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Men's Basketball
at California
Quotes: Duke 141, St. Augustine's 68
10/23/2010 10:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
“We're trying to play a different style on offense, while still playing our man to man defense. With the guards that we have, I think it's a good style. I was really pleased with how hard we played. We're obviously more talented and bigger, but we played hard. Of the 46 baskets, to have 38 assists, it was really good. We shared it and we shot it well, even though we were running like we weren't. And part of that is that we're going to get some open looks. One week into practice, that was a good effort.”
On the new system:
“Well first, we tried to get our half court stuff in. You're not just going to be able to run all the time. So if you start off just running, the guys may never pay attention to the half court like they should. On Thursday after our scrimmage, we had an inter squad scrimmage with ACC officials. In the scrimmage, Kyrie [Irving] and Nolan [Smith], actually Nolan was 12 and one and Kyrie was 11 and one in assists and turnovers. And our front line was three assists and 16 turnovers. So we just said on Friday we had practice and we talked about pushing it more, and just having some quick hitters to go along with what we've practiced. We'll want to play fast.”
On Kyrie's maturity:
“I think he's just mature, mentally physically. He's a special player. The two guys who are with him on the perimeter are really good. They want him to be who he is. So he has no conflict out on the court. He has great poise. I think he had it in high school, but playing for the US team this summer, when they won the gold medal, that helped him even more.”
On honoring the US Team:
“We have Sean Ford who is Jerry Colangelo's right hand and mine. He's brilliant, and he's mistake free. He's a glue for USA basketball. Everybody on the team will tell you that. And we had two ladies from the NBA who were with us. For them to have the trophy here, and our museum just opened, the timing was pretty good.”
On motivation:
“Why would that be hard? The way we're playing in front of this crowd. We're coming off a National Championship. You should be motivated. Our guys are motivated because they want to be really good. I never have a hard time motivating my team. They're playing at Duke, they're playing in the ACC and they're playing a great schedule. They love to play. They're good guys who love to play so motivation is the least of my worries with this group.”
On having so many good players finding rotation:
“I think this is better. I think what's hard is trying to find out, when you don't have as many guys, how to keep them in the game. There's much more compensation, adjustments to what you're doing. We had to do a whole bunch of that last year, having basically three perimeter guys. Fouls, fatigue, injury. Again, we have 10 guys, that's a good number. That doesn't mean we are going to play them like that, we're not just going to have equal minutes. Every one of these guys knows that they have a chance to play, and play significant minutes. But they are also cognizant of the fact that the perimeter is really good. Our two guards, all four of the big guys. Andre [Dawkins] can put up points. Tyler [Thornton] has a role that we need on defense. We have confidence in him.”
On having six different players make three-point shots:
“This is a very good shooting team. We want to have more possessions because we feel we can get shots because we can spread the court. Space the court, that doesn't mean hold the ball. And once we get accustomed to hitting our bigs, when it's spaced, then that would be how you balance it. The thing we have to do is make sure we play defense and rebound. If we do that, then we become very good. We have a chance to be very, very good.”
Sophomore Ryan Kelly
On getting out on the court against someone other than his teammates:
“It's always a great experience the first time you get out there on the floor and really see what we can do as a team. It's exciting. It just shows what our future holds. It's still the beginning and it's still rough, but we showed a lot of good things; it's very, very positive and we've got a lot of potential.”
On Duke's offense and team depth:
“Something we have a lot more of this year than last year is scorers. One through 10, everybody can put the ball in the basket. The way we played, we got a lot of possessions and put a lot of shots up. Really, the big key for us is defense and rebounding. Our offense is going to be there with the players we have, so we just have to continue to improve defensively and continue to rebound and we'll be good.”
Freshman Kyrie Irving
On how he felt the team played in the exhibition opener:
“A couple weeks ago, even last week, we were still in the preseason. Now we're starting to get in gear. Kyle Singler played really well, and Nolan [Smith] too. Everyone just played well, and it all started on the defensive end.”
On how he felt he played, and how practice performance translated into the game:
“I felt really comfortable out there. We've been practicing really hard lately, and our practices are a lot harder than games. Coming out here, it's not a breeze, but it's a lot easier than practice. They [my teammates] make my job a lot easier.”
Senior Kyle Singler
On the play of freshman point guard Kyrie Irving:
“He played solid tonight. He took care of the ball and made easy plays for people. I thought he managed the game really well. He's very mature physically. He's just a solid point guard – easy to play with and he takes care of the ball. That's the main thing, just that he doesn't give up the ball easily. He deserves everything that coach has said about him. I'm not saying anything that he doesn't know already.”
