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Quotes: North Carolina 79, Duke 73
2/7/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
“It was just a terrific basketball game. Our kids and their kids played so hard. I thought we played winning basketball and so did they. It's a game that they won and our kids didn't lose. [North Carolina is] very, very talented and the depth that they have means that they never take a break, so when they're playing like that you have to be incredibly resilient and I thought our guys were. The 3-for-10 from the free throw line and a couple turnovers hurt us. For us to win that game, you have to hit those things. Our kids played great. They've played hard in every game they've played in, and none harder than the one tonight.”
On the starting lineup change:
“I thought that was the lineup that would get us off to the best start. We're going to do things to try to get guys to be freer. We're just going to keep doing things to keep getting better. That change was to make us better, and I thought we were.”
On North Carolina:
“They are talented and they have guys who have won and they have a coach who knows how to win. For the most part, we did a good job of stopping transition. They didn't get many points in transition. Really down the stretch, they hit their free throws and we missed ours and that's to their credit. It's not easy to be in here. I really respect who they are and it shows in the way we played. I thought we played a terrific game tonight but it wasn't enough to beat a terrific team. We just have to keep doing that and keep trying to get better. I thought [Jon] Scheyer and [Gerald] Henderson showed amazing heart tonight and so did [Greg] Paulus. We played winning basketball.”
On the Duke offense later in the game:
“They were playing above our wings; you have to keep moving. We tried to play more motion offense tonight instead of calling sets. Carolina had a lot to do with it. Their pressure stands you up and you have to be strong enough to fight through it. What happens then, in certain exchanges you have meaningless dribbles, where you're just meandering about. We had that on a few exchanges but that was more due to their defense than our guys not wanting to run good offense. I thought we played very hard and well.”
On getting better with a young team:
“I like the way we played. We kept attacking. It's not like we were just running down the court. We're looking to get better and it's not like we have a package that is all set. When you have this many young players you have to constantly give them the opportunity to get better for the short-run and the long-run. That's the way we do it in our program and we'll continue to do that for the rest of the season. We played a lot better tonight.”
On confidence:
“We can't get down. If we get down we're not deserving of winning. You cannot get down about losing, especially in the way we've lost. We've lost three really tough games that we've played winning basketball in. It's different if you have a team that is not playing hard. That's never been the case for these kids.”
Freshman Jon Scheyer:
“It's another tough one and it doesn't get any easier for us. It's a shame. We were up a lot of the game and it just comes down to our execution down the stretch and doing the right thing. We let it slip away. It's just really frustrating.”
“It hurts. It hurts a lot. But the thing is we showed some really good signs in the beginning and we really played together tonight for most of the game. We know we have a couple of tough games coming up, so I think we need to get back to work. With three losses in a row, we really need to come together because it's not going to get any easier and we know that.”
On what went wrong in the second half:
“A couple of missed free throws and we had a couple of turnovers where we just gave them the ball. They're a fast team and they're going to execute and get easy baskets off of that. They made a little spurt there with about five or six minutes to go to cut our lead and then it was a whole different game.”
“We can't be down on ourselves. Obviously the loss is hard but we need to get ready for Maryland, and that was [Coach K's] main message because we don't have the time to sit around and feel sorry for ourselves.”
Freshman Gerald Henderson:
“I kind of felt like guys were helping off of me and leaving me open, and when that happens, I have the green light to shoot the ball, make plays, and pass to my teammates and stuff like that. The shots were there and fortunately I made them.”
“I felt like we really played like a team today. We made a lot of connecting plays with each other. We really played hard and tough. We just didn't come out with the win. We felt like we were deserving to win but it just didn't go our way.”
“We played good team basketball today I thought, offensively and defensively. We were helping each other. We're a team that doesn't have a break-down guy who's going to score at will and put us on their back. We're going to have to use each other to score and use each other to make stops, and I thought we did that really well today.”
Sophomore Greg Paulus:
On the starting lineup without DeMarcus Nelson and Josh McRoberts:
“We got off to a good start. The guys who started did a really good job. But a lot of things don't change whether you come off the bench or start. The job is still the same ? play defense, rebound, and share the ball on offense.”
“We're playing a little better. We're playing hard and sometimes it doesn't result in a win. We have to keep remembering this feeling so it doesn't happen again.”
UNC Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement:
“Needless to say it's a much different feeling than we had Saturday against North Carolina State--- there's no question about that. I was extremely impressed with how competitive our team was especially when you compare it to what we did last Saturday. I think that we're very fortunate: Duke missed some shots--- 3-10 from the foul line--- that definitely helped us. I loved Reyshawn Terry, his effort, his defensive effort, his work on the backboards. I've been on his case since Saturday because he and Danny Green together played 25 minutes Saturday and they got one more rebound than my wife. I told him that several times since Saturday and he got 10 more rebounds than Wanda [Williams] did tonight. I think that really helped us. You just like what's going on and you like the way that we kept attacking. We were down 10 a couple of times and I told our guys if we keep attacking and do a little bit better job of covering the screen on the ball and not hit every screen that they set that we would be there at the end, and I really felt that way. I just wanted to make sure that my club kept attacking and again we caught Duke on a night where their shots weren't going in and we're as happy as we can be. We shot almost 60% in the second half and I think at halftime they had two more rebounds than we did and we ended up with six more so we out-rebounded them by eight and it was a good game for us. It's one of those wild games and a very competitive game and a very difficult game to play but the kids couldn't be any happier--- that locker room is a happy locker room.”
On Wes Miller's toughness in the second half:
“Well I think Ty [Lawson] and Wayne [Ellington] and Brandan [Wright] had done great jobs for us but sometimes that experience on the defensive end of the floor is extremely important to you and so we went with a stretch there of Bobby [Frasor], Marcus [Ginyard], and Wes [Miller] as our perimeter guys and then we made a change that worked tonight--- it may not work another time--- but we decided to go with Reyshawn [Terry] and Danny [Green] as a forward and didn't go with two big guys for a long stretch of the game and I think that helped us match up with them. We were behind so we had to try to do some things to see if we could make up some ground and again it wasn't coaching, it was playing, but I think that that did help us. The toughness of Wes and Marcus one time--- they set three straight screens for him and he got over all three of the screens and was still there. I think that was huge for us and again better matchups. It's one of those good nights for us.”
On difference in second half in better shooting percentage:
“Well the first half we took bad shots. Tyler Hansbrough didn't go the free throw line the first half. Marcus [Ginyard] was the only guy we had that went to the free throw line and I'm not sure we ever even got into one-and-one. We were coming down and shooting too quickly. Reyshawn [Terry] shot a couple too quickly, Wayne [Ellington] did, Ty [Lawson] did. “Q” [Quentin Thomas] went down and shot it without any passes. We did talk about at halftime that we've got to move ourselves, move the ball better, get a chance to get the ball inside where Brandan [Wright] and Tyler and those guys could do something inside and hopefully get some fouls on their team. Again I think that's one place that our depth does help is that we can withstand some things that are more difficult for some other teams to withstand. I like the fact that they had two different guys foul out.”
On having any confidence in the last five or six minutes:
“I don't think as a coach you ever feel confident. When they missed the shot with six seconds to go and we got the rebound was the first time I felt confident all night. But during the course of the whole game you have things that you hope work and that was a little bit of that.”
On it being a “hand-to-hand” combat game:
“I think it was two teams that played as hard as they could play. I'm not saying that we played as pretty as we can play, as effectively as we can play, but I do think that both teams played exceptionally hard. When it's two teams with great kids and great characters, that's what you expect.”
Players Mentioned
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