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Quotes: Duke 78, Miami 75 OT
2/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
“Today's game was one of the most different that I've coached in my 29 years here, and I thought it was a game that we lost, then we won. President [Richard] Brodhead came into our locker room after I was finished talking with the team and I think he put it in the best description. He said, ?That was a game you had to win over and over again.' Both teams had to do that. There was so many great efforts and plays in the last 17 minutes and overtime that it was a game you had to win over and over again. [Jack] McClinton was spectacular. The shot he hit with two guys on him was just a big-time shot. I stopped to mention a couple things to him because that's not luck. The kid is just a great player, a great shooter. You worry that you spend so much to come back that you're not going to have enough for overtime, but I thought we were great in overtime. Gerald [Henderson]'s penetration of the zone ? there was so much more movement in the last 17 minutes that we didn't have before, but his penetration helped a great deal, and no turnovers and four assists. Then Greg [Paulus] when he hit, and was cutting through, that was pretty good. But, the relentless pursuit of the ball by [Dave] McClure was just a great example for the rest of the guys that we're going to keep doing until it works, which wasn't the attitude that we had [in the first half]. We were absent of attitude. I think we just had such residue from Clemson in that first half. I thought we did some good things, but when our shots weren't going we slipped right back into that, and somehow we got out of it. Paulus' performance ? he became our leader today, which is a hell of a thing. I saw some amazing things this afternoon for the making of a team that happened for our kids. We were real men, and we beat a team that is very talented and very difficult to play against.”
On the three-point shot selection:
“[I wasn't upset with the number] but how we were taking them [in the first half]. How we were taking the three in the second is they were connecting plays. You fed off the momentum of a rebound or a penetration. Those are connecting shots. The shots in the first half were not connecting, they were because we felt we needed to take a shot, like the whole pressure of the world was on them. And, they're taking them alone. The connecting part of it is huge, and that's why when Dave, Kyle [Singler] and [Gerald], they all got big offensive rebounds; we rebounded maniacally in the second half on the offensive end, and now our shots are connected again, and so they shot it again. We didn't have any of those in the first half ? none.”
On the improvement in the second-half:
How we played the last 22 minutes is more indicative of how we've played this season, but we had to do it after playing our worst you can play, I think, for 63 minutes [at Clemson and the first half today] because it didn't even stop at the start of the second half since we went down by more. Then all of a sudden something clicked ? we changed some things defensively, tried to give them some different looks, got them out of a little bit of their tempo, and turned them over a few times which produced buckets.”
On getting over the Clemson loss:
“We've spent a lot of time over the last few days trying to get over that. Getting over it ? you don't put it in the closet, because it'll come out at another time. You don't sweep it under the rug. It has to be cleaned up, destroyed. Sometimes in a short period of time, something that bad ? and that's how bad we were at Clemson ? it takes a combination, but the best place for [getting over it] to occur is out on the court, which is did. ... I felt after I started seeing them connect, and that's why we never stopped going after it. I just said keep going, keep going. You have to stay with the same mentality in order for us to win, because they're not going to go away. ... I think we put Clemson to rest, and how we go forward will be based on the foundation of heart that we showed, and guts in the last 22 minutes. We have to figure out why we won just like figuring out how we lost. Change how you lost and build on why you won.”
On Greg Paulus' play:
“Greg was a big part of this ? huge ? especially us not having the first half. Those, for a coach, are the kind of things, when a kid does that after the setbacks that he's had, that's a big-time thing. ... Our leadership has been just OK throughout the whole season, and when you're winning sometimes you don't even know who's leading, maybe nobody is. And then all of a sudden there's a moment and we need it. And it's at that moment that you hope somebody steps up and becomes it. That's the best leader, and that's the best way to become the leader of a group ? under fire. It's the best way. Nobody designates you ? you have to earn being the leader, and Greg Paulus did that today.”
On the changes between the halves:
“We had guys guarding different people. We had some full-court and half-court traps, we opened up on the wings for a while defensively to try to stop the penetration. There's just a lot of different things going on, but McClure was huge in this game. ... As badly as we were playing offensively, we played fairly well defensively in the first half. We were playing so bad offensively it could have been 50-19. We hung in there a little bit defensively.”
