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Quotes: Duke 79, Virginia 54
2/1/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening statement:
“I was really pleased with our team's effort. They played an outstanding game defensively after a real tough loss at Wake Forest. I thought our intensity was excellent. We shared the ball well. Anytime we have 15 assists and nine turnovers... and I think we would have had more assists but we missed some wide open shots today. We got a few guys with some bumps and bruises ? we played well but we have to get a little bit healthier before going down to Clemson. Any win that we get in-conference is a big win. We did a really good job defensively in the first half and that set the tone. We were able to get good minutes for kids, and get some experience there this afternoon.”
On playing in attack mode, especially defensively:
“We focused on that, and on pushing the ball a little bit more, and we knew Virginia would do that, too. Virginia is dangerous because they push it, and if they get open shots they're going to take them. They put guys out there, especially when [Jamil] Tucker is at the four, they can have four guys who can hit threes. We just felt it was a dangerous game for us if we didn't attack and stay in passing lanes. We did that, got some buckets off our defense.”
On the play of Virginia's Sylven Landesberg:
“He's a really good player ? he's an attacking player, puts you in a position where you can foul him. And we did for those two three-point plays. He's taller than I thought. For a wing player who can put the ball on the floor, that means he can shoot over people. It's not like a 6-3 guy who can drive, he has good length, and has an instinctive ability to get closer. He's a good player, and puts defenses in help-and-recover situations if you're not careful.”
“He's a driver. Usually when he drives, he's going to score. The thing we didn't want to do is have the guy who was guarding him foul him. I thought we did that in the second half. Trust your help. He's got to shoot the ball, make a scoring play because he elongates. As long as you don't foul him, you have a chance to draw a charge, and we did. I thought we had some good charges today.”
On Lance Thomas' start today:
“Lance played so well up until Xavier, and since the Christmas break he hasn't played to the same level. We're trying to get he and Brian [Zoubek] to play at the level they can play at, whether they start or sub in for each other. I thought Lance played well today.”
On the team's mentality after the Wake Forest loss:
“You have to get them to forget the loss, instead of remembering the loss. You have to get on to a positive thing, but that doesn't mean they're not ready a little bit more. You have to figure out what the personality of our team is, and we're figuring it out. ... They're real together, they want to play, they want to please, and I think they're developing toughness. We still have so many kids developing as players, so it's not a bad situation, it's just a different situation. I think where you can make a mistake is posing a coaching philosophy based on the personality you might want, but might never get. You have to let it happen a little bit more. And with the tough games we have, we'll be able to see some things. I think this team showed me some things in the last 10 minutes at Wake. We have good heart, and we have to figure out how to put that on the floor for 40 minutes. There were a lot of positives about the Wake Forest game.”
On Virginia's team:
“They're not restrictive, I think they play hard. Our defense was really good today, so we didn't allow as much penetration and did well on switches, but they're a dangerous team because they have a bunch of guys who can shoot the ball and they play hard. They play hard every game.”
Duke Junior Gerald Henderson
On coming back from the loss to Wake Forest:
“That Wake Forest game was a game where we felt like we didn't play at our best, and we even were able to come back and have a chance to win. And then losing the way we did was tough. Especially on out-of-bounds plays today, we were trying to be really sharp and get them to either pass it out or take away a lot of plays.”
“Today our defense had a lot to do with our offense. A lot of guys got contesting steals. A lot of guys got out on the fast break. Nolan [Smith] had a really good finish off of one of his steals. That's important for us ? to be aggressive on defense. That kind of gets you in an aggressive mindset for offense.”
“I have a lot of confidence in my shooting. I feel like I don't take a whole bunch of difficult shots, whether it be a kick out from one of my teammates or a pull up where I can just elevate over guys and shoot it. I feel like those are good shots for us. We want to take a good shot every time we come down, so guys are really thinking about that and we really work at it. [My confidence] is pretty high. I feel like I'm the best I've been since I've been here [at Duke], in terms of just my court awareness. I think a big thing has to do with my chemistry with my teammates, just knowing where they're going to be and them knowing where I'm going to be. That has a lot to do with the way we're playing and how I'm playing too.”
