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7 p.m.
Men's Basketball
vs UCF
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Quotes: Duke 68, Clemson 66
1/25/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement
“We won a great game. They play such good defense and we play really good defense too. They wear you down and they have good depth and are obviously well-coached and well-disciplined. Those last 10 minutes our kids had to be men because I thought [Clemson] was stronger than us. Nothing against our guys; they were just stronger. Guys had to make some big plays. We played really well. For us to out-rebound them 40-24 shows the effort that my guys had the whole night. I thought we were very deserving to win. We could not put the ball in the basket at times. I'm really proud of our guys. The last few minutes of the first half were our best. We knew they weren't going to let up or anything. The last 12 seconds of the game, we made a mistake. That kid [Vernon] Hamilton is a heck of a player. We threw the ball to him but he still had to hit it. We had a timeout left and we weren't going to get it to half court and call a timeout. We felt like we could just push it. They actually took away what we had diagramed, but Jon [Scheyer] made a play and Dave [McClure] made a shot. It's not an easy shot. It was a great win. I want to thank our crowd; everybody in the gym was terrific. As much as our team followed the game plan, no player followed it better than our sixth man. Our sixth man was terrific. They understood, they were there, and I think it carried over to the whole gymnasium. It was one of those magical nights in Cameron [Indoor Stadium]. I really want to thank the crowd and especially the students for understanding and for being hungry.”
On David McClure
“He got hurt right away, even in his freshman year. He is very stable. He doesn't get up or down, he's dependable. He makes simple, terrific plays. It's not just his defense, but his rebounding. He had to play more minutes tonight because Lance [Thomas] just wasn't ready. With Dave, it gives us a chance to switch. He can guard perimeter guys and then if they try to mismatch, then we would have doubled the mismatch. It takes them out of their offense.”
On the growth of the team
“In this league, at this level, you have to learn to play tired well. You have to fight through tired and you have to find something. You can't really teach that in practice. It has to be taught with game experience. We have more game experience and we practice them really hard. Our guys hit big free throws [tonight]. For Jon [Scheyer] and Gerald [Henderson] to go up to the line and hit those shots, those are big plays that no one will talk about.”
On the last play
“Jon [Scheyer] was the guy I wanted to get the ball, but I was hoping he would get it more at half court. I told him to just take it to the basket. I put DeMarcus [Nelson] in the corner and I said just throw it to him and he would have a three. When you catch the ball, you have four seconds. You can go to the basket and you might get fouled and if Jon gets fouled, he's going to hit one of them. Instead, [James] Mays did a good job of pushing him up and he got it at the top of the key, but he still had that mindset to push. Then he pushed and he made a play. That's all Jon and Dave [McClure's] play.”
On the team's rebounding
“I'm amazed at the 40-24 stat. That's why I think our kids were so deserving to win. I thought [Clemson] played well, I just thought we played a little bit better and it showed up in the offensive rebounding.”
Clemson Coach Oliver Purnell
Opening Statement:
“I haven't had a chance to analyze the stats yet but I thought the rebounding throughout the game really cost us? our inability to keep them off the offensive glass, which allowed them to keep the working margin they had for most of the game. Obviously our pressure paid some dividends as the game went on and we turned them over? that gave us an opportunity to score. Offensively we started doing some better things with our spacing and screening in the second half, which allowed us to get back in the game. Then everything obviously came down to us turning them over, Vernon (Hamilton) knocks down the three with four seconds to go. Again I haven't looked at the tape but we basically had our centerfielder off the guy with the ball with the idea that he could kind of clean up anything that came down the pipe or long pass or whatever. (Jon) Scheyer came back and got the ball, and on the dribble we lost sight of one of their guys cutting to the basket and they knocked it in. Give them credit for executing a great last-second play. We obviously didn't defend it as well as we needed to.”
On the last man on defense (“centerfielder”) on the last play
“It was actually (James) Mays. He went up for the steal which is fine because he's got the guy out-of-bounds.”
On the officials saying that it only took six-tenths of a second for Hamilton to catch, look, shoot and have the ball go through the hoop
“They (the officials) didn't say all that. They said that the clock did not stop when it went in and that there was four seconds left. I didn't get all of that from them.”
On having any arguments about the clock at the end of the game
“I don't have any arguments because I don't have anything to base it on. I don't have any proof or feeling that it was handled poorly. I haven't had a chance to study that. As soon as they told me that we were trying to set our defense because they had some time left. So I don't have any argument.”
On what he tells his players in order to process this loss
“A lot of things. Bottom line is they're hurting and I told them that they should be. This kind of loss when you're a good team coming in expecting to win should hurt. That's the gist of it.”
On improvement with free throws this year from last against Duke
“Obviously they kept us in the ball game. We did some things not so well that would have kept us in the ball game more like keeping them off the offensive glass, but they went in for us. We missed a big one at the end but at the same time we got the game tied. We've been working at them and we talk about trusting your routine and trusting the work that you put in and it paid off for us tonight. Again--- I said this the last game when someone asked me--- I'm more concerned about how many times we're going to the line. If you look at the number of times we're going to the line it's concerning.”
On Vernon Hamilton's health
“Vernon didn't practice the last two days because he had a stomach virus of the 24-48 hour variety. He's been in the emergency room and was pumped with four or five I.V.'s since the last game, as late as this afternoon I believe. I thought he had a gallant effort. He was fatigued there right at the beginning, and was fatigued at the end of the game and had to take him out again. He gutted it out and did what you expect out of your senior point guard. He played pretty well and did a good defensive job at the point of attack.”
Players Mentioned
F
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