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Quotes: Duke 84, Boston College 68
1/27/2011 11:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
“Well, we won a really good game tonight. I mean they're very good; they put so much pressure on your defense. You know, they're experienced, very well-conceived offense. It's a tough offense to defend. And I thought one of the keys to the game was how well our big guys played. This is the first team that plays a little bit unconventionally, unconventionally means they don't have your center in the low post and your four man at the top of the key, you know, they're doing that. And they spread you, they attack you, and for the most part, our five man is never playing post defense. He's playing perimeter defense at the top of the key or he's involved in ball screens or dribble hand offs. And then to have two big guys, the other big guys playing the wing, guarding their 2-3. And I thought our big guys really moved their feet well. Their defense and how they handled that was key. And then they played well. You know, Ryan [Kelly], again had an outstanding game. Mason [Plumlee], with 12 rebounds, and I mean, Miles [Plumlee] had four steals by playing away from the basket. And Ryan had four blocks. Our big guys were really good. The obvious guys, you know, like Seth [Curry] was hot, made five-for-seven threes and the three he hit in transition. I think it put us up by 14 on an outlet pass, it was a helluva an outlet pass, caught it, and just fired it. Both teams were kind of tired at that point. That gave us a big lift and then Nolan [Smith] was spectacular. You know, Nolan had a spectacular game. You know with 28 points and eight assists and one turnover. As a team to only have seven turnovers and 16 assists, that's one of our best ball handling games. We played well. We had to because they are a very good basketball team, very, very well-coached. Extremely well-coached.”
On Nolan Smith's impact:
“Nolan's playing, he's had an All-American year. I mean tonight, he was great. Plus he's playing against good people. He got 28 points, eight assists, and only one turnover. Played good D, lead our team and he's fresh out there all the time. But he's taken it up a couple of notches from last year. He was terrific last year. And I thought this summer he just made such a commitment to it, and being on that Select Team helped. And the amount of time he's just put into the game. It's nice to see.”
On the team's confidence and comfort level in the past few games:
“Yeah we're getting better. And really, like I've said after the last couple of games, we're more in November and December with this team, than late January. In other words, we're playing our tough competition with this team. This team's 11-1. Our other team was 8-0. We put the other team through a grueling 10-day period to test them and they tested well. And then we have to go in a different direction. So I'm very pleased with how this team is developing. Sunday will be another test for us to go out of conference and it will be sold-out Madison Square Garden. St. John's has an older team. They didn't play well in their last game, but they'll be ready to play us.”
On shooting threes in ACC competition:
“Well I think we've been having good shots. I think there's, it's important for shooters to get accustomed to playing really good defense, and then shooting. Instead of just shooting. And it's a learning curve. They didn't have to do that with our 8-0 team, because they could actually have their feet set. Now we have to work, we have to go on defense better, and it's just an adjustment. I thought we had more kicks tonight. That's where we got the 16 assists. We had good kicks. And so our feet were set a little bit more than they have been in the last few games.”
On how Seth Curry has grown this year:
“Again, he was in a different role. And then all of a sudden, he's got to really play hard defensively. He's got to be in even better shape. He's got to do all of those things and score the ball. And he was really good tonight. He's gotten, even though he hasn't shot the ball well until tonight in the ACC, his play has gotten better. He's moved his feet better. He's guarded the ball, brought the ball up. Off the ball, he's moving his feet defensively. So we've seen him growing. The thing that you would expect from him, to show, he wasn't doing that so well. So that's going to come when he gets into, it's not just physical shape, it's the shape of playing a game like that. What level of concentration you need to have when you're doing all these other things. So he had a terrific game tonight. That was one of the big shots, that one in transition.”
Duke Senior Nolan Smith
On the five-day break Duke had between games from Jan. 22 to tonight:
“It definitely helped. It helped us come out with great energy on the defensive end and play hard for the full game. The coaches practiced us great this week, and we got rejuvenated and were able to come out here, be fresh and go after a team that was right on our heels.”
