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Quotes: Duke 101, Charlotte 59
11/17/2009 8:30:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
On team's performance:
“Well we played very well tonight on both ends of the floor. I thought our defense set the tone for the whole game in that we didn't give up fast breaks. [Dijuan] Harris is really a good guard. Lance [Thomas] and then Ryan Kelly did a good job of helping Nolan in making them a half court team. And then in the half court I thought Jon [Scheyer] and Kyle [Singler] and Nolan [Smith], their experience on the perimeter did not give them open shots. Then Andre Dawkins came in and he did well defensively. I was most impressed with our defense tonight. They didn't show it tonight, but they have really good three-point shooters. Harris was third in the country in assists last year, but Nolan did a good job on him. And then our big guys, I don't know if they can do that every night, but when you combine the two of them they have 24 points and 24 rebounds. That was an amazingly productive night. I know [Nolan and Jon] are happy to be together again and also Kyle. Those three guys on the perimeter are the strength of our basketball team. I thought everyone did a good job tonight. We beat a good team pretty soundly tonight.”
On the play of Miles Plumlee:
“He can really run and he likes to dunk and we like him to dunk. It's a nice thing when he does that. But his defense was good and his rebounding was good. With the amount of minutes he played last year he's like a freshman also. He didn't get that experience last year and he did a really good job. But Brian [Zoubek] did a really good job. If he hits his free throws he's got a double double. [Shamari] Spears is a load inside, he's a good player and up on top Nolan and Lance or Ryan tried to control Harris and inside the two bigs did a great job of trapping Spears or the big guy on the pass. I thought we did a good job on both of those in just talking about it this morning during the walk through.”
On Nolan Smith getting involved early:
“Nolan is going to get involved. We don't have to set anything up for him. He's an outstanding player. We know the way we've been practicing for 26 practices or something like that. For the first 23, [Nolan and Jon] are playing together. They can alternate ball handling and I think too Nolan on the ball with Lance playing the second big on defense is a key defensive part of what we want to get accomplished.”
On Nolan Smith's play opening up the game:
“It spreads the court because you have three perimeter guys. And when Andre comes in he continues to spread it and when Ryan comes in as a second big. You have to guard everybody. Good players if they have a little bit more space they can create a little bit more.”
On the trio of Nolan Smith, Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler:
“They're really good basketball players. I love our team, but our perimeter, these guys are like brothers. They know the game. They don't care who gets the shots. If they don't get a shot for about five or six minutes they can go to something where they get it as long as we're winning. The three of them had 61 points. That's a pretty good night especially with the minutes they played.”
On the depth of scoring options in close games as the year continues:
“We do [have a lot of options] and we have an inside option. We should not have a go-to guy we should have a go-to team. If you have one guy that you go to you can defend that guy better than if you have a team that you can go to. Any one of the three guys on the perimeter can create something, but they also can create it with our without a screen. If you create it with a screen then you get a big guy involved and then he might create something. Then when we do shoot we've been a good rebounding team. There are more options, not just number of players who can shoot but how you might be able to score in those situations. That's why I think we might be a really good basketball team because we have that balance.”
On the team defense:
“We're developing depth and the thing that we haven't done is picking up full court so it's more half court and a little bit of three quarter court tonight. The more our freshmen develop we might be able to do more three quarter and full. But initially going in we don't know how the freshmen are going to come around. If they come around, then we can rest them for a few minutes and do a little bit more.”
Senior Jon Scheyer
On Nolan Smith playing with high confidence:
“Yeah, he is in a great state right now. He knows what he needs to do and he is very comfortable. We have good chemistry on the perimeter and Andre [Dawkins] has done a great job coming in. I think it makes all of us confident. Nolan [Smith] is playing with swagger and that gives our whole team swagger too.”
On the team's comfort level together:
“I think we are pretty far ahead at this point in the season, especially with our guards. We have an experienced team and guys are really working hard. With Nolan [Smith] being back in there, it was a little easier to see that tonight.”
On a sense of normalcy with Nolan Smith back:
“Yeah it did seem more normal. It was a pretty unique situation the first two games. I was the main ball handler even with Jordan Davidson being out. When we have multiple guys who can handle the ball, I don't need to pound it coming down the floor every time. I can hit and keep moving. It was definitely more normal.”
