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Quotes: Duke 95, Lenoir-Rhyne 42
11/5/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Postgame Quotes
Nov. 5, 2008
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening statements
“I thought overall we did a very good job. You can see why they've done so well in their league and in their division. They have an outstanding coach and a really well conceived system. We have bigger players and we're more talented so we should win. They play every possession and our guys did too. They force you to play every possession and they compete hard. I hope coach is proud of his team, they made us work real hard tonight. The height advantage was a key factor, with [Brian] Zoubek and Kyle Singler, especially, scoring inside. I thought defensively, from about the middle ten minutes of the first half and most of the second half we played really well. At the start of the game I didn't think we were talking real well. They pushed the ball down and we had to back up our defense because they have good guards and they pushed the ball down. We did better defensively when we were picking up at halfcourt.”
On playing first weekday game and crowd
“For us playing our first weekday game is different. We were good, we played well, but there was something missing and the same thing with the crowd. We should remind all of our Duke fans that we start our season on Monday. Every game counts and if you're not going to come, let us know and we'll sell the seats. We shouldn't have an empty seat in Cameron. It's the way it is. I know I can sell them, I'll go sell them. I appreciate the support of the students who were here. I would like us to understand that people want to come to games. We would love to have everybody here but if you don't want to be we won't force you. Let's get it out to people who want to be here.”
On getting the players motivated for this game
“I'll tell you the same thing I tell my Olympic team and any Duke team. When you play you have standards. We have ultimate respect for Lenoir-Rhyne. That coach has been there for I think 23 years. He's built up a great program. If you don't have respect for, first of all the game, but then each opponent, and our guys did and we played hard. I ?m just saying there wasn't the atmosphere and we should have done a little bit more and maybe we can do a little bit more by filling it up.”
On the defense picking up during the game
“I think our defense picked up when [David] McClure came in. He got hit in the head accidentally and I didn't want to put him after that, but that's the kind of thing a veteran player can do. Also I think we just started talking a little bit. I tell our guys, you spend all day in class and so when you come here you still talk, because when you talk your hands will be up and when you don't talk your hands will be down. All of a sudden your hands are out there and you're ready to play. We're ready to play, but we need to be ready in a talkative manner.
On guard play and his expectations of running the offense
“First of all push it, make good decisions on the break and, if you don't have it, go quickly into one of our halfcourt sets so you don't allow the defense to set. We do a better job of that historically in the second half because it's in front of our bench and we can yell it out. When it's on the other side everybody can do that. It doesn't have to be just that guard because as soon as you stop offensively the defense has time to set.”
On the impact of the new three-point line
“For us it doesn't change anything. We don't even pay attention to it. The other thing is if you start talking about it, it becomes bigger than it is. I think it can make some coaches play more zone. The thing I don't like is that we have two lines on the court. I think it is a huge mistake. The men and women's game should be coordinated as far as lines on the court.”
On Brian Zoubek's play
“He's played with what they call a shank in his shoe and it's very restrictive. About two weeks ago, they finally took that out. He's just moved better. I think he's in good shape now. Not that he was heavy, but he's lost a little weight. He's running better, moving better. He just needs to have some playing time like he did tonight.
On Kyle Singler's play
“Kyle's actually is playing very athletically right now. The last week to 10 days, he's really got a lot of bounce. He's playing real well and played well tonight. If we're running our stuff, he gets placed in mismatches where he can shoot it, drive it, or post it and then he can score on the boards. Kyle should be a really big scorer for us. He has the chance to be a special player.
On leadership from captains
“There should a running commentary as the game is going along with those two guys. It would make everyone else talk. I think the longer we play we'll do that better. It's a matter of being comfortable.”
Duke Junior Brian Zoubek
“Having more mobility on the court has really helped me improve. I played OK tonight. Obviously I could've done some things better, but I'll keep improving every week and start stringing better games together.”
“[Tonight] felt good. You put so much work in during the offseason and you have an injury and it's discouraging to not get the results that you think you should. I think I did OK tonight, not as well as I wanted to. I could've played better I think, but it was a good building block for me to keep going after rebounds and building off of that. I think that's what my game will come off of ? just getting rebounds and playing defense for my team and just keep improving at that every week.”
“I'd say my foot is fully recovered and fully healed. I'm still working on getting my leg strength back and my jumping ability and a little bit of footwork. Mentally and psychologically it'll take awhile to get back fully confident. Confidence is a huge thing though. I can keep building on that every single day. I know I had the skills to be able to do it and it's just about having the confidence in myself and getting more playing time.”