On the possibility of leading the ACC in scoring and assists:
“I've never really thought about it. I just want to win games and just be productive. If it happens, I feel like it'd be a great accomplishment and I'd definitely be proud of it, but going forward, I just want to continue to make plays and win games.”
Duke Sophomore Seth Curry
On how making his shots early affected his confidence:
“Anytime you make shots early, it helps your confidence. When I knocked a shot down early, it felt good out there. After that, I got into my comfort zone.”
On his defensive play:
“Coach tried to tell me to get involved in the game on defense. If you make plays on the defensive end, that's an easy way to get out there and get a sweat going and stuff like that. That's what I tried to do early in the game. It kind of got the crowd into it when I got that steal early.”
On what a game like this does for his confidence:
“I've just got to build on it…continue to work, not get satisfied and continue to work toward my goals this year and be back at it tomorrow.”
Duke Sophomore Ryan Kelly
On Duke's slow starts against ACC teams:
“All those teams, you may look at the standings and they're not at the top, but every ACC game, teams are coming to play. Especially against us, this is one of the biggest games on the schedule for all the teams we play. Guys really come at us, teams really come at us, and that's what we want. That's going to make us better as a team. Every game, you want to come in and blow out the opponent as soon as you get on the court, but that's just not going to happen in a tough conference like the ACC. Every win counts as one. We've got to take every game one at a time and come out with the same enthusiasm every day, practice with the same enthusiasm, and we're going to hopefully keep winning games.”
On ending his streak of consecutive field goals at 18 in the second half:
“It was going to happen. I wasn't going to keep making shots, but every shot I take, I'm confident in it. I've said it before, and that shows when I miss a couple shots in a row and shoot the next one and make it.”
On whether he was aware of the school-record streak of 20 consecutive field goals made:
“I had no idea. The guys said at halftime that I still hadn't missed, but I was just shooting and playing basketball. I should have said 'knock on wood' or something.”
Boston College Head Coach Steve Donahue
Opening Statement:
“Well I thought Duke played very well. I thought this was one of their better games that I've seen them play. They moved the ball well, shared it and obviously stepped in and made shots with confidence. I was pretty proud of our guys for stretches. I thought we did a good job. We didn't' make our normal plays around the rim; I thought we had some open ones and for some reason we're not making foul shots right now. Duke did a terrific job most of the night.”
On Boston College's starting lineup:
“[We are] just trying to build a program. Practice matters and kids who practice well get rewarded by playing time. The more I look at it, Dallas Elmore's done a really good job and so has Corey [Raji]. I think both those guys deserve to start based on how well they've done in practice over the last couple weeks.”
On Duke's defense:
“They play with great energy and get in passing lanes. I thought we moved the ball well. I thought we shared it and we had a couple, five or six it seemed, balls at the rim that we typically make that I thought could've helped. Obviously, our Achilles heel was the defensive end. Nolan Smith plays with such confidence at this point in his career. I think he is such a catalyst for them. [He] makes others better, just has a great presence about him. [I] just admire the way he goes about his business and plays the game and makes everybody else better.”
On Boston College's depth as factor on defense:
“I don't think so to be quite honest. I think that would be an excuse. We don't do a good job of defending in general. There's not enough individual guys taking it personally and obviously we don't do it collectively. That's ultimately my responsibility. We don't get loose balls. We just don't compete enough consistently on the defensive end and that's what you see. I don't want to make any mistake, that's my responsibility. I got to get guys … one personnel decisions for guys and strategy to figure out ways to make this team better defensively. The team does a lot of good things on the basketball court. I think we're intelligent players. We share the ball. We make good decisions. We play a team like [Duke] in their building and they make shots, that's one thing, but I just thought for long stretches we allowed them to not work and get some easy baskets and we just can't afford to do that against a good team.”
On Duke's three point shooting:
“Unfortunately, I think they were worried about a lot of things. We tried to stay home and guard and help out on penetration as much as we could without giving that up. I thought Duke did a very good job of spreading the floor and then, like a lot of things in sport and life, when you start feeling good about themselves, good things happen and that's what happened tonight. I thought [Seth] Curry's feeling it, I could tell when he's catching it, he really wants to get it off. I think he got them going with the three pointers as well.”
