Quotes: Wake Forest 86, Duke 73

Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski

Opening statement...
“Well I want to congratulate Wake Forest, their team played with incredible energy and they played with more energy than we did. The crowd was great and I thought they played great basketball. I think our team was not back initially and we got back into the ball game, we didn't finish the half very well. Then in the second half I thought we were playing them even and they made big buckets, [James] Johnson and [Jeff] Teague played great games for them. Both of them got us into a lot of foul trouble. We had been in some foul trouble in some other games, where two guys had four with ten minutes to go, but we had been able to win those games. Tonight we weren't able to do that, the foul trouble got caught up and again they continued to play hard and well. Anyway, I think the team that fought harder and had more energy won. They've done well, Dino [Gaudio] has done a great time with his team; they're a really good basketball team.”

On the performance of the team...
“I don't think that we just laid down and died, I think our kids fought. During this time of the year you have to match or be better, people have different agendas. People are trying to get into the tournament, trying to save the season, they're on a roll, and we've won and been fortunate. We have to play like we haven't done anything and tonight we played like we already have done something. The team that had to win won. We have to always play like we have to win. That's the sign of a champion is to be able to do that even when you're so called in the tournament and all that kind of bologna. That's part of learning, we have some young guys who haven't been champions before, and they're trying to learn how to be that. Sometimes the best lessons are the ones that are taught in defeat, so hopefully we'll learn that lesson.”

On the mental sharpness of his players...
“Give them credit, maybe they played really good defense. I would rather say that they outplayed us then say that we just stunk. We did not. We tried, that takes away from their victory. They played really good basketball today. It's not just you not doing something; a lot of times people force you not to do it. This is the most turnovers we had in a ball game. In the first ten ACC games we've had plus seven in turnover margin, that's been one of the great stats. Tonight we had 22 turnovers and forced 19, that was a key stat in the game. You don't get 22 turnovers unless someone is playing hard against you. I just think they played really hard.”

On the quickness of Wake's players...
“Their team is quick and very athletic; that's their strength. In [James] Johnson they have a guy who has perimeter skills but a big guy's body; he's an outstanding player. They have a very well run system to take advantage of their strengths. Johnson is a tough match up for everybody, and especially for us tonight. He's a really good player.”

Wake Forest Coach Dino Gaudio

Opening statement...
“I thought both teams played very, very hard. I'm really proud of our kids. It was a great win for us over a great team and a great program. Obviously, they're one of the best-coached teams in the country. I'm proud of our guys. I thought us getting out to a good start was big. Jeff Teague, who is really a courageous young guy, he got us off to a terrific start. He let us know that we can play with these guys. I think that was a big key; the start of the game. When we went in at halftime, we kept telling them, ?Duke is a great second half team.' Duke comes out in the second half and just starts flailing away and jumped on us pretty good. The kids deserve all the credit. I'm proud of them. Hopefully, in March, if there's a chance were there on the bubble that would be a good win that might get us over the top.”

On isolating James Johnson on the offensive end...
“Mike (Krzyzewski) was switching ball screens so we tried to isolate James inside and it worked well for us. That was a big stretch for us. When we were down five and we called a timeout, I looked at the kids and said, ?What you're thinking now is really important.' ?Our mindset right now is really, really important.' I think we went on a little run but trust me it wasn't those words (that propelled the run). We tried to roll him into the post and it was good for us.”

On the performance of the Wake Forest freshmen...
“Jeff (Teague), at home, has been outstanding. He's really, really good at home. James (Johnson) sometimes has been floating in and out a little bit. He wasn't in a real good place at Florida State when I put him on the bench. He recovered. His mom was at the game (tonight). She came down from Cheyenne and his high school principal did as well. So, I know he wanted to play well. He really stepped-up tonight. I'm happy for him.”

On the gameplan...
“We just wanted to take advantage of our quickness. We really wanted to drive the ball on them. We wanted to try to put foul pressure on them. Whenever we felt Ish (Smith) had an advantage, we let him run the one. Whenever we felt Jeff had the advantage, we put him at the one. We wanted to be really aggressive off the bounce.”

Quotes: Wake Forest 86, Duke 73

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