt tonight, and you wouldn't know it. We don't like to publicize our injuries, but once it's done, I want to give a purple heart for it -- a basketball purple heart, let's not confuse the two.
“J.J. Redick was J.J., which is great. In the second half, what we did is not run as many plays. I told him at halftime, ?Just run motion offense. Play basketball and have some fun.' Some of the things that are being written are just overdone about our team, and that's the world they live in. Are they going to go undefeated? Are they going to do this? We're starting Lee Melchionni and Sean Dockery. You didn't even say that when we had Bobby Hurley, Christian Laettner and Grant Hill, so it's just extreme. It doesn't represent who we are, but we deal with it. You write whatever you want, but I think sometimes our kids play to that. They didn't have good looks on their faces. There's a lot of pressure on them, so that's why I told them, ?Just have fun and play. The outcome of this game will be determined on how well we have fun in the second half.' And we did. The crowd was great -- of course they had a number of great plays to respond to. Greg Paulus came up with some great loose balls. I'm proud of my guys. This is a hell of a win for us.”
On back-to-back three-pointers by Dockery and Melchionni when the score was tied at 65:
“They were huge. We were just playing then, and all of a sudden they got it out of a kick -- a penetration and kick -- so instinctively they did it, and their instincts are good. They're good players. Sometimes when we're running a play or some sets, they end up watching J.J. or Shelden, and then when they get a kick on that, they're not instinctive, and that's what was happening. (N.C. State) does a great job. They anticipated our plays, and they were overplaying different things, and our counters were not working against them, so those two plays were huge.”
On importance of senior leadership:
“Not just in this game, but in this time of the year. [N.C. State] has it. There's no question that they have it, and we showed it tonight outside of J.J. and Shelden. Sean and Lee looked like they were veterans tonight, and we're going to need that. They're going to get open looks. You have two players like Shelden and J.J., you're going to get open looks, and they knocked them down. When I was asked before about 65-65, it's not J.J. and Shelden hitting them. For those guys to step up and do that is great.”
On limiting N.C. State's points in final minutes:
“We tried to switch more, and I thought Lee ratting around in full court, where they didn't get many runs up. They had to dribble it up, so our defense was set as a result of that. A couple of times we overran a guy trying to put pressure, and they'd get a run. You can't let them have runs like that, and Lee played off of their second big, making sure that the kid didn't just dribble it by him. Lee played a really heady game.”
On Sean Dockery making more loose-ball plays:
“Since DeMarcus' injury, and once Sean became comfortable in his role, Sean's made a lot of plays like that. Greg Paulus is doing that too. Our two guards really chased down a few balls, and two of the times they chased them down, we got threes. That's six points. Greg chased down his missed free throw and knocked it out to Lee in the first half. That shows that they're into the game. I'm proud of Sean. He played with a lot of courage tonight.”
On Redick's passing:
“He had six assists tonight, and they were out of doubles. There's no question, he's just a great player. He's a great, great player. There's really not an aspect of the game he's weak in right now. He can play defense. Obviously he's one of the best competitors to play here. When they were trapping him or doubling him, and he had the presence of mind to break it, that's how we got a couple of looks. When you're guy can do that, it's a heck of a thing. He's not 6-8 or whatever, so he's got to be smart and tough. He didn't miss any free throws either.”
Duke Players
Senior J.J. Redick:
“N.C. State is a really tough team. They were more together than any team we've played all year, and we knew it was going to be a 40 minute team. It was a team that we weren't going to be able to put away and we'd have to battle them for 40 minutes, and sure enough, that's how it turned out.”
On the six-point possession in the second half:
“Obviously that was the turning point in the game. That's what gave us the lead that we never relinquished. Sean [Dockery] just made a tough shot, and, like we did a few times early in the game, we made a hustle play off a missed free throw. Then Lee [Melchionni]'s shot is a shot that we just love to take. We work on that shot - it's a three off an offensive rebound. Not a lot of teams really look to take that shot, but it's a huge momentum shot for us, and he took it with a lot of guts and it gave us a lot of energy because the crowd, after he hit that shot, was incredible.”
