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Quotes: Duke 111, Albany 70
12/17/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
“I thought our kids played well. Coach [Will] Brown is a good coach and he's got a good program there. They run good stuff and they do a good job of fighting to get passes. They were adamant about running their offense and I thought they did a good job. For us, I think the effort was really good. We obviously shot well. I thought it was a physical game and when you're away from that for a little over a week, you forget about that. I think it affects you a little bit on the free throw line, too. I thought Albany played hard the whole game they made it difficult for us to defend them. We just got those run and when you hit 15-of-26 threes, life is good. We miss Lance [Thomas]; he's still very questionable for the game against Pitt but he's coming along. He's been an important guy for us.”
On Duke's defense:
“Overall, it wasn't bad. When you have exams, you don't talk to anybody. It's you against that exam or project. So, talk wasn't very good tonight. There is also a sense of relief when exams are over. We need to talk a lot better when we play Pitt.”
On DeMarcus Nelson:
“I thought DeMarcus played very, very well, but he has been. He's been our most consistent excellent player. He goes below the radar because this freshman did this, or this guy is doing that, which is good because those guys should get credit. DeMarcus has been the solid one. I liked the fact that he kept going to the bucket even after he was missing free throws. In the past, he wouldn't do that; he would settle. He stayed aggressive and I think he hit his last four or five in a row. He had 23 points on seven shots; that's pretty good.”
On increased playing time for David McClure and Brian Zoubek:
“At the beginning, I thought we were all feeling out the game because you haven't played in a while. We had nine guys with about 20 or more minutes; we got a lot out of this game in that regard and with Dave and Brian. It was good to see them play extended minutes. Dave started for us last year; I'm not saying he's going to start but to get him back and have an older, experienced player in there is going to help us.”
On Lance Thomas:
“He will not play if he's not ready. We have a big break after [the Pitt game]. He's a good player. The Pitt game is a huge game for us but it's a long season. I don't think he'll practice tomorrow but I think we'll have a better feel for if he'll get some minutes. If he's able to play, I'll start him. The changes we made tonight were not a matter of Lance not playing well.”
Senior DeMarcus Nelson
On the game:
“We wanted to make sure we came out here and played to our standards. Obviously we feel like we still could've done some things better defensively, rebounding, and on the free throw line. But offensively I think we executed really well. It just comes from a great week of practice. We really looked at all of our sets and we tried to break down each set and execute each set. And we executed well today.”
On his play tonight:
“I was just playing in the flow of the game. My teammates were looking for me and I just took shots with confidence and just tried to be aggressive offensively and defensively. I tried to create some offense defensively and just play in the flow of the game.”
On the upcoming matchup with Pittsburgh:
“The game itself is a really big time game and that's something we really look forward to and something that we always try to do at this time every year - try to get a big game in the Garden and sell it out, which we did. It's going to be a very intense game. Pittsburgh is a really good team.”
“This is going to be a big test for us. These are Final Four and Elite Eight type of games that Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] loves to schedule. It's going to be a great opportunity for us to go out there at a neutral site, in prime time, and compete at the highest level. That's something that everyone in this locker room is going to embrace.”
Sophomore Brian Zoubek
“[In the first half] I think I just got out of my game a little bit, but I was able to get back into the flow in the second half. The guys kept confidence in me and kept giving me the ball and I was appreciative of that.”
“Just once you throw yourself into the game - I might've been worried about points, I might've been worried about something in the first half - but once you just completely forget about that and not worry about it, things will just come to you and the game will come to you. That's what happened in the second half.”
“I had a couple of bad plays in the first half, struggled a little bit and got out of my game. I was able to get back into the flow in the second half. I made a couple of plays and they led to more plays and points. I just can't worry about my performance in the first half because once the first half is over you just have to start over.”
On the improvement in his play of late:
“The guys are getting used to me getting a lot more confident and a lot stronger with the ball and playing a lot more active role in the offense. I think that's the main thing - our team's been working on getting me the ball because I'm more confident.”
