Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Countdown to Craziness on October 3, 2025 at 7 p.m.
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7 p.m.
Men's Basketball
vs Countdown to Craziness
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Quotes: Duke 80, Presbyterian 49
11/10/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
On the game overall:
“We're pleased to advance in the tournament. I thought our defense was excellent, and with our offense, a lot of it had to do with their defense. They played really hard. We can't commit 21 turnovers going forward, and miss some of the shots that we missed tonight. Thank goodness it didn't have a negative impact. Those kids from Presbyterian played hard. They didn't give up on any plays. Late in the game when Greg [Paulus] had that breakaway and the kid ran him down, that shows they are a team with good character and they stayed in it with us.”
On the progress of the defense:
“You hope [the defense] is always ahead of the offense, because it can produce offense. You have a chance to win if you play good defense. It was almost as if we were trying a little too hard on the offensive end at times. It comes. It's our first game.”
On the play of the offense:
“I thought we played really hard, but it's like when you watch any game that has good defense and the offense isn't that good, you don't think it's that good of a game. But if the defense stinks and the offense is good, you think you went to a hell of a game. It's like 9-8 in baseball, 33-30 in football ? and that 10-7 game just stunk. And so I think that's part of it. I thought we did have spark. We played really hard, or else we wouldn't force 28 turnovers, but that didn't translate to being fluid on the offensive end. We had 35 points off turnovers, and that's when we had a numerical advantage. When their defense was set, I still thought we were trying to force things.”
On improvements for next game:
“[I'd like to see] made lay-ups and the extra pass and to take better care of the ball. I don't fault any kid. They're playing hard. But in order to get better, you have to take responsibility and be accountable ? we can play better offensively and that's the only way you get to be really good. We want to be really good.”
“I'm a big basketball-gods guy. I think sometimes you get punished ? you miss layups and when you don't see that open guy. We had that run in the first half, we were up 32-11, and four of the next five plays we had a guy wide open. We didn't make a bad play, but it wasn't the right play, and that just comes from playing. Hopefully we'll make those plays.”
Sophomore Kyle Singler
“This team is very competitive. I think that's one of our strengths ? we just love to play and compete. But tonight it just wasn't there. That's on us. Our standards weren't met tonight and we've just got to come back tomorrow with a different mindset and attitude.”
“We weren't playing smart. We just kind of wanted to make plays that weren't there or we were forcing things. In an opening game you're going to have some of those things, and you just have to move on, learn from it and get better.”
“I did miss a lot of opportunities, but I'm not going to dwell on it. It's a team game, and we just have to move on.”
Junior Jon Scheyer
“We had a few plays where we just threw the ball to nobody. We also didn't hit open people and make the extra pass. We usually do ? that's a big thing for us in our offense. When we play like that, we're a tough team to beat and we can go on a lot of runs. But tonight we didn't do that for some reason.”
On playing another game tomorrow night:
“We wouldn't want to have it any other way. Obviously Georgia Southern is going to be a good test for us. They're a really good team, and they had a great win today. For us, we know we can't do the same things that we did tonight. We made too many of those plays, and we're going to have to change that for tomorrow.”
On the 19-0 run in the first half:
“It didn't feel like a 19-0 run. It felt like we were just dragging a little bit in the first half with our offense and it wasn't like a typical run that we feel like we can have. We felt like it could've been a 30-0 run with the way we could've played. We just didn't make those plays and we usually do.”
Sophomore Nolan Smith
On the brief film session the team had immediately after the game:
“It was just about 10 minutes. We just looked at four plays from tonight's game just to show us what we need to do better tomorrow. It showed us plays where maybe Jon (Scheyer) was open or Kyle (Singler) had their center in the post when he had three fouls. It shows that those are the plays we need to make in order to get to next level.”
“We knew before he even said it what we needed to do. We always try to handle things while they're happening. We addressed it on the court and he just had to show us now so we've seen these plays, so when we come out tomorrow it'll be even easier to make them.”
“Defensively we have a team who can all pick up full-court. With Lance (Thomas) and Kyle (Singler) at the four spot, they're as quick as I am. They're some quick big guys. Just having that is great for your defense. We can throw different things at an opponent and just keep them on their toes.”
On playing again tomorrow night:
“It's a quick turnaround. After tonight's game, we feel it was an ugly win, but we got the win and we're going on to the next game. But everybody's really anxious to play now after that game, realizing the mistakes we made and the little plays that we could've made to make this game a bigger win than it was. Tomorrow will be an even better game.”
Presbyterian Head Coach Gregg Nibert
On the game:
“It was a great opportunity for our university to get the chance to play Duke, and I'm pretty sure that the guys now see how hard you have to work to compete on this level. They're a great team and we have a long way to go. We did have some positives today and we just appreciate the opportunity to play.”
On the difficulty of playing Duke as his first game as a coach:
“I spoke with former coach Dave Robbins and he said that his first game as the coach of Union he had to play Vanderbilt. They were a top 10 team back then and they got beat. If I could follow the road that he took, I'd love to do that.”
On Duke's defense:
“That was one of the top defensive teams that we'll ever see. They just take you out of so many things. We couldn't run our stuff. They put tremendous pressure on the ball. They did a tremendous job of denying off the wings, and that's where most people like to enter the basketball. They don't let you do a lot of things. We don't like to play one on one; we do have some guys that can drive it and play, but we would like to pass and move the ball and get it inside. But they really don't let you have anything on the wings and becomes a one-one game out there.”
Defensive objectives against Duke:
“Our objectives were to establish an offense and not turn the ball over, but we had 15 turnovers in the first half, and that's where [Duke] is awesome. Our objective, number one, was to get back on defense, not turn the ball over, and force the ball to the baseline. When they drive into the middle, it's like opening the red sea, they are awesome either dunking or kicking out. We really wanted to force the ball baseline, and at times we did.”
Players Mentioned
Jon Scheyer Press Conference: Summer 2025
Tuesday, July 08
Duke vs Houston: Press Conference
Sunday, April 06
Duke vs Alabama: East Region Champions Press Conference
Wednesday, April 02
Duke vs Arizona: Duke Press Conference
Friday, March 28