“In the second half, we kind of just opened things up. We didn't call any plays. We didn't call one audible, one play the entire second half, except for the last four minutes when we ran that two-three motion just to run the shot clock down. Everything was just our motion offense, and when that happens, it's going to open things up for other guys, especially when I'm driving like I did in the second half. I got some kick-outs, and then, even when I kicked it out, we made another extra pass and got an even better look.”
On N.C. State going without a field goal in the last six minutes:
“We knew that defense was going to win this game for us. They have such an intricate offense with so many different options off of it and we knew that we had to shut them down at some point. They got a lot of run-outs in transition and got to the free throw line some, but our halfcourt defense was great all night. We stopped fouling their great free throw shooters in the last six minutes, and they didn't get any transition buckets.”
Senior Sean Dockery:
On the six-point possession in the second half:
“Plays like that - we practice that a lot. Coach [Mike Kryzewski] always talks about plays that take the life out of teams, and that play right there, that's what it did. It's just something that you always want to do, and we were lucky that we did it today.”
“It was very difficult [to win the game]. They're a great team. They run [their offense] extremely well. It was a challenge for us and we were successful. We're proud that we showed that we're a mature team and came up with the win.”
On his five assists and no turnovers in 32 minutes:
“That's news to me. That's great. That's something I'm trying to work on, [not] turning the ball over. I think I'm doing pretty well this year. It's great - I'm showing that I'm mature and I'm getting older and I can look for the open man and control the ball.
Senior Shelden Williams:
On becoming Duke's all-time leader in blocked shots:
“It's a blessing to be put in a position where you can accomplish a goal like that and put your name with the likes of the greats like Mike Gminski. It's a great accomplishment. I just can't say anything more about it. It's just a great feeling to have. My main thing is I try to do whatever my team needs me to do. If they need me to play defense, rebound, block shots, that's something I'll do. Fortunately, today we all played great defense, especially in the second half.”
“Our guards played a lot better on the defensive end [in the second half], and they weren't allowing their men to penetrate the basketball. In the first half I got caught trying to help out, leaving my man open for some uncontested layups. In the second half, they locked down on the defensive end and stopped their men from penetrating and allowed me to play more one-on-one defense on my man, and I think that was one of the keys to the game.”
N.C. State Head Coach Herb Sendek
On the difference in the last four minutes:
“I don't know if there was any one particular play. I thought it was a really hard-fought college basketball game. The one thing that stands out in my mind is the field goals we gave up after missed free throws. If I am not mistaken, the Duke shooter got two offensive rebounds on missed free throws. I think in both of those cases they resulted in follow-up three pointers.”
On Cedric Simmons:
“Cedric just continues to get better every night out. Duke's gameplan defensively made it very important for us to go in to him. Our guys did a good job of doing that and he responded with another really good game for us.”
On Duke's gameplan to overplay the three:
“They did a good job of that. They were trapping anyone else who posted for us, any more perimeter people who posted.”
On similarity to North Carolina game:
“I can't compare games. I thought our team played very good basketball tonight. Our guys had nothing to be ashamed of. Our guys competed really hard and played really well. We didn't win the game. I want them to feel good about themselves today. I don't want those guys to not feel good about themselves. Saturday we have another big game and so the train is moving on.”
On Ilian Evtimov and Engin Atsur only scoring two points each:
“It is a team game. Those guys didn't take a lot of shots. We were attacking what we thought was there. We don't measure value based on the number of points a guy gets. Some nights different things present themselves and it is up to your team to take advantage of those.”
On if Simmons tired down the stretch:
“I don't think so. I think everybody as the game goes along obviously feels an element of fatigue, certainly, Cedric no more than anybody else who was playing.”
On only making two three-point field goals:
“I think Duke's gameplan was to work to take away the three. I thought our guys did a very good job of going inside tonight.”
Players Mentioned
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