Sophomore Jon Scheyer
“There are a bunch of things we need to improve on - our free throw shooting obviously. I think Thursday [against Pittsburgh in New York] we'll do a better job of that. We'll get a bunch of free throws in over the next couple of days. And then defensively, we need to be more physical and really just stop teams. That's something tonight ? we didn't stop them. They got what they wanted here and there, but come Thursday we really need to do a better job defensively.”
On Duke's style of play:
“I think it's a different style of play and I think it's a fun way to play if we do it the right way. At times we can get really good looks, having the big guys who can shoot. That's a strength for our team, so that's something we need to keep doing and continue to share the ball.”
“We can't be just a three-point-shooting team. We're not going to win tough games doing that, so a big focus for us has been driving the ball and getting other looks besides threes.”
Albany Head Coach Will Brown
Opening Statement:
“We knew coming in here this was going to be a tall order for us. For us it's all about matchups--- we're not the quickest team. We've had issues turning the ball over this year. Our defense has been much better than what it was tonight and we knew if we turned the ball over against Duke they were going to get a lot of easy opportunities and they thrive off of those easy opportunities. We turned the ball over too many times early in the game--- we let them get in a rhythm. When you break down against Duke, especially this Duke team, they make you pay. They have so many guys that can put the ball in the basket. They're bringing guys in off the bench that are getting 17 and 18 in [Taylor] King and [Jon] Scheyer. They just make you pay for every mistake. We were rattled a little bit by their pressure. I thought they did a very good job defending us. Watching film on this team I was very impressed. I know that Lance Thomas didn't play but I thought that this was one of the deeper Duke teams that I have seen in recent years and if this team sticks together a little longer--- it might be this year--- there will be another national championship banner hanging up. They play the game the right way, they play with a purpose and they're all very unselfish. I just wish they were a little kinder to us tonight.”
On whether they practice five-on-seven in practice to get ready for Duke's pressure:
“We should have practiced 5-on-10. Not only is their pressure tremendous, they're doing it with long, good-sized athletes. Outside of [Greg] Paulus, and Paulus is a decent size kid and he's a tough kid--- he was a great football player in high school--- but when they put the young kid Nolan Smith in, he's long. They're all long, they're strong, they're quick. One of the things that's a weakness of ours that I noticed about Duke that impressed me as well is communication. On both ends of the floor they do a tremendous job of communicating, talking to each other. It's tough enough to get your team to talk defensively but they do it consistently on both ends and it's quite impressive.”
On how hard it is to guard this Duke team when they can have four guys on the floor that are legitimate three-point shooting threats:
“Our biggest fear was that they weren't going to play [Brian] Zoubek much and they were going to play [Taylor] King and [Kyle] Singler up front and sure enough they played Zoubek decent minutes and he killed us. We knew we would have no answers if they played King and Singler up front. I've said and I'll say it again--- Coach K[rzyzewski] probably doesn't want to hear this--- Singler's a first round draft pick right now. He's impressive--- he can do everything out there. King--- I watched him on film get a rebound right under the basket and have a wide-open layup and I watched him--- some of you guys probably saw this--- dribble it out to the three-point line and all in one motion turn and shoot a fade-away and just start running back like he knew it was going in and sure enough it went in. I don't know if it was Wisconsin or Michigan, but they just have so many weapons. And Zoubek's really good, I just think the pace of the game--- the way they play--- is so fast it's hard for him to keep up. But in a half court set, he's got a great touch and he's a big kid. So that's why I said when they sub, there's no let down, there's no drop off and they play the same for 40 minutes--- they pressure you, they get in you--- and that's the tough thing. Usually when you go 6 through 10 there's a drop off at some point. Scheyer averaged double figures I think last year starting for them, now he's coming off the bench. Just a good basketball team.”
Players Mentioned
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