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Quotes: Duke 60, Virginia Tech 56
3/9/2012 10:18:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening
Statement:
"With Ryan (Kelly) being out and Miles (Plumlee) getting into early foul trouble, Josh
(Hairston) really came through for us, especially on the defensive end. I
thought Tyler's (Thornton) defense and leadership was outstanding during the
game. I think we beat a good team. Seth (Greenberg) has done a great job of
having his kids up all the time, in spite of more close losses, more close
games with a greater percentage of them have been losses. To keep his team into
it like they were yesterday and again today, is really a testimony to what a
good coach is all about. We made some big defensive stops. We didn't shoot the
ball well and a lot of that had to do with the intensity of the game I think.
Again, we are excited about going forward and proud of our guys to come up with
a win like that with a set, with Ryan, guys stepping up."
On the defensive effort:
"I'm really
proud of our team because we didn't shoot the ball well, but we didn't let that
dictate our defense. I think we've learned in that area. In our last game,
against North Carolina, we struggled with our shot and had lapses on defense."
"We knew it was going to be a possession-by-possession game. We knew we were going to have to fight on every possession."
On Virginia Tech's decision to help off from Tyler Thornton onto Rivers and Curry:
"That's kind of
what they did the last time we played them. Every time Austin or I came off a
screen, the man guarding Tyler was on us and made us give it up."
Opening
Statement:
"I thought in
the first half, we just weren't as alert as we needed to be. I can think of
eight points in the first half that honestly, we were just not as active and
alert, we did not pursue the ball like we needed to. I thought our defensive
gameplan was really good. We wanted to make Tyler Thornton beat us. Plain and
simple. We knew obviously we couldn't afford to get into foul trouble. We
wanted to have someone there when Curry and Rivers were coming off those ball
screens. You've got to give Tyler credit, he made that one, big three when we
had it to four. Their switching really bothered us, we didn't do a good job of
screening on the end and it really pushed us out. In the second half, we went
more straight dribble-drive and some quick sprint off ball screens and it was a
little bit better. We had some turnovers in the second half that probably cost
us a chance to really be in a position to win the game. We competed really
hard, and physically we just couldn't at times rebound the ball with them. I
thought we played hard and gave ourselves a chance to win. We just didn't make
the plays we needed to do to beat a team that is that good."
On the team's
struggles offensively:
"I think their
defense, the switching, really bothered us. We had some good scoring
opportunities in the lane and we didn't finish. When you switch, you got to
screen your own man or you got to get yourself up and make a play. Turnovers
were not really forced turnovers. We had some chase-behinds, some not made
passes, we had some live ball turnovers that obviously they scored on. Our
defensive set, our defense was pretty good. We were offensively challenged, and
quite honestly, so were they. We took them out of transition, we took them out
of shots in transition. I don't think Duke wants to go that deep into the shot
clock but it was hard getting into the lane against us. It was hard getting the
ball close to the basket. It was hard coming off a ball screen and getting a
look. These guys played their tails off defensively and fought for every inch
of the floor. I think that both teams were offensively challenged. We shot 29%
in the second half, and I don't think going into the game they expected Tyler
Thornton to take sixteen shots. I don't think they expected him to take
thirteen shots. They couldn't get a shot, and that is the shot they ended up
getting. We did what we wanted to defensively. Offensively, we weren't very
good."
On the defensive
success against Duke from beyond the arc:
"We have the
philosophy on our ball screens and our help. And when you have tough guys like
[Dorenzo Hudson]. This guy refused to allow himself to be screened. He got
through screens and then we gave him great help and again, our game plan was to
force Tyler Thornton to beat us. We were ready to give up the open perimeter
shots. Were we going to give it up to Curry, were we going to give it up to
Rivers, or were we going to give it up to Thornton? And then we needed to play
that way because we could not afford to get into foul trouble so we needed to
have our help in the post to have short runs. That was our game plan."
Dorenzo Hudson
On if Virginia
Tech ever felt comfortable on offense:
"They (Duke)
went to a smaller lineup. They did a really good job on the defensive end. We
had opportunities to score, and we couldn't capitalize in the lane like we
needed to. I had a layup I blew, and I had a couple of dump downs we couldn't
finish. I felt like, offensively, we competed."
On if the Hokies
could have pulled away if they got the lead in the second half:
"Yes, I do. Like
coach said, we needed to get a couple of run outs and a couple of baskets in a
row. We had a couple of chances, and we made great plays going down the lane
and getting fouled. We needed one burst to get us over the hump."
Players Mentioned
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