Opening Statement:
“Well, we won a really good game tonight. I mean they're very good; they put so much pressure on your defense. You know, they're experienced, very well-conceived offense. It's a tough offense to defend. And I thought one of the keys to the game was how well our big guys played. This is the first team that plays a little bit unconventionally, unconventionally means they don't have your center in the low post and your four man at the top of the key, you know, they're doing that. And they spread you, they attack you, and for the most part, our five man is never playing post defense. He's playing perimeter defense at the top of the key or he's involved in ball screens or dribble hand offs. And then to have two big guys, the other big guys playing the wing, guarding their 2-3. And I thought our big guys really moved their feet well. Their defense and how they handled that was key. And then they played well. You know, Ryan [Kelly], again had an outstanding game. Mason [Plumlee], with 12 rebounds, and I mean, Miles [Plumlee] had four steals by playing away from the basket. And Ryan had four blocks. Our big guys were really good. The obvious guys, you know, like Seth [Curry] was hot, made five-for-seven threes and the three he hit in transition. I think it put us up by 14 on an outlet pass, it was a helluva an outlet pass, caught it, and just fired it. Both teams were kind of tired at that point. That gave us a big lift and then Nolan [Smith] was spectacular. You know, Nolan had a spectacular game. You know with 28 points and eight assists and one turnover. As a team to only have seven turnovers and 16 assists, that's one of our best ball handling games. We played well. We had to because they are a very good basketball team, very, very well-coached. Extremely well-coached.”
On Nolan Smith's impact:
“Nolan's playing, he's had an All-American year. I mean tonight, he was great. Plus he's playing against good people. He got 28 points, eight assists, and only one turnover. Played good D, lead our team and he's fresh out there all the time. But he's taken it up a couple of notches from last year. He was terrific last year. And I thought this summer he just made such a commitment to it, and being on that Select Team helped. And the amount of time he's just put into the game. It's nice to see.”
On the team's confidence and comfort level in the past few games:
“Yeah we're getting better. And really, like I've said after the last couple of games, we're more in November and December with this team, than late January. In other words, we're playing our tough competition with this team. This team's 11-1. Our other team was 8-0. We put the other team through a grueling 10-day period to test them and they tested well. And then we have to go in a different direction. So I'm very pleased with how this team is developing. Sunday will be another test for us to go out of conference and it will be sold-out Madison Square Garden. St. John's has an older team. They didn't play well in their last game, but they'll be ready to play us.”
On shooting threes in ACC competition:
“Well I think we've been having good shots. I think there's, it's important for shooters to get accustomed to playing really good defense, and then shooting. Instead of just shooting. And it's a learning curve. They didn't have to do that with our 8-0 team, because they could actually have their feet set. Now we have to work, we have to go on defense better, and it's just an adjustment. I thought we had more kicks tonight. That's where we got the 16 assists. We had good kicks. And so our feet were set a little bit more than they have been in the last few games.”
On how Seth Curry has grown this year:
“Again, he was in a different role. And then all of a sudden, he's got to really play hard defensively. He's got to be in even better shape. He's got to do all of those things and score the ball. And he was really good tonight. He's gotten, even though he hasn't shot the ball well until tonight in the ACC, his play has gotten better. He's moved his feet better. He's guarded the ball, brought the ball up. Off the ball, he's moving his feet defensively. So we've seen him growing. The thing that you would expect from him, to show, he wasn't doing that so well. So that's going to come when he gets into, it's not just physical shape, it's the shape of playing a game like that. What level of concentration you need to have when you're doing all these other things. So he had a terrific game tonight. That was one of the big shots, that one in transition.”
Duke Senior Nolan Smith
On the five-day break Duke had between games from Jan. 22 to tonight:
“It definitely helped. It helped us come out with great energy on the defensive end and play hard for the full game. The coaches practiced us great this week, and we got rejuvenated and were able to come out here, be fresh and go after a team that was right on our heels.”
On the possibility of leading the ACC in scoring and assists:
“I've never really thought about it. I just want to win games and just be productive. If it happens, I feel like it'd be a great accomplishment and I'd definitely be proud of it, but going forward, I just want to continue to make plays and win games.”
