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Quotes: Duke 84, Findlay 48
11/3/2009 10:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
On team's performance:
“Tonight was a good game for us. One of the reasons we schedule Findlay was because they have so much pride in their program and they're very well coached. Whenever you play a Division II team, you're going to be taller, but they spread us out really well. I thought overall we did a good job tonight. I thought it was Andre [Dawkins'] best game tonight even though he didn't shoot the ball well. He was animated, played hard. It was one of those games where he didn't score, but I think he played well. That's a big plus for us. And Lance gives us a lot of energy. He's all over the place. I thought Kyle [Singler] was rushing things in the first half and in the second half everything he did was right. We wanted to play the first half without Nolan [Smith] because he's going to miss the first two ball games. Just to get a dry run of how we need to play during those two games is good for us. I'm not sure we would start the same team because we started I think the biggest team in the history of our program. Especially when you're playing against a little bit smaller of a team, it's probably good to mix that up a little bit. I was pleased. I thought overall we did a good job tonight.”
On Nolan Smith missing the first two regular season games:
“He played in a summer league that wasn't sanctioned and when we found out we brought it up and let the NCAA know. It's a very common occurrence. Actually it's something that I'm not a big proponent of. I think kids should be able to play wherever they want to play. He wasn't protesting for me. This is what every college basketball player has to know. Don't play in a game that keeps time and score unless it's a sanctioned game. So you never go out on the court and play in a game that has time and score. Call us up, it has to be approved by the athletic director and it wasn't. We've known about it since the summer. It's no big deal. We're ready to move on, but we're a different team without him. There is no question about that. But that gives the other guys a chance to get better. Nolan accepts his responsibility.”
On the starting lineup:
“I didn't think we played big when the big lineup was in. We were not aggressive inside and I told the guys after the game 'When you get the ball inside, you don't shoot the ball, you score the ball.' There's a big difference, especially if you get an offensive rebound. You don't shoot it, you score it. Scoring means that you see contact. You want to get points. You get the ball inside, it's not about getting a shot off, it's about scoring the ball. It's an old time way of saying and I thought there were numerous times tonight that we got an offensive rebound or got the ball inside and we were taking shots going away from the basket.”
On the team's fastbreak:
“I think we did finish a number of times today. If we had our regular guys in we would have score over 100 points against a team that spread us. That's scoring the ball well. We don't run a structured fastbreak so people have to make decisions. It's different than what we've done in the past and until we get a familiarity we're going to make mistakes. We're much better when Jon [Scheyer] and Nolan [Smith] are on the court because the ball-handling goes up immeasurably. If we reduce our mistakes on the break it has the chance to be high-powered offense, but not a conventional one. It's going to take time, it's November 3rd.”
On playing exhibition games instead of scrimmages:
“There are few things—pros and cons. The pros are we get to play in front of a crowd, which I think is good. If you play good opponents, which if we can play the national champion in Division II from the year before we'll play them. So you're playing against a very well-coached team that is coming off an unbelievable year. Plus we make money for our athletic department. There are a lot of sports here that have to be funded.”
On shot blocking:
“We should block a lot of shots. Part of it is we're tall. We're pretty athletic, and with a couple of them there was a sense of urgency because they made a mistake and then had to block a shot. Just before I was going to wring their neck they blocked a shot and it's tough to yell at them when the crowd is cheering for them. We'll do that during the tape session tomorrow.”
Senior Jon Scheyer
On the team's play:
“Overall, I thought we did a decent job. We could have done better offensively, we had a few too many turnovers and some bad shots. We need to let the game come to us and we have a big lineup that caused some mismatches.”
On a lot of blocked shots:
“Mason and Miles [Plumlee] can really block some shots and [Brian Zoubek] is real big on the inside. Then you have Kyle [Singler] and Ryan [Kelly]on the wings, and they can block shots too. We still need to take charges, but we can block some shots, so that is nice to have behind you.”
On grading the performance:
“It was about a B -. We had some good moments, but we have a lot of things to work on. It was a decent job overall tonight.”
Senior Kyle Singler
On the team's play:
“Team wise, we could have played better. Findlay was a good team, especially for their division. They were national champs last year and they had a couple guys coming back from last year.”
On getting points in transition:
“Nolan [Smith] is very good in transition and we do kind of lose that aspect when Nolan is not in the game. When he is not in the game we have to make sure to value the ball and make sure our passes are in the right place.”
On playing on the perimeter:
“I feel fine. Its really I'm just playing basketball.”
