Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball at California on January 14, 2026 at 11 p.m.
Men's Basketball
at California
Quotes: Duke 79, Miami (Ohio) 45
11/16/2010 10:30:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
“I was really pleased with our team. I thought Charlie [Coles] had a really good game plan taking away our fast break where they would just have one guy on the offensive boards. Their big guy always stayed on the offensive boards, but everybody else came back. It's difficult to fast break when you have four people back. Unless we forced a turnover, and you're not going to force a turnover against a team that has five guys who can handle the ball, so it was a really good game plan. And then Kyrie gets in foul trouble. We played great defense. I'm pleased. It was different type game for us to plan. I knew when we were going to play Miami of Ohio that they would be well-coached. Last year right around this time when Bush had eight threes in the first half against Kentucky and Wall hit a shot at the buzzer to win by two points that they're accustomed to putting game plans together and putting people in positions. But our kids responded well. For a Tuesday, the crowd was great again. There's really a good spirit. Not that we haven't had good spirit, but there is a special spirit here. It's really a neat thing.”
On Mason Plumlee:
“After our first game, we didn't have anybody with more than four rebounds. And with Mason getting 14, it's a huge step forward. He's capable of doing that. He's got great hands. He's a good athlete. He's a smart player. I thought he and Ryan Kelly really did a nice job starting out the ball game and obviously Mason throughout.”
On the team's defense:
“We're better than both these teams. But you can be lazy and not contest threes and all that kind of stuff and not go for loose balls. Guys are doing that. We need to go into our next game and stay with our fundamentals. Next week, we'll play a really high level opponents, away. Actually for the next couple weeks. Our schedule was set up to be difficult for us. But we are improving. Our kids are playing very, very hard. We have to keep building. We have a lot of young guys. At times out there, there are three freshman and two sophomores … two freshmen, two sophomores and a senior. They have to learn on the run a little bit.”
On starting Ryan Kelly:
“We'll try some different things to see where our chemistry might be with different units. It's not like a demotion or a promotion. We look at how do Ryan and Mason play together, bring Miles in. Friday we might do something else to see how that would work. Whereas the perimeter is going to be those three guys. And I don't want to look at yet where you would start Kyle [Singler] at the four and have Andre [Dawkins] or Seth [Curry] start. We have a bunch of possibilities there, and we just wanted to take a look at that one today and then we'll see about Friday night. But Ryan did a really good job. He played about 16 minutes which is probably what he played against Princeton. But it did mean that Mason was closer to the bucket because Ryan is more of the shooter, and that's one of the things we wanted to look at.”
On Kyrie Irving picking up two early fouls:
“Nolan can handle everything. A really big part of the first half was Tyler [Thornton] when he came in. The first three possessions … we have different actions you can just call, we're not calling plays from the bench … he called three straight things, and we scored each time. That was very good. So they're getting a lot of experience. Guys are getting a lot of minutes.”
Duke Sophomore Mason Plumlee
“I think our defense has been great. And that's an emphasis the coaches put on us – to focus on the defensive end. Offensively we're going to score, and the best thing about defense is that if we can continue to play this way, it helps our fast break. I thought we did well defensively tonight. We let them get a couple of threes in the second half, but overall I thought we played great.”
“Rebounding is always an emphasis, but especially after getting outrebounded (Sunday against Princeton). We tried to focus on that, and I think we did a better job. Last game I think I only had four rebounds, and that's not really acceptable. Just overall, being aggressive on the boards is big for us because rebounding is more than half the game – you have offensive rebounding and defensive rebounding. So we have to focus on that as a team and me individually.”
Duke Sophomore Seth Curry
“I felt a lot more comfortable today. It was my second game back, and I just came out there and was aggressive tonight.”
“That's our job, coming off the bench. Our two guards get into foul trouble any game, so we've got to be ready to come in and play a lot of minutes and make a big impact in the game. Andre [Dawkins] and I came in today and just were aggressive and did a lot of things on the defensive end that carried over to offense.”
On Duke's execution in the half court offense:
“I think we did a lot better. In the first game we struggled in the half court offense to get good shots. Every night we're not going to be able to get out and run like we want to, so sometimes we have to slow it down and get good shots in the half court.”
“The biggest thing, as Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] said, is we can't have any letdowns tonight after the big win last game [against Princeton]. So we had to come in with energy, especially off the bench to come in and lift the starting five up and have no let-downs the whole 40 minutes. We just tried to create as many turnovers as we can and get big stops.”