Duke Sophomore Kyle Singler
“I thought we played well, not great. We didn't really get off to a good start. I feel guys were ready to play but there was a spark missing. I don't think we put a lot of emphasis on getting stops and they were able to stay in the game five or seven minutes in. We didn't really put it on them early. We have to come out with a little more enthusiasm and feed off each other more.”
On his offseason weight gain:
“I don't feel like I'm slow by any means. Yeah, I gained weight but it was good weight, so I'm not slow or sluggish. I gained 20 pounds and I feel good about where my body is. I'm still able to play on the outside, guard the outside and do all the things I want to do. I don't want to lose any weight because at that point I feel like I'll lose my energy and won't be able to get it back for the end of the season when the games count. That's why I want to put on the weight.”
“I would say our competitiveness and our willingness to get better [are our strengths at this point]. We've had a good week of practice, we're learning our offense and just the stuff we do, on the defensive end and on the offensive end. Our freshmen are understanding our system a lot better, and when that happens a lot of guys are getting more into the flow of things and the game becomes more fun. I think if we just keep that going and stay healthy, we'll have a good season.”
Duke Sophomore Nolan Smith
“Lenoir-Rhyne was a great team, a Division II team who's really going to compete for a Division II national championship. They came out tonight and they fought. In the first half, they ran their sets, they ran their plays and they didn't back down. They were excited to be in Cameron playing against us. In the first half, we weren't as excited as we should've been. When we came back to the locker room after the first half, we had to turn some things around. We wanted to pick it up defensively and we did and that really got us going at the start of the second half. That carried on to the rest of the game.”
On the performance of Brian Zoubek:
“It definitely gives us confidence for our post game. If we can throw the ball inside, Zoubek is going to force people to double-team if he shows that he can score the ball like he did tonight. That's going to leave me, Jon [Scheyer], Gerald [Henderson] and Kyle [Singler] open for wide open three-point shots. Hopefully he'll keep it going and will be a big help this year.”
“We have a team who can pressure the ball, whether it's me, Jon [Scheyer], Gerald [Henderson], Kyle [Singler], Greg [Paulus]. One through five, we can pressure the ball and a lot of teams don't have five ball handlers who can handle that kind of pressure, so that's going to be key.”
Lenoir-Rhyne Head Coach John Lentz
On what he told his team during second half:
“Play hard. Just play hard. I mean realistically, we aren't supposed to beat them, are we? They have nine Parade All-Americans. I've got four guys on my team that one school offered them a scholarship: us. Just come play hard. They're one of the leading three-point shooting teams in the country and they only shot 23% against us. I thought we did a pretty good job rotating. We didn't do a good job handling the basketball. It was just two stretches: first half we didn't play about five or six minutes; second half we had five or six minutes we didn't play well. We wanted to come down, have an experience, we had it. We wanted to come down and try to improve. I thought we did some good things defensively and we wanted to play hard. I thought we played hard. So, we accomplished those three things.”
On freshman Jeff Thomas:
“He's good. We knew coming in he was a pretty good player, and he's going to get better. But he's not going to play against people of that caliber and that size in our league, so he's got a chance to be a pretty good player. He really does. It just takes some time.”
On evaluating Duke:
“This is the first time I've ever been to a game in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The first time I ever saw Duke was in '64-'65 when my brother played at Campbell, my dad brought me down and drove me up here. I think what they have this year may be more so than they've had the last few years. They've got some upperclass kids that have been around for a while. I don't care how talented you are, you can't overestimate that experience. If you don't have it, the kids are talented, but they haven't been there before, and you don't know what they're going to do in certain situations. [Duke coach Mike Kryzyzewski] knows what a lot of his kids are going to be doing. (Kyle) Singler, (Greg) Paulus, all those guys, you know what you're going to get from them and that's important. Where they are as far as the rest of the ACC, I don't know. I see some games from time to time on TV but I'm really watching more tape of the teams we're going to be playing.”
On adjusting to the new 3-point line:
“I think you saw it tonight. If you can shoot the basketball, you're going to be able to shoot it but one foot is a big difference, especially when you're playing in Cameron and the women play there too, there are two lines there. It's going to take a while for kids to get used to recognizing which line. I was surprised that the officials didn't have more problems with it tonight.”
On Josh Rudder:
“He's a really good player. This is his fifth year. Two years ago he broke his foot. He'll get a little out of control from time to time, but at our level you give him that freedom because he's proven it. Josh went through the ringers as a freshman because he had to play. As hard as he played tonight, he does that every single day in practice.”
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