Duke Sophomore Seth Curry
On how making his shots early affected his confidence:
“Anytime you make shots early, it helps your confidence. When I knocked a shot down early, it felt good out there. After that, I got into my comfort zone.”
On his defensive play:
“Coach tried to tell me to get involved in the game on defense. If you make plays on the defensive end, that's an easy way to get out there and get a sweat going and stuff like that. That's what I tried to do early in the game. It kind of got the crowd into it when I got that steal early.”
On what a game like this does for his confidence:
“I've just got to build on it…continue to work, not get satisfied and continue to work toward my goals this year and be back at it tomorrow.”
Duke Sophomore Ryan Kelly
On Duke's slow starts against ACC teams:
“All those teams, you may look at the standings and they're not at the top, but every ACC game, teams are coming to play. Especially against us, this is one of the biggest games on the schedule for all the teams we play. Guys really come at us, teams really come at us, and that's what we want. That's going to make us better as a team. Every game, you want to come in and blow out the opponent as soon as you get on the court, but that's just not going to happen in a tough conference like the ACC. Every win counts as one. We've got to take every game one at a time and come out with the same enthusiasm every day, practice with the same enthusiasm, and we're going to hopefully keep winning games.”
On ending his streak of consecutive field goals at 18 in the second half:
“It was going to happen. I wasn't going to keep making shots, but every shot I take, I'm confident in it. I've said it before, and that shows when I miss a couple shots in a row and shoot the next one and make it.”
On whether he was aware of the school-record streak of 20 consecutive field goals made:
“I had no idea. The guys said at halftime that I still hadn't missed, but I was just shooting and playing basketball. I should have said 'knock on wood' or something.”
Boston College Head Coach Steve Donahue
Opening Statement:
“Well I thought Duke played very well. I thought this was one of their better games that I've seen them play. They moved the ball well, shared it and obviously stepped in and made shots with confidence. I was pretty proud of our guys for stretches. I thought we did a good job. We didn't' make our normal plays around the rim; I thought we had some open ones and for some reason we're not making foul shots right now. Duke did a terrific job most of the night.”
On Boston College's starting lineup:
“[We are] just trying to build a program. Practice matters and kids who practice well get rewarded by playing time. The more I look at it, Dallas Elmore's done a really good job and so has Corey [Raji]. I think both those guys deserve to start based on how well they've done in practice over the last couple weeks.”
On Duke's defense:
“They play with great energy and get in passing lanes. I thought we moved the ball well. I thought we shared it and we had a couple, five or six it seemed, balls at the rim that we typically make that I thought could've helped. Obviously, our Achilles heel was the defensive end. Nolan Smith plays with such confidence at this point in his career. I think he is such a catalyst for them. [He] makes others better, just has a great presence about him. [I] just admire the way he goes about his business and plays the game and makes everybody else better.”
On Boston College's depth as factor on defense:
“I don't think so to be quite honest. I think that would be an excuse. We don't do a good job of defending in general. There's not enough individual guys taking it personally and obviously we don't do it collectively. That's ultimately my responsibility. We don't get loose balls. We just don't compete enough consistently on the defensive end and that's what you see. I don't want to make any mistake, that's my responsibility. I got to get guys … one personnel decisions for guys and strategy to figure out ways to make this team better defensively. The team does a lot of good things on the basketball court. I think we're intelligent players. We share the ball. We make good decisions. We play a team like [Duke] in their building and they make shots, that's one thing, but I just thought for long stretches we allowed them to not work and get some easy baskets and we just can't afford to do that against a good team.”
On Duke's three point shooting:
“Unfortunately, I think they were worried about a lot of things. We tried to stay home and guard and help out on penetration as much as we could without giving that up. I thought Duke did a very good job of spreading the floor and then, like a lot of things in sport and life, when you start feeling good about themselves, good things happen and that's what happened tonight. I thought [Seth] Curry's feeling it, I could tell when he's catching it, he really wants to get it off. I think he got them going with the three pointers as well.”
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