Saint Augustine's Head Coach Ken Spencer
Opening Statement:
“First of all I give a nod to God for this wonderful opportunity. What a way to open up your college coaching career as a head coach to be able face a hall of fame coach and a national championship team. I think our kids came in, especially in the second half, they played hard, they represented really well. I think they only had five turnovers in the second half compared to about 20 in the first half, so we are proud of that but we have a lot of work to do. We have an opportunity to watch some film from some of the best players in the country and see what we can improve on.”
On the Atmosphere in Cameron, and the Opening Five Minutes:
“Yeah it didn't go well and with only six days of practice with a new coach, a new system, a new staff and basically a brand new team. You know this team did win the CIAA Championship last year, but they lost all five starters and seven seniors, so you know with only six days of practice I think it was a shock but I think it was a great atmosphere for our kids to be involved in, for our school, our university to have an opportunity to come in this building and play the national champions is an honor.”
On this year's Duke Team:
“Well I tell you what, I thought last year they were the best team playing together, but this year I think they have a lot of talent to go along with being a really good team. They are really deserving of that preseason number one ranking. They are very good, and all of their guys can shoot the basketball and that's big. Even their post guys coming down off trails, off pick and pops, they really can shoot the basketball and then they play hard. They go to the boards, they run the floor transition offense – it's unbelievable. You know we score a basket one time, by the time we got back down they are catching an alley-oop on us, so our transition defense has to get better personally.”
On the positives of the game tonight:
“Well the positives are we get to go watch tape as a team and see the see the things we can improve on playing against some of the best athletes in the country and one of the best coached teams in the country. We get a chance to go back and improve on all of those things that we can see on film, getting open on the wings, when they are denying, posting up. I thought we fed the post and got the ball in there pretty well, and they just have a lot of size and those are things we can work on, shot fakes getting into them, things of that nature.”
On 50 percent on three-point shooting:
“Maybe they should have shot a few more, but yeah you know one thing I did, I told our guys in the locker room a few minutes ago, you know 50 percent from the three is big. Another thing that I was really impressed with Duke, was that they had 38 assists tonight and that is always big for a team that as talented as they are to share the basketball like that.”
Opening Statement:
“We're trying to play a different style on offense, while still playing our man to man defense. With the guards that we have, I think it's a good style. I was really pleased with how hard we played. We're obviously more talented and bigger, but we played hard. Of the 46 baskets, to have 38 assists, it was really good. We shared it and we shot it well, even though we were running like we weren't. And part of that is that we're going to get some open looks. One week into practice, that was a good effort.”
On the new system:
“Well first, we tried to get our half court stuff in. You're not just going to be able to run all the time. So if you start off just running, the guys may never pay attention to the half court like they should. On Thursday after our scrimmage, we had an inter squad scrimmage with ACC officials. In the scrimmage, Kyrie [Irving] and Nolan [Smith], actually Nolan was 12 and one and Kyrie was 11 and one in assists and turnovers. And our front line was three assists and 16 turnovers. So we just said on Friday we had practice and we talked about pushing it more, and just having some quick hitters to go along with what we've practiced. We'll want to play fast.”
On Kyrie's maturity:
“I think he's just mature, mentally physically. He's a special player. The two guys who are with him on the perimeter are really good. They want him to be who he is. So he has no conflict out on the court. He has great poise. I think he had it in high school, but playing for the US team this summer, when they won the gold medal, that helped him even more.”
On honoring the US Team:
“We have Sean Ford who is Jerry Colangelo's right hand and mine. He's brilliant, and he's mistake free. He's a glue for USA basketball. Everybody on the team will tell you that. And we had two ladies from the NBA who were with us. For them to have the trophy here, and our museum just opened, the timing was pretty good.”
On motivation:
“Why would that be hard? The way we're playing in front of this crowd. We're coming off a National Championship. You should be motivated. Our guys are motivated because they want to be really good. I never have a hard time motivating my team. They're playing at Duke, they're playing in the ACC and they're playing a great schedule. They love to play. They're good guys who love to play so motivation is the least of my worries with this group.”