Duke Senior David McClure
“We wanted to come in and make a statement, and when our shots weren't falling in the beginning, I think it kind of knocked us back a little bit. At halftime we really just sat down, no one was really yelling and screaming, and we said to ourselves that we really were going to band together and do it one play at a time as a team. When we looked to our right and to our left and knew that we were going to be there for each other in the second half, it propelled us to make plays and go on that run.”
“Greg [Paulus] was huge. He struggled in the first half, but he stepped up and told us that he was going to be there for our team. He's a senior, he's been through it, and he didn't let the first half ? and basically the entire season ? get to him. He stepped up when we needed him. He was our leader out there.”
On his 13-rebound performance:
“I was just trying to get after it. I pretty much know when my teammates are going to shoot, so I try to get in a position to get the ball. And I know if I can get it, it can be another 35 seconds for our team, or, if I can get another quick one out, hopefully another three. I think everybody on our team is trying to find ways to help, and today that's where I found the niche.”
Duke Senior Greg Paulus
“We needed each other. In these types of games where you're down 13, it got to 18, 20, whatever it may have been, you need each other. You have to take it possession by possession. You can hit a three but you have to keep building off that and keep the momentum going. I thought we made consecutive plays and kind of changed the momentum of it.”
“Miami deserves credit for [the first half]. They did a good job in the zone. They stood us up a little bit. It was a low-scoring first half and you have to turn it around and that's what we did. Sometimes we relied a little bit too much on the shots. In the second half we got to the gaps, got to the offensive boards, drove the ball a little bit more aggressively and attacked the basket. The results were much better from that.”
On Coach K's comments that Paulus became the leader of this team today:
“It's something that we needed to win. It's something that I want to do, it's something that I can do, and I know that my teammates feel the same way. Whatever I can do to help us win, whether it's organizing, being a little bit scrappy, making a few plays, that's what I'm going to do. I know that a lot of other guys on the team are going to do the same thing. That's who we need to be. I think [leadership] is something I can help the team out with. I've been around for awhile, been in all types of games, have experience. I love to talk, communicate and organize and put people in positions where they can be successful. That's how I can help the team and that's something that I want to do.”
On whether this win clears the Clemson loss from the players' minds:
“It's a game where we didn't play well. It's a reference point for us where we need to learn and get better from it. And that's what we did ? we got back to practice the last couple of days and we worked hard. We came out today and showed some character and some fight in the second half. I don't think you can forget about [the Clemson loss], and winning this one game isn't going to make you forget about it. We just have to keep learning and keep getting better.”
Duke Junior Jon Scheyer
“I think these last two days we've been trying to get ourselves right as a team, just think about ourselves and then think about Miami. We knew how big of a game this was going into it, and this honestly was probably the biggest game, or one of the biggest games, I've played in at Duke. Coming off that last game, it was disappointing to represent our university and our team like that. We were just disappointed in ourselves. The only thing we could do was beat Miami. That was the only thing we could control. We just wanted this game really bad.”
“We did come together [today]. I thought it was a really hard-fought game. We showed pretty much the worst we've been in the first half ? kind of how we played in Clemson ? and in the second half we showed how we want to play every game. I'm not saying we're going to win every game, but when we play like that, when we're attacking, we're sharing the ball, we're being aggressive, it's more fun to play like that, but I think we're going to be a tough team to beat if we play like that. Our crowd was unbelievable. They really give us so much energy. I think it came out how bad we wanted to win today, and I think that's where the emotion was coming from.”
Miami Head Coach Frank Haith
Opening Statement:
“I thought it was a heck of an ACC basketball game. We played well. The first half our defense was outstanding. I thought we did a great job of taking away the perimeter. We knew they were going to drive the ball on us and I thought we did a good job shutting down those lanes. The thing in the first half I thought we were really good at was rebounding the basketball. I thought that was the difference in the second half. They got 13 offensive rebounds in the second half and just more opportunities and that's just what did us in, the second chance points in the second half. I thought our kids competed, played very hard and it was just a great ACC basketball game.”
