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Quotes: Duke 75, Davidson 47
11/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
“I thought we, obviously, played well defensively. They're averaging 90 points a game and they put pressure on you when they push that ball up the court. Taking away their three-point shooting was huge. They're a dangerous team with a great coach, great tradition. We have to play very, very hard to stop them, and I thought our kids did. Offensively, the physicality of the game, we're playing now, every game where it's going to be a physical game. And that's the thing, our guys have to adjust to it, whether it be Brian [Zoubek] inside on some of the shots that were missed. You can't become distracted by it, and the only way to do that is to keep being in games, to get that experience.”
On the play of Greg Paulus:
“That was the best Greg's played ? six assists, two turnovers. He played more minutes, I think, in the second half. We started him in the second half and our turnovers were halved. That's one of the reasons we've been turning the ball over so much, is we have multiple people handling the ball and no one's really in charge, and people have played good defense against us. But I'd like to see him keep emerging.”
On the upcoming week:
“This is a huge week for us, starting with this game. We've got a quick turnaround now on Tuesday, because Indiana's been off, to make sure that we're ready to go. It's going to be a big time game here Tuesday and again on Saturday, and I hope our students are ready and our fans are ready. They've been good, but we know we're going to be hungry supporting this group. It's a young group, it needs it. Again, our fans have been good, but everyone's got to get better this week in order to win.”
On Greg Paulus not starting:
“It's not so much starting for any of these guys; it's the amount of minutes. I played him extended minutes in the second half until he asked to be taken out. And what I'm trying to do is break his limit. That's what I have to do with him. Whether he starts or doesn't start, he needs to get more minutes. He had 22 or 23, but he's got to play 28 minutes or so. How he does that doesn't make any difference, as long as he's doing it.”
On responding to the team's first loss:
“I thought we responded well. We got beat by a good team who was older and tougher than we were in the second half. You learn from that. It's like if you were a boxer. You've got to get in fights. You've got to get in games and you've got to get experience. We could practice forever and never learn the things we learned in Kansas City playing Air Force and Marquette. You've got to do that. You've got to play Indiana, Georgetown, and these teams that we're playing. You've got to go up and play Gonzaga. That's the way we've done it since I've been here. And when you do that, you've got a chance to get your butt beat. Hopefully they beat it a little bit during the game, but overall you end up winning. That's the key thing while you're learning, is to win.”
On the ACC/Big Ten Challenge:
“It's a huge event. I think it kicks off the season better than the tournaments that are played, to be quite frank with you. It's a big time event. I'm so glad that our conference and the Big Ten are doing it.”
Freshman Jon Scheyer
“We really wanted to come out and send a message tonight and play really well, so I think we put a little pressure on ourselves from the beginning that wasn't needed. So I think once we calmed down and just relaxed and started to play, we started to do better. Our defense is always there, but I think our offense just needs to get into a rhythm.”
“We have great big men on defense, so we knew we wouldn't have to give too much help on the big guys, so I think it let our perimeter focus on the guards a lot, just take away the three and make them put it on the floor because we knew we had our big guys behind us. That was a big help. And we take pride in our defense, just locking people down so we really focused on that.”
“It's a really big game. Indiana is a really good team, and I think they'll be really hungry coming in to play us. So we have to come ready and focused. Tomorrow will be a big preparation day and so will Monday. If we play the way we did toward the middle of the game [tonight], we'll be fine. We just have to play aggressively and limit the turnovers.”
Sophomore Josh McRoberts
“We wanted to come out and play the best game that we can. We were all disappointed coming off the loss and a lot of the guys didn't play as well as they would've liked. So we wanted to come out and play well tonight.”
On Duke's success on defense in Cameron this season:
“It's something we take pride in and something we try to do because we know our offense isn't going to be great every night out. We've been working hard on it, but defense is something we take a lot of pride in.”
On the upcoming matchup against Indiana:
“It's a special game just because it's a big time game. Indiana's a great team and they're coming in here and we're going to have to be ready to go because they're going to be a tough team for us. They're just a really good team, so it should be a good matchup.”
On playing with Brian Zoubek:
“He's probably the easiest guy to get the ball in to in the post just because he's so big. He's big and he's got a really good chance to score down there when he gets it, so everybody's looking for him. I catch the ball in the high post sometimes, just the way that things run through, and it's an easier pass for me to get it to him. Anytime you have two post players and the defense has to collapse I think it helps not just us, but it helps the whole team.”
Junior DeMarcus Nelson
“Definitely it was a crucial game. Anybody that knows the Duke team knows that coming off a loss a Duke team plays the next game like there's no tomorrow. We tried to set that tone in this game, and early on we didn't do a good job of that. We were a little careless with the ball, gave up a couple of easy points, but as the game went along our defense got better and our percentages on offense got a whole lot better.”
“It was a very intense last few days for us. We knew some things that we had to get better on, so we attacked those things in practice. I think maybe at the start of this game we tried to be a little too perfect and it showed offensively. But in the second half we just relaxed and played the game and let the game come to us, and we all played well in the second half.”
Davidson Coach Bob McKillop
Opening Statement:
“You know you watch Duke play and you're just not sure of their identity as a team yet. They have a lot of pieces and you can just see them coming closer and closer together. I've watched them from their opening game until their game against Marquette the other night and you just know it's a matter of time when those pieces all fit so well together. But they certainly have answers for everything, whether it's the perimeter game or the mid-range game or the post game, and they seem to do it very well as a team. At this stage early in a lot of their careers, for them to be playing as well as a team is a good statement about how good they eventually will become.”
On his team's hustle:
“We were a step slow, a step or two late consistently for rebounds, 50-50 balls, and help in the paint. I think that led to a significant number of points for Duke. Whether it was rebounding or post entries, we were certainly not in position, we were stretched too far out, and did not offer the kind of team helped that we had hoped to have.”
On Duke's defense:
“They did a tremendous job of not letting us screen people. I have historically seen Duke do a great job of destroying screens, of not allowing screens to occur. I thought they were effective against us tonight and I think it was a combination of their ability to destroy screens and our anxiety about quickly setting screens and quickly trying to use them rather than be patient. But that's a tribute to Duke and their ability to wear you down and not stay within the structure of your system.”
Players Mentioned
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