Junior Nolan Smith
On first game back:
“I've been anxious to get back out there. I was ready to make plays. Coming back, we were all energized. Kyle [Singler] and Jon [Scheyer] were telling me how happy they were to have me back. I wanted to play well and feed off of them. They have been playing great basketball and they were looking for me.”
On starting off the game with high energy:
“Yeah I started the game with a turnover and looked over to Coach who told me to calm down. I was sitting on the bench being very excited and anxious to get out there, so I was ready to go.”
On having to sit and watch for two games:
“I was able to learn. I learned a lot about my teammates and watching the big guys play. They are doing a lot to get better. They are very aggressive. Miles [Plumlee] had a great game today. He had a double-double. I had a great chance to learn and see how Kyle [Singler] and Jon [Scheyer] are going to play this year. But now, the only learning I want to do is on the court.”
Junior Kyle Singler
On guard play:
“With Jon [Scheyer], Nolan [Smith] and myself, I think we complement each other pretty well. We like playing with each other. It was fun having all three of us on the court for the first time.”
Sophomore Miles Plumlee
On fast start today:
“We wanted to give this team the first hit today and not take it. That paid off and gave us the right mentality for the rest of the game.”
On the energy of the team:
“I have to give a lot of credit to our team captains [Jon Scheyer and Lance Thomas]. They have been getting everybody into it. I can tell the difference. It shouldn't just be this game, it should be every game. We should be amped to play.”
On playing well and recording double-double:
“I have worked real hard during the summer and every day in practice, so it is starting to pay off. I tried to be aggressive and confident out on the floor.”
Charlotte Head Coach Bobby Lutz
On team's performance:
“Obviously Duke was very impressive tonight. We're not happy with the way we played, but they really imposed their will upon us tonight from the start. We were worried about their physical play and the question was, could we be tough enough. Usually you think of toughness on defense and rebounding, but even offensively, and they took us out of what we're trying to do. Give them credit. It was a great performance by them. Hopefully this is the low point of the season. At some point, you start building for the next game. In the second half, we tried to play some different people, tried to experiment and see. We going to continue to work hard and look forward to the next game. It was obviously a very disappointing night for us.”
On the presence of Smith in Duke's lineup:
“I think that a couple things conspired in addition to our inability to match their intensity level and performance level. One, they didn't play particularly well last night; that wasn't good for us. I think that Coach K had their full attention. Secondly, Nolan [Smith] coming back, he changes the dynamics of their team. They actually weren't pushing the ball nearly as much. We knew they would. Had we had days of preparation, we would've probably slowed the game down. We're not built to play that way, and with young guys, to try to get them to totally change without a day of practice would've been difficult. We wanted to pick our spots. They almost wouldn't allow that to happen. Without practice, we just weren't very effective. I think he is a huge part. They're good without him, but it allowed them to back into their more comfortable positions. Makes them just a much better team, a quicker team, a team that can drive the ball better. He obviously had a big impact in the game.”
On Dijuan Harris:
“You know, they have great athleticism and with Nolan [Smith] on him, and the key for us was other guys, we weren't running our offense sharply, we weren't able to screen, we weren't able to make plays. We had to have too much out of Dijuan [Harris], and he just wasn't able to deliver tonight. It wasn't all his fault by any means. They just put a really athletic guy, who was able to keep him in front, but the other thing is they also shut down those passing outlets, which made it even tougher on him.”
On moving forward:
“That's all you can do. It's a convincing loss. You either got to quit or you have to keep working to get better. They definitely showed how you want to play the game at a very high level at both ends of the floor. We're better than we played tonight. Again, they had a lot to do with us not playing as we can, or as we are. We have to learn to be aggressive like that. We were able to do that our first two games. That was against a totally different level of competition, and we stepped up and we failed this test. But it's early in the year, and we have a lot of young guys that are going to get better. That' what you have to do is move forward. We're going to give them tomorrow off cause we went eight straight days and we need a day off. Then we get back to work Thursday and prepare for getting ourselves better and for whoever we'll play next Monday. They definitely showed us some things we need to get better at individually and as a team. It's early. I still like our team despite this game. I still think we're going to be ok despite the way this game went.”
Freshman Chris Braswell
On playing in Cameron:
“Coming in here playing for the first time, it was fantastic, playing in front of the crowd. I loved playing out in from to f the crowd. I played here in AAU, but it wasn't a good live crowd like it was tonight. I think it was a good experience playing in front of a lot of people and playing with my team.”
On Duke's defensive pressure:
“They crowded us a lot, we just needed to play tougher, rip through. Their defense, it was good.”