“I think we did pretty good. Throughout the whole game, even when we got big leads, we still locked down on defense and were still working hard the whole game. That's the biggest thing – just keep getting better every game.”
Duke Freshman Kyrie Irving
“It was hard being on the bench that early in the first half, especially in my second college game. But I think I needed this early. I can't be committing mistakes like that. The second foul I got was a foul I shouldn't have gotten. It was a learning experience from the bench, but I was really enthusiastic and cheering my teammates on. And I was really proud of them in the first half.”
“I'm an aggressive player. I'm aggressive on the offensive and the defensive end. I kind of wanted to get into a rhythm in the second half and give my team a boost.”
“From high school to college, you can't really put the transition into words because you never really know how hard college is until you really experience it. I think people kind of underestimate it. People put all these expectations on people like me and other highly touted high school players. But college is a different game. People are a lot bigger, stronger, faster, and it's an adjustment – it's a big adjustment. That's the biggest difference – just making that transition as smoothly as you can.”
Miami (Ohio) Head Coach Charlie Coles
On letting the game get away after being down six at half:
“First of all, I was very glad when the game was over. I've never cheered for a three-point shot to go in like I did the last one. If you had seen me, you would have thought that was the game winner. But see, here's what happens, when you're getting beat pretty thoroughly, first thing is, you realize 'Ok, they're beating us.' And then the second thought you have is, 'Ok, they're beating us pretty good.' Then the third thought you have is, 'Uh oh, are we going to set any records tonight?' So when that three went in, I [celebrated with a fist pump] to the ref. I was so happy when he said “Yeah.” So wherever the guy is in Louisiana tomorrow that will look at USA Today, how many points did we end up with? 45, that's better than 36. You see what I'm saying? Some things you never can return from. ESPN, and nowadays, they can really hit you. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And so I was so happy. But I will say this, I knew it would be a tough task for our ball club. Because I was wondering before the game, and I'm serious when I say this, how many points can we score against these guys? We're just not ready offensively to do much against a team like Duke. If they would play us tomorrow, it would be the same thing. Because when you can't get any inside buckets and no post up buckets, and you've got those Plumlees up there, you're going to struggle. And I was hoping they would be a little bit looser, but they weren't tonight. I think at the first part of the game, we kind of did a decent job defensively. So that made them say, 'Ok, we're going to cut harder, we're going to keep moving, we're going to do better.' So the first half, I wasn't really disappointed in our defense that much. I was really disappointed in our offense. This is a good team. And then the other thing is this, and then I'll let you ask a question or two, you've got Coach K. As I've told my team, I've never taken a team and coached against a coach who had such a good team and the team totally buys into his philosophy. Now there's a lot of good coaches in this country, but Coach K is one of those guys that does anybody not believe him around here? You know I just wanted to start a bunch of rumors before the game. Think about this, and then again I'll let you ask questions, I was telling a friend of mine this the other day. Everybody says Coach K did this, Coach K did that. Do you know why I respect him so much, and I think he's such a great coach? I can't remember a Duke player that was an underachiever. Has there ever been one? I'm not talking about a guy that's playing bad, but I'm talking about the guy that gets up off the bench and looks around and he's mad. I don't ever remember a guy at Duke that didn't at least pretend like he's going out on that floor to overachieve. That's why I respect Duke so much. They don't have that. I've played great teams before, I've coached against great teams, and they give you a little break because they got that. He don't have that. It seems like those kids just 'Hey, let's all agree on everything.''
On getting more points as opposed to learning:
“I hope so. Our guys have really been a little hard headed at this point though. But I hope so. I hope we can take something out of this. I hope we can take the fact that those, the execution, the offensive, the cuts, the defensive help, all of those things. Yeah, I hope we could.”
On his game plan to not challenge for offensive boards:
“Yeah, and if anybody second guesses that, I'll stay here two days and argue with you. I won't even go back with the team. We weren't going to get a rebound. Not unless it bounced out or something. Those Plumlee kids, you know, I don't think they're finished at all yet, but boy they're really good athletes. And I think that's the difference between last year's team, because I watch Duke a lot on tape. I watch all the time Duke. They're good athletes so we felt like we're not going to get many offensive boards.”