On having so many good players finding rotation:
“I think this is better. I think what's hard is trying to find out, when you don't have as many guys, how to keep them in the game. There's much more compensation, adjustments to what you're doing. We had to do a whole bunch of that last year, having basically three perimeter guys. Fouls, fatigue, injury. Again, we have 10 guys, that's a good number. That doesn't mean we are going to play them like that, we're not just going to have equal minutes. Every one of these guys knows that they have a chance to play, and play significant minutes. But they are also cognizant of the fact that the perimeter is really good. Our two guards, all four of the big guys. Andre [Dawkins] can put up points. Tyler [Thornton] has a role that we need on defense. We have confidence in him.”
On having six different players make three-point shots:
“This is a very good shooting team. We want to have more possessions because we feel we can get shots because we can spread the court. Space the court, that doesn't mean hold the ball. And once we get accustomed to hitting our bigs, when it's spaced, then that would be how you balance it. The thing we have to do is make sure we play defense and rebound. If we do that, then we become very good. We have a chance to be very, very good.”
Sophomore Ryan Kelly
On getting out on the court against someone other than his teammates:
“It's always a great experience the first time you get out there on the floor and really see what we can do as a team. It's exciting. It just shows what our future holds. It's still the beginning and it's still rough, but we showed a lot of good things; it's very, very positive and we've got a lot of potential.”
On Duke's offense and team depth:
“Something we have a lot more of this year than last year is scorers. One through 10, everybody can put the ball in the basket. The way we played, we got a lot of possessions and put a lot of shots up. Really, the big key for us is defense and rebounding. Our offense is going to be there with the players we have, so we just have to continue to improve defensively and continue to rebound and we'll be good.”
Freshman Kyrie Irving
On how he felt the team played in the exhibition opener:
“A couple weeks ago, even last week, we were still in the preseason. Now we're starting to get in gear. Kyle Singler played really well, and Nolan [Smith] too. Everyone just played well, and it all started on the defensive end.”
On how he felt he played, and how practice performance translated into the game:
“I felt really comfortable out there. We've been practicing really hard lately, and our practices are a lot harder than games. Coming out here, it's not a breeze, but it's a lot easier than practice. They [my teammates] make my job a lot easier.”
Senior Kyle Singler
On the play of freshman point guard Kyrie Irving:
“He played solid tonight. He took care of the ball and made easy plays for people. I thought he managed the game really well. He's very mature physically. He's just a solid point guard – easy to play with and he takes care of the ball. That's the main thing, just that he doesn't give up the ball easily. He deserves everything that coach has said about him. I'm not saying anything that he doesn't know already.”
Saint Augustine's Head Coach Ken Spencer
Opening Statement:
“First of all I give a nod to God for this wonderful opportunity. What a way to open up your college coaching career as a head coach to be able face a hall of fame coach and a national championship team. I think our kids came in, especially in the second half, they played hard, they represented really well. I think they only had five turnovers in the second half compared to about 20 in the first half, so we are proud of that but we have a lot of work to do. We have an opportunity to watch some film from some of the best players in the country and see what we can improve on.”
On the Atmosphere in Cameron, and the Opening Five Minutes:
“Yeah it didn't go well and with only six days of practice with a new coach, a new system, a new staff and basically a brand new team. You know this team did win the CIAA Championship last year, but they lost all five starters and seven seniors, so you know with only six days of practice I think it was a shock but I think it was a great atmosphere for our kids to be involved in, for our school, our university to have an opportunity to come in this building and play the national champions is an honor.”
On this year's Duke Team:
“Well I tell you what, I thought last year they were the best team playing together, but this year I think they have a lot of talent to go along with being a really good team. They are really deserving of that preseason number one ranking. They are very good, and all of their guys can shoot the basketball and that's big. Even their post guys coming down off trails, off pick and pops, they really can shoot the basketball and then they play hard. They go to the boards, they run the floor transition offense – it's unbelievable. You know we score a basket one time, by the time we got back down they are catching an alley-oop on us, so our transition defense has to get better personally.”
On the positives of the game tonight:
“Well the positives are we get to go watch tape as a team and see the see the things we can improve on playing against some of the best athletes in the country and one of the best coached teams in the country. We get a chance to go back and improve on all of those things that we can see on film, getting open on the wings, when they are denying, posting up. I thought we fed the post and got the ball in there pretty well, and they just have a lot of size and those are things we can work on, shot fakes getting into them, things of that nature.”
On 50 percent on three-point shooting:
“Maybe they should have shot a few more, but yeah you know one thing I did, I told our guys in the locker room a few minutes ago, you know 50 percent from the three is big. Another thing that I was really impressed with Duke, was that they had 38 assists tonight and that is always big for a team that as talented as they are to share the basketball like that.”
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