On team's performance:
“Well we played very well tonight on both ends of the floor. I thought our defense set the tone for the whole game in that we didn't give up fast breaks. [Dijuan] Harris is really a good guard. Lance [Thomas] and then Ryan Kelly did a good job of helping Nolan in making them a half court team. And then in the half court I thought Jon [Scheyer] and Kyle [Singler] and Nolan [Smith], their experience on the perimeter did not give them open shots. Then Andre Dawkins came in and he did well defensively. I was most impressed with our defense tonight. They didn't show it tonight, but they have really good three-point shooters. Harris was third in the country in assists last year, but Nolan did a good job on him. And then our big guys, I don't know if they can do that every night, but when you combine the two of them they have 24 points and 24 rebounds. That was an amazingly productive night. I know [Nolan and Jon] are happy to be together again and also Kyle. Those three guys on the perimeter are the strength of our basketball team. I thought everyone did a good job tonight. We beat a good team pretty soundly tonight.”
On the play of Miles Plumlee:
“He can really run and he likes to dunk and we like him to dunk. It's a nice thing when he does that. But his defense was good and his rebounding was good. With the amount of minutes he played last year he's like a freshman also. He didn't get that experience last year and he did a really good job. But Brian [Zoubek] did a really good job. If he hits his free throws he's got a double double. [Shamari] Spears is a load inside, he's a good player and up on top Nolan and Lance or Ryan tried to control Harris and inside the two bigs did a great job of trapping Spears or the big guy on the pass. I thought we did a good job on both of those in just talking about it this morning during the walk through.”
On Nolan Smith getting involved early:
“Nolan is going to get involved. We don't have to set anything up for him. He's an outstanding player. We know the way we've been practicing for 26 practices or something like that. For the first 23, [Nolan and Jon] are playing together. They can alternate ball handling and I think too Nolan on the ball with Lance playing the second big on defense is a key defensive part of what we want to get accomplished.”
On Nolan Smith's play opening up the game:
“It spreads the court because you have three perimeter guys. And when Andre comes in he continues to spread it and when Ryan comes in as a second big. You have to guard everybody. Good players if they have a little bit more space they can create a little bit more.”
On the trio of Nolan Smith, Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler:
“They're really good basketball players. I love our team, but our perimeter, these guys are like brothers. They know the game. They don't care who gets the shots. If they don't get a shot for about five or six minutes they can go to something where they get it as long as we're winning. The three of them had 61 points. That's a pretty good night especially with the minutes they played.”
On the depth of scoring options in close games as the year continues:
“We do [have a lot of options] and we have an inside option. We should not have a go-to guy we should have a go-to team. If you have one guy that you go to you can defend that guy better than if you have a team that you can go to. Any one of the three guys on the perimeter can create something, but they also can create it with our without a screen. If you create it with a screen then you get a big guy involved and then he might create something. Then when we do shoot we've been a good rebounding team. There are more options, not just number of players who can shoot but how you might be able to score in those situations. That's why I think we might be a really good basketball team because we have that balance.”
On the team defense:
“We're developing depth and the thing that we haven't done is picking up full court so it's more half court and a little bit of three quarter court tonight. The more our freshmen develop we might be able to do more three quarter and full. But initially going in we don't know how the freshmen are going to come around. If they come around, then we can rest them for a few minutes and do a little bit more.”
Senior Jon Scheyer
On Nolan Smith playing with high confidence:
“Yeah, he is in a great state right now. He knows what he needs to do and he is very comfortable. We have good chemistry on the perimeter and Andre [Dawkins] has done a great job coming in. I think it makes all of us confident. Nolan [Smith] is playing with swagger and that gives our whole team swagger too.”
On the team's comfort level together:
“I think we are pretty far ahead at this point in the season, especially with our guards. We have an experienced team and guys are really working hard. With Nolan [Smith] being back in there, it was a little easier to see that tonight.”
On a sense of normalcy with Nolan Smith back:
“Yeah it did seem more normal. It was a pretty unique situation the first two games. I was the main ball handler even with Jordan Davidson being out. When we have multiple guys who can handle the ball, I don't need to pound it coming down the floor every time. I can hit and keep moving. It was definitely more normal.”
Junior Nolan Smith
On first game back:
“I've been anxious to get back out there. I was ready to make plays. Coming back, we were all energized. Kyle [Singler] and Jon [Scheyer] were telling me how happy they were to have me back. I wanted to play well and feed off of them. They have been playing great basketball and they were looking for me.”
