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Quotes: Duke 83, Southern Illinois 58
11/20/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Duke Quotes
Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
On tonight's game:
“We're really pleased with the win. [Southern Illinois] plays outstanding defense and so do we, so points were really hard to come by. I thought their toughness knocked us back a little bit in the first half. We got great contributions from Brian Zoubek. I thought Zoubek was the main reason we had a small lead at halftime. And the play of [Miles] Plumlee and [Elliot] Williams, the freshmen, Plumlee got four defensive rebounds and Elliot got four free throws and Elliot's defense was outstanding. They gave us a huge lift in the first half. Because we were not in sync offensively. Obviously Southern Illinois had the most to do with that. In the second half, we just stopped turning the ball over. We had 17 first half turnovers and then we turned the ball over the first possession of the second half. And then we had one turnover for 19.5 minutes and nine assists. [Gerald Henderson] played an outstanding half and his reads coming off of one of our sets, got him those three open three's along the baseline.”
On coaching in front of Hall of Fame coaches Bob Knight and Dean Smith:
“Well, I love one of them and I admire and really like the other one. You can pick and choose which. But, they would tell you the same thing I'm telling you. They don't really give a darn who is in the stands. You're focused on what you're doing. I was trying to figure out how we were going to score. But in saying that, it was pretty cool to have two of the greatest coaches of all time right there.”
On team's turnovers:
“We recovered quickly on the defensive end. I never thought we lost focus defensively and sometimes that's a sign of a really good team; a team that believes in its defense. We were really bad on offense in the first half. We had 17 turnovers and they weren't pressing us. We did a really good job on ball-screen defense. But they weren't able to turn our turnovers into points, which is very good.”
On team's inside play:
“Lance has really done a terrific job for us. He's been our most energetic player so far this season. And Plumley can play. So we have confidence in them. So we do have depth and now we have to learn how to use it. We have to have the group that starts play at a level that when you bring in the depth that depth isn't trying to save you, the depth is trying to continue what that first unit is doing. That's when we'll become a very good team.”
On team's free-throw shooting:
“[Against Georgia Southern] we were 25-for-49 from the free-throw line. Lance's free throws today were huge. We change our offense too when we get close to the bonus or double-bonus, where we drive it more. SO that's what we tried to do today and our guys stepped up there and hit them. We should shoot a good number of free throws if we don't turn [the ball] over because we have fresh guys who like to drive.”
Junior Guard Gerald Henderson
On team's turnovers:
“We definitely have to take care of the ball a little bit more. We have to think out there and just be a little smarter with our readsand how we're attacking their defense. We did that much better in the second half.”
On Southern Illinois' defense:
“They play really aggressive defense so you can't just run the plays, they're going to be there. You have to read where they're going and just go the other way to make things easier for yourself. I kind of did that and my teammates found me and I was fortunate enough to hit some shots.”
Players Mentioned
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