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Men's Basketball
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Quotes: Duke 78, Montana 58
11/23/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening statement:
“I think today we did a good job against a team that played really hard against us. To me, it capped off a great week for us. You play eight games in four days, and three of the days you're in New York with not a lot of practice time. I thought our kids played hard for all four games, and they played hard again today. We were able to look at a few things today just in our substitution. There wasn't a substitution pattern, there were things we were trying to look at as far as who was out there at this particular time instead of subbing en masse. We had 10 guys in double-figure minutes, and that was by design to take a look at a bunch of things. And we wanted to give Greg [Paulus] some recovery time, because he's just been playing injured. Hopefully the three or four days we can give him will bring that injury along a little bit better. It's just kind of staying there and that's hard for him because he wants to play so badly. All of sudden now Jon [Scheyer] was handling the ball, Elliot [Williams] was on the ball and things like that, so it was good for us to take a look at those things.”
On Greg Paulus:
“He's never recovered. He's played the last three ball games hurt. You can see it, I can see it in his shot, in how he extends. It's just not good yet. It's a bad bruise and we had an MRI taken against yesterday just to make sure there wasn't anything in there that we hadn't seen, and everything they thought was still the right way. It's part of your body that gets hit a lot in our game. I think it was a wise decision, and it was tough for him to make it because that kid wants to play all the time, but let's hope it helps.”
On Nolan Smith's play and development:
“I just want him to keep developing. He's got a tough position, and it wears on you mentally, not just physically, when you're responsible for running a team. Last year he didn't have to do this as the primary guy and all of a sudden this is the fourth game of the week and he's going to have different people there, and Greg is not going to play for him or with him. I got on him a little bit saying ?Remember what's going on today' and I thought he responded real well and had that burst scoring wise. In the second half, I just reminded him again. How do you get better mental toughness? You do it by not just practice, but you do it by going through these situations. I thought he did a good job today.”
On the freshmen's development, especially Miles Plumlee and Elliot Williams:
“Elliot brings an enthusiasm to play. You can tell right away that he wants to be really good. That doesn't mean the other guys don't want to be really good, but you can see it. He showed that up in New York. I was really impressed with how Elliot played up in New York on that stage. He looked like he belonged. When I watch tape, I see some things that you don't see. Sometimes things just jump off the screen, and his stance really jumped off the screen up in New York. He was so wide and moving so well. He can be really good. In Miles' case, Miles has a lot of ability and I think when you're a big guy, it's such a huge difference from playing in high school to college. The physicality of the game, which distracts you, but he's got a lot of ability. We just have to keep giving him minutes, and playing with Brian [Zoubek] in practice like that is good for him. And playing with Kyle and Lance, all of sudden the familiarity of playing that way will develop. He's a kid that could really shoot up quickly once he gets more comfortable on the court.”
On Brian Zoubek's confidence on the court:
“Brian's primary thing was his injury. Brian's a good basketball player. All of sudden he doesn't have that [injury], he's lost some weight and he's running better. Brian runs well for a guy his size. He wears down a little bit, because you're running a pretty big body. I'm really proud of the way Brian's working at this thing.”
On schedule upcoming week:
“They'll have Monday off and we'll come back Tuesday to practice. I didn't know it because we were in Maui last year that school ends on Tuesday here, so Wednesday becomes a really good day for us. Then it's Thanksgiving, and then we play and we start another stretch until Michigan and then it's exams. When we come back we have to look at that period from Tuesday's practice until when we get back from Michigan as another segment. We've ended this segment pretty well and then we go into another one.”
Sophomore Kyle Singler
“Teams sometimes come in here and get a quick lead on us. We've seen it before. You just can't lose your poise and composure. As the game went on, guys got tired and I think that's what happened. We were able to turn them over, and we got points off their turnovers. We were able to play good defense again, held them under 60 points. Just one thing is I wish we could've executed more and taken better care of the ball.”
“Nolan [Smith] had a good game. He shot the ball well in the first half, and all-in-all he had a very good game. With Greg [Paulus] out, he was kind of the main focal point and that was something new for him, and I think he did a great job with it.”