On Duke's big second half run:
“Just second shots, if you go back and look at it they out scrapped us on some loose balls. If you're able to rebound the ball, which we did in the first half, they don't get those second shots. There were long rebounds and our guards needed to help us rebound the ball during that time.”
On what Duke did differently on offense in the second half:
“A couple times they caught us with their overload. They brought [Kyle] Singler to the corner, but we knew that that was one of the areas that we had to take care of. A couple of times we got caught with our bigs not coming out and got us with a quick reversal against our zone. I anticipated them doing what they do and that's either they overload you or they drive the ball. They started having a lot of success driving against us and when they got in the paint they made plays. They did a great job of that.”
On natural weakness of the zone defense in terms of rebounding:
“We work on it and we were able to box them out in the first half. You look at the numbers and Duke shoots 32 percent. We come in here and hold them to 32 percent. The biggest thing is you look at 18 offensive rebounds and you're right you got to find guys to block out. Particularly your guards and that's where guards have a tendency to ball watch a little bit. You have to go find people to block out and there were a couple of times we didn't do that.”
On David McClure's play in the second half:
“He's a selfless player, which I love guys like that. He goes out there and he's not worried about scoring, he's worried about what he has to do to help his team win. He guarded Jack [McClinton] and he did a lot of little things. Everybody wants a guy like that on their team, so he's a valuable guy for them.”
On preparing for Duke after its loss at Clemson:
“I knew we had to be prepared for Duke to come out and give us their A-effort, particularly at the start of the game. Not just because of the Clemson thing, that's just what they do. When you play here, the first five minutes are always critical. They have a great crowd, the fans are into it and they feed off their crowd. It's always important to handle their press, particularly early in the ball game.”
On roller coaster season and preventing the emotional toll it takes:
“You just have to work hard. I think our guys know we can play with everybody in this league. We've had some tough losses where our kids have played really hard. The two overtime games we didn't play bad, but that's just this league. You're going to have those games. We didn't play well against Maryland and obviously we came out and played well against Wake and we played well today. Hopefully we can build on that. The one thing you can't have is a football mentality where you lose one game and the season is over with and sometimes people have that mentality. We still have a lot of games left to play.”
On Greg Paulus' play:
“He made some big shots. I remember him hitting a couple big shots, he had 18 today. He hadn't been starting and obviously he was back in the starting lineup. Greg's a feisty kid. He plays hard and he made his first three at the start of the game so I knew we were going to have to be aware of where he was.”
On Jack McClinton's play in the last 12 minutes:
“The NCAA Tournament last year against St. Mary's he had 32 in the second half. I can name a bunch of games. Jack has done that throughout his whole career at Miami. The game is on the line, he wants the ball, he wants to make plays.”
On trying to get Dwayne Collins more shots in overtime:
“Dwayne had a couple of bunnies he missed down the stretch of the game. You have to post hard against Duke. Duke does a good job of battling and fighting. They're very physical and pushing you off the paint. You have to work hard and obviously Dwayne's a main guy for us offensively and we didn't have that production tonight and we do need that.”
Miami Senior Jack McClinton
On the feelings of leaving Cameron without the win:
“Of course it's difficult to leave here not winning, but we can learn from this game. Some of the little things that we didn't do in the second half that we can correct and that's the good thing about basketball you live to play another day. We can correct those things.”
On how Duke tried to defend him:
“It's pretty much Duke basketball, hard man-to-man defense. We tried to do our best to open the floor up and have driving opportunities for our guards.”
On the last play in regulation:
“I knew we were down three and I knew there wasn't a lot of time left so I tried to do something to get a little separation. Step back and shoot the three and it went in, but we didn't come out with the victory so it doesn't have any meaning.”
Players Mentioned
Coach Scheyer Media Availability
Wednesday, September 24
Jon Scheyer Press Conference: Summer 2025
Tuesday, July 08
Duke vs Houston: Press Conference
Sunday, April 06
Duke vs Alabama: East Region Champions Press Conference
Wednesday, April 02