Opening Statement:
“I was really pleased with our team. I thought Charlie [Coles] had a really good game plan taking away our fast break where they would just have one guy on the offensive boards. Their big guy always stayed on the offensive boards, but everybody else came back. It's difficult to fast break when you have four people back. Unless we forced a turnover, and you're not going to force a turnover against a team that has five guys who can handle the ball, so it was a really good game plan. And then Kyrie gets in foul trouble. We played great defense. I'm pleased. It was different type game for us to plan. I knew when we were going to play Miami of Ohio that they would be well-coached. Last year right around this time when Bush had eight threes in the first half against Kentucky and Wall hit a shot at the buzzer to win by two points that they're accustomed to putting game plans together and putting people in positions. But our kids responded well. For a Tuesday, the crowd was great again. There's really a good spirit. Not that we haven't had good spirit, but there is a special spirit here. It's really a neat thing.”
On Mason Plumlee:
“After our first game, we didn't have anybody with more than four rebounds. And with Mason getting 14, it's a huge step forward. He's capable of doing that. He's got great hands. He's a good athlete. He's a smart player. I thought he and Ryan Kelly really did a nice job starting out the ball game and obviously Mason throughout.”
On the team's defense:
“We're better than both these teams. But you can be lazy and not contest threes and all that kind of stuff and not go for loose balls. Guys are doing that. We need to go into our next game and stay with our fundamentals. Next week, we'll play a really high level opponents, away. Actually for the next couple weeks. Our schedule was set up to be difficult for us. But we are improving. Our kids are playing very, very hard. We have to keep building. We have a lot of young guys. At times out there, there are three freshman and two sophomores … two freshmen, two sophomores and a senior. They have to learn on the run a little bit.”
On starting Ryan Kelly:
“We'll try some different things to see where our chemistry might be with different units. It's not like a demotion or a promotion. We look at how do Ryan and Mason play together, bring Miles in. Friday we might do something else to see how that would work. Whereas the perimeter is going to be those three guys. And I don't want to look at yet where you would start Kyle [Singler] at the four and have Andre [Dawkins] or Seth [Curry] start. We have a bunch of possibilities there, and we just wanted to take a look at that one today and then we'll see about Friday night. But Ryan did a really good job. He played about 16 minutes which is probably what he played against Princeton. But it did mean that Mason was closer to the bucket because Ryan is more of the shooter, and that's one of the things we wanted to look at.”
On Kyrie Irving picking up two early fouls:
“Nolan can handle everything. A really big part of the first half was Tyler [Thornton] when he came in. The first three possessions … we have different actions you can just call, we're not calling plays from the bench … he called three straight things, and we scored each time. That was very good. So they're getting a lot of experience. Guys are getting a lot of minutes.”
Duke Sophomore Mason Plumlee
“I think our defense has been great. And that's an emphasis the coaches put on us – to focus on the defensive end. Offensively we're going to score, and the best thing about defense is that if we can continue to play this way, it helps our fast break. I thought we did well defensively tonight. We let them get a couple of threes in the second half, but overall I thought we played great.”
“Rebounding is always an emphasis, but especially after getting outrebounded (Sunday against Princeton). We tried to focus on that, and I think we did a better job. Last game I think I only had four rebounds, and that's not really acceptable. Just overall, being aggressive on the boards is big for us because rebounding is more than half the game – you have offensive rebounding and defensive rebounding. So we have to focus on that as a team and me individually.”
Duke Sophomore Seth Curry
“I felt a lot more comfortable today. It was my second game back, and I just came out there and was aggressive tonight.”
“That's our job, coming off the bench. Our two guards get into foul trouble any game, so we've got to be ready to come in and play a lot of minutes and make a big impact in the game. Andre [Dawkins] and I came in today and just were aggressive and did a lot of things on the defensive end that carried over to offense.”
On Duke's execution in the half court offense:
“I think we did a lot better. In the first game we struggled in the half court offense to get good shots. Every night we're not going to be able to get out and run like we want to, so sometimes we have to slow it down and get good shots in the half court.”
“The biggest thing, as Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] said, is we can't have any letdowns tonight after the big win last game [against Princeton]. So we had to come in with energy, especially off the bench to come in and lift the starting five up and have no let-downs the whole 40 minutes. We just tried to create as many turnovers as we can and get big stops.”
“I think we did pretty good. Throughout the whole game, even when we got big leads, we still locked down on defense and were still working hard the whole game. That's the biggest thing – just keep getting better every game.”
