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Quotes: Duke 77, Maryland 65
2/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
“That was a very, very tough ball game. I thought both teams played their hearts out tonight. It was tough to score points, unless you got it in transition. We got a few more in transition off turnovers, and I thought that was one of the keys. Once both teams got into the half court, the half court defenses for both teams were very good. There weren't a lot of open shots tonight, except in transition. (Greivis) Vasquez kept pushing the ball to start the game, and we couldn't keep them out of our paint for about six to eight minutes. Eventually we were able to not let (James) Gist get open shots. He's been so hot from the outside, and I thought our kids defended him well. (Bambale) Osby got his, but he didn't kill us.”
On Duke's ability to force and score off turnovers:
“We got 31 points off of turnovers, and those aren't plays that coaches call. Those are reads that your players make, and our guys made some really intelligent reads tonight.”
On Duke's knack for playing well when it matters:
“They've been good at stepping up at important junctures in games. Games are won and lost along the way.”
On the development of freshman Kyle Singler and junior Greg Paulus:
“They're just getting to know one another. They're getting better. Kyle, the last three weeks, has gone to another level. Forget about Freshman Of The Week ? he's one of the better players in the league now. He brings tremendous versatility, competitiveness and toughness. He can shoot, defend, pass and he's a winner. He's got it all and it's just a matter of physical maturity now. He's a young body, but he doesn't have a young heart.”
On the gameplan for defending Maryland's James Gist and Bambale Osby:
“It was pretty much our regular defense. They've been posting Osby a lot more than Gist. Gist has been scoring a lot, but he scores off a lot of pick-and-pops and his jump shot, and we were able to defend his jumper well tonight. The last game we played, those two combined for over 50 points and tonight, we did a better job. They didn't hurt us as much. We can't take everything away from anybody, but we did enough and used some of our mismatches well enough to win.”
On how Duke shot nearly 10 percent better from three-point range than inside the arc:
“Part of that is they're the best shot-blocking team in our league. When you get it in there, even if they don't block it, you're looking for it. They distract you and that's why they're such a good defensive team. Both those guys (Gist and Osby) go over and make it tough to score under the bucket.”
On his team's defensive pressure on the perimeter:
“We have to defend that far out because if we can defend out there, the normal area of an offense's deployment is changed. Instead of at the top of the key, it may be a step and a half above. Passes to the post are longer and a little bit slower. For years, we've tried to defend the post by pressuring the perimeter. We've got to do that with this team because if we back off, we're going to get killed in there.”
Senior DeMarcus Nelson
“We'll take [a three over a two] every time, especially when we've got shooters. I guess we're lucky that Maryland really keyed on our drives and our penetration because Kyle, Jon and Greg really shot the ball well tonight. They have been all year. You give those guys wide open shots and they're going to knock them down. That's the dynamic of our team ? how do you stop us? Are you going to cut off our penetration and give up the three point line or are you going to stay home on our shooters and play our drivers one-on-one. Teams aren't going to be able to do that. Pick your poison.”
On Greivis Vasquez:
“He's a good player and he really heads their team. We just tried to cut off their head as far as stopping him from getting his penetration because limiting his penetration really limits his teammates. He might've gotten his points tonight but his teammates didn't, and we got the win. That was just the main thing for us ? to get the win.”
Freshman Kyle Singler
“Greg [Paulus] and I were doing most of the scoring tonight, but at any given moment a person could get an open shot. Jon [Scheyer] had a big three from the corner, and he had a big drive, and those two plays sealed the game. Any person can get their shots at any given moment.”
“Right now I'm just feeling more comfortable on the court. I'm seeing more things, whether it's the practice or the game's slowing down, I'm picking up my shots and picking up my reads a lot quicker.”
On Duke's success against Maryland's big men:
“Most of it was just our getting up and down the court. [Bambale] Osby and [James] Gist were kind of tired, and I think that plays a part. Once you lose that edge it's tough to play both ends of the court. We're pleased, but you have to credit our defense too.”
“Surprisingly we had one of our best first halves of the year. They tried to put it down low, which we knew they were going to do, and we did a fairly good job of containing, doubling down, scrapping for the ball and picking up loose ball garbage. We came out in the second half and kind of let down a little bit but at the end we spread it out and executed our offense. Jon [Scheyer] played very well down the stretch. He hit a big three in the corner and then had a nice drive to the basket, which sealed the game.”
Junior Greg Paulus
“We try to make them work hard. We understand that we're not the biggest team, so we really have to help each other out, have five guys rebounding, having the perimeter guys sticking their hands in there and maybe cause a deflection and really just help each other defensively with the big guys inside.”
“I think we're a very confident team, and I think our experiences this year have allowed us to be. We understand what to do in certain situations. We're going to be confident at all times.”
“We understand that we have good depth on this team and we have a lot of different guys that can make plays on any given night. If a team focuses on one guy, we need another guy to step up and make plays. That's one of the things we wanted to do.”
Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams
On Duke's bench:
“Scheyer?you want to call him [a starter]. I read all those articles where he's really happy not starting. He's a starter in the league?Scheyer's a starter as far as I'm concerned. How many of those [Duke's bench] points did he have? He had 13 so ?the bench' got two. Scheyer's a legitimate player. I mean he played last year, he knows what he's doing. I think where he's improved he puts the ball on the floor much better this year than he did last year. I think he's much better at that. You get a chance?we had a chance when we got it down and you have to take advantage of that. It's not like we're in a pretty good position now with six games left. We're focused on that?we talked about that in the locker room already where we go from here. We've played some tough teams this year and I think that's made us better and we're going to try to be a good team against Florida State on Saturday.”
On how much of the offense not working was from James Gist not getting the ball:
“James got the ball. He got the ball?he was 3-for-11 from the field. Duke is pretty good. They realized he had 30 last game and they did some things to keep him from getting the ball. You know when your team doesn't run good offense it affects everybody. The way we play, if we play right, that the guys that score the most points get the shots and we didn't do that tonight and we have to go back and make sure we have that for Saturday.”
On James Gist and Eric Hayes not shooting well and still being in the game:
“We're hanging, we're working hard and we're tough. We've developed a certain toughness with this team?you know we had to and we're not going to let one game take that away from us. It's back to work tomorrow.”
On how Kyle Singler was getting open:
“A couple of times we helped off the screen too far, a couple of times we just didn't do what we were supposed to with him. He's too good?you can't make mistakes. That's why he's considered one of the best freshmen in the country.”
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