On team's performance:
“Tonight was a good game for us. One of the reasons we schedule Findlay was because they have so much pride in their program and they're very well coached. Whenever you play a Division II team, you're going to be taller, but they spread us out really well. I thought overall we did a good job tonight. I thought it was Andre [Dawkins'] best game tonight even though he didn't shoot the ball well. He was animated, played hard. It was one of those games where he didn't score, but I think he played well. That's a big plus for us. And Lance gives us a lot of energy. He's all over the place. I thought Kyle [Singler] was rushing things in the first half and in the second half everything he did was right. We wanted to play the first half without Nolan [Smith] because he's going to miss the first two ball games. Just to get a dry run of how we need to play during those two games is good for us. I'm not sure we would start the same team because we started I think the biggest team in the history of our program. Especially when you're playing against a little bit smaller of a team, it's probably good to mix that up a little bit. I was pleased. I thought overall we did a good job tonight.”
On Nolan Smith missing the first two regular season games:
“He played in a summer league that wasn't sanctioned and when we found out we brought it up and let the NCAA know. It's a very common occurrence. Actually it's something that I'm not a big proponent of. I think kids should be able to play wherever they want to play. He wasn't protesting for me. This is what every college basketball player has to know. Don't play in a game that keeps time and score unless it's a sanctioned game. So you never go out on the court and play in a game that has time and score. Call us up, it has to be approved by the athletic director and it wasn't. We've known about it since the summer. It's no big deal. We're ready to move on, but we're a different team without him. There is no question about that. But that gives the other guys a chance to get better. Nolan accepts his responsibility.”
On the starting lineup:
“I didn't think we played big when the big lineup was in. We were not aggressive inside and I told the guys after the game 'When you get the ball inside, you don't shoot the ball, you score the ball.' There's a big difference, especially if you get an offensive rebound. You don't shoot it, you score it. Scoring means that you see contact. You want to get points. You get the ball inside, it's not about getting a shot off, it's about scoring the ball. It's an old time way of saying and I thought there were numerous times tonight that we got an offensive rebound or got the ball inside and we were taking shots going away from the basket.”
On the team's fastbreak:
“I think we did finish a number of times today. If we had our regular guys in we would have score over 100 points against a team that spread us. That's scoring the ball well. We don't run a structured fastbreak so people have to make decisions. It's different than what we've done in the past and until we get a familiarity we're going to make mistakes. We're much better when Jon [Scheyer] and Nolan [Smith] are on the court because the ball-handling goes up immeasurably. If we reduce our mistakes on the break it has the chance to be high-powered offense, but not a conventional one. It's going to take time, it's November 3rd.”
On playing exhibition games instead of scrimmages:
“There are few things—pros and cons. The pros are we get to play in front of a crowd, which I think is good. If you play good opponents, which if we can play the national champion in Division II from the year before we'll play them. So you're playing against a very well-coached team that is coming off an unbelievable year. Plus we make money for our athletic department. There are a lot of sports here that have to be funded.”
On shot blocking:
“We should block a lot of shots. Part of it is we're tall. We're pretty athletic, and with a couple of them there was a sense of urgency because they made a mistake and then had to block a shot. Just before I was going to wring their neck they blocked a shot and it's tough to yell at them when the crowd is cheering for them. We'll do that during the tape session tomorrow.”
Senior Jon Scheyer
On the team's play:
“Overall, I thought we did a decent job. We could have done better offensively, we had a few too many turnovers and some bad shots. We need to let the game come to us and we have a big lineup that caused some mismatches.”
On a lot of blocked shots:
“Mason and Miles [Plumlee] can really block some shots and [Brian Zoubek] is real big on the inside. Then you have Kyle [Singler] and Ryan [Kelly]on the wings, and they can block shots too. We still need to take charges, but we can block some shots, so that is nice to have behind you.”
On grading the performance:
“It was about a B -. We had some good moments, but we have a lot of things to work on. It was a decent job overall tonight.”
Senior Kyle Singler
On the team's play:
“Team wise, we could have played better. Findlay was a good team, especially for their division. They were national champs last year and they had a couple guys coming back from last year.”
On getting points in transition:
“Nolan [Smith] is very good in transition and we do kind of lose that aspect when Nolan is not in the game. When he is not in the game we have to make sure to value the ball and make sure our passes are in the right place.”
On playing on the perimeter:
“I feel fine. Its really I'm just playing basketball.”
Players Mentioned
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