“We're at the beginning of our season and guys should be fresh. A lot of the guys have gone through a season, so you kind of know what to expect. I thought we came into the game very mature. This is the type of game where you can get down early and you can see things turn south fast. But we were able to just play our game and play good defense, and I thought the guys played well today.”
On the team's return to Durham after Friday night's game:
“We didn't really do much. We came in yesterday, got a quick workout and had a walk-through this morning. It was just quick and short and we kept things short. We just didn't want to lose our edge. Coming off a championship game, you can lose your focus a little bit, but I think Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] did a good job of just keeping us focused and pushing us and guys came ready to play.”
Junior Gerald Henderson:
“That five position is very important for us. We do have a very good perimeter, but our bigs our going to complement everything we do. Brian [Zoubek] and Miles [Plumlee] in there, with their size and ability on the offensive and defensive end, both of them add different elements to our team - Miles with his athleticism and Brian with his strength. When they're playing well, we're going to play well.
“We always play hard on defense. It was the game plan for us to get out in the passing lanes, just like every game, play aggressive on the ball and deny passes. And when you're in the passing lanes, they're going to give you a couple. We got 14 [steals], which is good. That's just how we play.”
“The lanes were there, especially off that pick and roll. We just saw lanes, but the biggest thing was that we were finishing. It wasn't like we were just dropping it in the net. We had to get in there and initiate the contact.”
“[The Montana zone defense] in the first half kind of caught us off guard. I think it was like a 1-1-3 or something, but we figured out how to attack it. We had to get underneath the zone a little bit. We threw a couple of lobs and drove the gaps a little better. That's something we have the ability to do with our size and our guards' ability to put the ball on the floor.”
Junior Brian Zoubek:
On his aggressiveness today:
“I was going after it, got a few more shots up today and tried to work on a few moves. I didn't finish a couple of them, but I think just the aggressiveness is good. If I can keep going after it and get more confidence each week, it's going to be good for the rest of the season.”
“Everybody has talked about Duke not having a center, and it's frustrating for me because we have a center and I think he's pretty good. For me, I've been injured and it's frustrating. I haven't had the break out performance yet, but I think it's coming. I've been improving every day, so I can't wait to see the rest of the season.”
Montana Head Coach Wayne Tinkle
On playing Duke:
“We tried a few different wrinkles that helped alleviate some of their pressure. [Duke] is long, athletic, and strong. They play with such a sense of urgency and level of intensity that it made it tough. Our guys are going to learn a lot from that, because that is what we demand. It's neat that they see a team of this caliber first-hand, play the way we try to demand them to play. We will take a lot from it.”
On turnovers:
“Yeah, you look at those 31 points off turnovers and 20 points off of second chances. It's tough. We did not want them to parade to the free-throw line all day. So we tried to play a little inside-out, and they still got to the rim and laid it up on us. Our bigs had to rotate to help, and if they missed, which it didn't seem like they missed much in the first half, but if they did, it left their big guys free to clean up and tip it in. Our guys handled their press in the full court and three-quarters court just fine, but we let their intensity speed us up. That was a big key going into the game, not to settle for mediocre, because [Duke] tricks you into thinking that you have something, then you put it on the floor and they just fly at you. They have great team defensive principles. We settled for mediocre and we also dribbled into some trouble, and they just had lay-ups and dunk, and that certainly took away our spirit from us.”
On their chances versus Duke:
“There was a chance when I think we cut it to 13 in the second half, and thought that if we could get that thing down to single digits. Now realistically speaking, as proud as I am of our guys, and we knew they were a little bit fatigued coming off this road trip, but we thought if we could get it down to single digits, then you never know. That was a little bit of the turning point, where we played a great possession out of that timeout on defense, then with the shot clock under 10, we backed off the shooter and he raised up and hit the three. Then we went to our end, and executed our play perfectly, and had a lay-up but didn't finish. That right there really switched our momentum back in their favor, and I don't know if we got much closer at that point.”
On the atmosphere at Duke:
“It was incredible. We told our guys when we huddled up before practice yesterday that tradition and the banners and all that stuff doesn't beat you here; it's the players, the level of intensity, it's their camaraderie, it's their hustle. Our guys did a nice job of soaking all that in, but not letting it intimidate them at all.”
Players Mentioned
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