On starting off the game with high energy:
“Yeah I started the game with a turnover and looked over to Coach who told me to calm down. I was sitting on the bench being very excited and anxious to get out there, so I was ready to go.”
On having to sit and watch for two games:
“I was able to learn. I learned a lot about my teammates and watching the big guys play. They are doing a lot to get better. They are very aggressive. Miles [Plumlee] had a great game today. He had a double-double. I had a great chance to learn and see how Kyle [Singler] and Jon [Scheyer] are going to play this year. But now, the only learning I want to do is on the court.”
Junior Kyle Singler
On guard play:
“With Jon [Scheyer], Nolan [Smith] and myself, I think we complement each other pretty well. We like playing with each other. It was fun having all three of us on the court for the first time.”
Sophomore Miles Plumlee
On fast start today:
“We wanted to give this team the first hit today and not take it. That paid off and gave us the right mentality for the rest of the game.”
On the energy of the team:
“I have to give a lot of credit to our team captains [Jon Scheyer and Lance Thomas]. They have been getting everybody into it. I can tell the difference. It shouldn't just be this game, it should be every game. We should be amped to play.”
On playing well and recording double-double:
“I have worked real hard during the summer and every day in practice, so it is starting to pay off. I tried to be aggressive and confident out on the floor.”
Charlotte Head Coach Bobby Lutz
On team's performance:
“Obviously Duke was very impressive tonight. We're not happy with the way we played, but they really imposed their will upon us tonight from the start. We were worried about their physical play and the question was, could we be tough enough. Usually you think of toughness on defense and rebounding, but even offensively, and they took us out of what we're trying to do. Give them credit. It was a great performance by them. Hopefully this is the low point of the season. At some point, you start building for the next game. In the second half, we tried to play some different people, tried to experiment and see. We going to continue to work hard and look forward to the next game. It was obviously a very disappointing night for us.”
On the presence of Smith in Duke's lineup:
“I think that a couple things conspired in addition to our inability to match their intensity level and performance level. One, they didn't play particularly well last night; that wasn't good for us. I think that Coach K had their full attention. Secondly, Nolan [Smith] coming back, he changes the dynamics of their team. They actually weren't pushing the ball nearly as much. We knew they would. Had we had days of preparation, we would've probably slowed the game down. We're not built to play that way, and with young guys, to try to get them to totally change without a day of practice would've been difficult. We wanted to pick our spots. They almost wouldn't allow that to happen. Without practice, we just weren't very effective. I think he is a huge part. They're good without him, but it allowed them to back into their more comfortable positions. Makes them just a much better team, a quicker team, a team that can drive the ball better. He obviously had a big impact in the game.”
On Dijuan Harris:
“You know, they have great athleticism and with Nolan [Smith] on him, and the key for us was other guys, we weren't running our offense sharply, we weren't able to screen, we weren't able to make plays. We had to have too much out of Dijuan [Harris], and he just wasn't able to deliver tonight. It wasn't all his fault by any means. They just put a really athletic guy, who was able to keep him in front, but the other thing is they also shut down those passing outlets, which made it even tougher on him.”
On moving forward:
“That's all you can do. It's a convincing loss. You either got to quit or you have to keep working to get better. They definitely showed how you want to play the game at a very high level at both ends of the floor. We're better than we played tonight. Again, they had a lot to do with us not playing as we can, or as we are. We have to learn to be aggressive like that. We were able to do that our first two games. That was against a totally different level of competition, and we stepped up and we failed this test. But it's early in the year, and we have a lot of young guys that are going to get better. That' what you have to do is move forward. We're going to give them tomorrow off cause we went eight straight days and we need a day off. Then we get back to work Thursday and prepare for getting ourselves better and for whoever we'll play next Monday. They definitely showed us some things we need to get better at individually and as a team. It's early. I still like our team despite this game. I still think we're going to be ok despite the way this game went.”
Freshman Chris Braswell
On playing in Cameron:
“Coming in here playing for the first time, it was fantastic, playing in front of the crowd. I loved playing out in from to f the crowd. I played here in AAU, but it wasn't a good live crowd like it was tonight. I think it was a good experience playing in front of a lot of people and playing with my team.”
On Duke's defensive pressure:
“They crowded us a lot, we just needed to play tougher, rip through. Their defense, it was good.”
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