Duke Freshman Kyrie Irving
“It was hard being on the bench that early in the first half, especially in my second college game. But I think I needed this early. I can't be committing mistakes like that. The second foul I got was a foul I shouldn't have gotten. It was a learning experience from the bench, but I was really enthusiastic and cheering my teammates on. And I was really proud of them in the first half.”
“I'm an aggressive player. I'm aggressive on the offensive and the defensive end. I kind of wanted to get into a rhythm in the second half and give my team a boost.”
“From high school to college, you can't really put the transition into words because you never really know how hard college is until you really experience it. I think people kind of underestimate it. People put all these expectations on people like me and other highly touted high school players. But college is a different game. People are a lot bigger, stronger, faster, and it's an adjustment – it's a big adjustment. That's the biggest difference – just making that transition as smoothly as you can.”
Miami (Ohio) Head Coach Charlie Coles
On letting the game get away after being down six at half:
“First of all, I was very glad when the game was over. I've never cheered for a three-point shot to go in like I did the last one. If you had seen me, you would have thought that was the game winner. But see, here's what happens, when you're getting beat pretty thoroughly, first thing is, you realize 'Ok, they're beating us.' And then the second thought you have is, 'Ok, they're beating us pretty good.' Then the third thought you have is, 'Uh oh, are we going to set any records tonight?' So when that three went in, I [celebrated with a fist pump] to the ref. I was so happy when he said “Yeah.” So wherever the guy is in Louisiana tomorrow that will look at USA Today, how many points did we end up with? 45, that's better than 36. You see what I'm saying? Some things you never can return from. ESPN, and nowadays, they can really hit you. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And so I was so happy. But I will say this, I knew it would be a tough task for our ball club. Because I was wondering before the game, and I'm serious when I say this, how many points can we score against these guys? We're just not ready offensively to do much against a team like Duke. If they would play us tomorrow, it would be the same thing. Because when you can't get any inside buckets and no post up buckets, and you've got those Plumlees up there, you're going to struggle. And I was hoping they would be a little bit looser, but they weren't tonight. I think at the first part of the game, we kind of did a decent job defensively. So that made them say, 'Ok, we're going to cut harder, we're going to keep moving, we're going to do better.' So the first half, I wasn't really disappointed in our defense that much. I was really disappointed in our offense. This is a good team. And then the other thing is this, and then I'll let you ask a question or two, you've got Coach K. As I've told my team, I've never taken a team and coached against a coach who had such a good team and the team totally buys into his philosophy. Now there's a lot of good coaches in this country, but Coach K is one of those guys that does anybody not believe him around here? You know I just wanted to start a bunch of rumors before the game. Think about this, and then again I'll let you ask questions, I was telling a friend of mine this the other day. Everybody says Coach K did this, Coach K did that. Do you know why I respect him so much, and I think he's such a great coach? I can't remember a Duke player that was an underachiever. Has there ever been one? I'm not talking about a guy that's playing bad, but I'm talking about the guy that gets up off the bench and looks around and he's mad. I don't ever remember a guy at Duke that didn't at least pretend like he's going out on that floor to overachieve. That's why I respect Duke so much. They don't have that. I've played great teams before, I've coached against great teams, and they give you a little break because they got that. He don't have that. It seems like those kids just 'Hey, let's all agree on everything.''
On getting more points as opposed to learning:
“I hope so. Our guys have really been a little hard headed at this point though. But I hope so. I hope we can take something out of this. I hope we can take the fact that those, the execution, the offensive, the cuts, the defensive help, all of those things. Yeah, I hope we could.”
On his game plan to not challenge for offensive boards:
“Yeah, and if anybody second guesses that, I'll stay here two days and argue with you. I won't even go back with the team. We weren't going to get a rebound. Not unless it bounced out or something. Those Plumlee kids, you know, I don't think they're finished at all yet, but boy they're really good athletes. And I think that's the difference between last year's team, because I watch Duke a lot on tape. I watch all the time Duke. They're good athletes so we felt like we're not going to get many offensive boards.”
Players Mentioned
Duke at Louisville: Coach Scheyer Press Conference
Friday, January 09
Duke at FSU: Coach Scheyer Press Conference
Saturday, January 03
Coach Scheyer Media Availability
Wednesday, September 24
Jon Scheyer Press Conference: Summer 2025
Tuesday, July 08