On the upcoming matchup with Clemson:
“It's another hostile environment, kind of smaller stadium where they're right on top of you. And they're a good team. They like to press and they like to push the tempo, especially with their presses and their defense. It'll be a big game for us. We have to come out with the same intensity that we did today.”
Duke Sophomore Kyle Singler
“Last year, when we lost against Wake [Forest], we took a loss to Miami [in the next game], so this year we didn't want to take two losses. It was important that we came out and played good defense and played like we did today. We played well ? we were able to force turnovers, and I think we're in a good spot going into Clemson.”
On Virginia's Sylven Landesberg:
“He's a good player. He gets to the basket well and just has a knack for scoring the basketball. Overall we knew we just needed to play team defense. There wasn't anything that we did special. We knew if we played our defense, moved the ball on offense, took good shots we'd be fine.”
On Clemson:
“They're a different team from last year. Last year's loss was tough but they're a different team and we're a different team from last year. They still have players like [Trevor] Booker, [Terrence] Oglesby and [Demontez] Stitt. They're going to be a tough team. The game is on the road, and we haven't played very well on the road this year, so it's going to be an important game for us to prepare well and come with the mindset that it's going to be a good and tough game.”
Duke Junior Jon Scheyer
“It was a good win today. I think it was really important to be ready early in this game and to set the tone and come out early on defense. I think we did a good job of not playing into records or anything like that. I thought we did a good job of coming out on defense and setting the tone early.”
“We learned a lot from that loss. We wanted to carry over the last 10 minutes of that game [into the game today]. I thought we did a good job that last 10 minutes of really playing and fighting, and we really didn't do that the whole game. So that was something we wanted to carry over into this game and for the rest of the year. But also, we need to learn from our mistakes, and I think defensively we could've made a lot more plays in that game. I thought we did a better job in this game. Moving forward, we're going to keep learning and keep getting better.”
Virginia Head Coach Dave Leitao
Opening statement:
“Simply stated, we [played] a team that is obviously very good, very talented, and very experienced and on a bit of a mission whether it's what they are trying to do with the season or coming off of the last game that focuses on some very specific things to make their train run smoothly. I thought from the outset, in the first couple of positions, that what we tried to prepare our guys and finding out that by pressuring the ball and denying the wings, we have to counter that with something. [Duke] did a very good job of taking that away. Missed assignments on both offense and defense early really set a bad tone that caused us to turn over [the ball] a number of times and caused us to have a number of unforced turnovers that obviously equated to us having 17 at halftime. I said during the first TV timeout that the things we talked about and we were executing and preparing for in practice everyday really didn't show itself at all at any point in time in the game.”
On the first half performance:
“I don't have the particular answer. Obviously during this stretch of games, we have gotten down by double figures and have had to climb out of a hole. And you are not going to be able to do that on road very much; you are not going to be able to do that against very good teams very much. You have to combine the physical preparedness and the mental preparation, and somewhere along the line those two things are not coming to together. As we start games we try to address it and try to change our strategy on how we prepare, but it's hard to put your finger on it.”
On Duke forcing Virginia to commit offensive fouls:
“They do as a good a job as anybody in the country taking charges. We worked on it, pulling up and making decisions much earlier than when you get to the rim. [Duke] steps up really well and they dare you to put the ball on the floor and go at a high rate of speed so you can run into people. Even this morning, during our shootaround, we talked about it and drilled it. I have to sit down and look at it in film and see if some of it is physical or if some of it mental to why we are having a difficult time carrying those over.”
On Duke's defense:
“I think this year, more than any other year, they are the best defensive team in this league. I think Wake Forest is the only [ACC] team that has scored over 60 points on them this year, and while doing so [Duke] is still scoring. You get fooled by teams that don't give up a lot of points because they don't score a lot. This team scores a lot but yet does not give up a lot. They have a tremendous attention to detail in what they do. They have figured it out, they are athletic, they are quick and fast. Whatever their individual deficiencies may be, you really never get a chance to see them. They made us play faster physically and then made us play faster mentally and that's what they do to everybody.
Players Mentioned
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