Coach K Quotes: Duke 84, Long Beach State 63

Opening Statement:

"I thought we beat a good team tonight, a team that's trained hard, probably harder than anyone in the country. Initially I thought we played great. We let up defensively once we got a really commanding lead and we never got back to the level of defense that we played at the beginning of the game till the end of the game. I thought our two backcourt kids (Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith) were terrific to have 14 assists and 0 turnovers in this game. They have good quickness and they just took good care of the ball. Overall, I thought we played well or else we wouldn't win. They (Long Beach State) keep a lot of pressure with their quickness. We did a good job on (T.J.) Robinson because he's actually been 18 and 13 and he's done it against Kentucky and Notre Dame, West Virginia and UCLA and Clemson. That's the schedule that these guys have played, so they weren't in awe of anybody. They weren't going to back down. I thought, especially in the second half, they played really well. Coming off the break, overall I thought we did well. We did a good job."

On the play of senior Brian Zoubek:

"I think it's how he's played. I think Zoubek has played well in every game. When we lost against Wisconsin, it wasn't that he didn't play well, it was that they went small, so he didn't get the minutes. Other than that, he played really well against Gonzaga and Connecticut. He and Lance (Thomas) pretty much won the Connecticut game for us with their play; they were just so strong. Brian's been a really good player for us, a really good player for us."

On shooting well coming off Christmas break:

"I thought that we had good shots and that's why we had a lot of assists. A number of those were penetrate-and-kick or after a rebound to relocate it, and so they weren't quick shots. For the most part, they were really good shots and we're a good shooting team, for the most part. We get good shots; we should hit a good percentage of them."

On Duke's ability to block shots:

"We can't use that as the only thing, or else you give up offensive rebounds. You can't let people penetrate as much. It's not like they penetrated a lot. A lot of times, a blocked shot was when they got the ball inside and we kept our feet. We're tall guys and we're not getting the turnovers, although getting 13 on them is not bad. It's a different kind of defense than we're used to."

On the physical nature of the college game:

"For me, I remember Georgia Tech and Duke playing in the 80's, and it was pretty physical. I haven't seen any game in the last 10 years as physical as those games. I don't think the game has gotten more physical. I just think it's physical in some regards. It's more physical on the ball with the body than the pro game and just the way the game is called. A number of things with bodies on the ball would be called. I think on the ball, it's gotten more physical. People don't hand check, they body check. I don't think that's a good way of going forward. I'm not complaining about tonight; I thought it was well officiated. With that type of physicality, to have Jon (Scheyer) and Nolan (Smith) have no turnovers is really, really good."

On the play of senior Jon Scheyer:

"Jon's a terrific basketball player and he has been for his entire time here. He understands the value of the ball and he also understands his talents. He doesn't try to be somebody else. He's not a real quick guy, but he's not a slow guy. He's not a great jumper, but he's a decent jumper. He's not a great ball handler, but he's not going to give up the ball. He does his stuff to its highest level, which is what every player should learn to do. He knows what he's good at and he becomes excellent in those things. A lot of kids are good in things and try to do something they're not as good in, and then they're no longer good at the things they were good at. That doesn't only happen in basketball. Know what your talents are. Jon's terrific. Jon is a really, really good basketball player."