Quotes: Duke 93, Furman 54

Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
“I'm really happy with our team, coming off that eight-day stretch. Sunday we didn't get in until about 4:30 in the morning. Monday we were trying to recover. Yesterday we had a good, short practice. Our guys played hard for 40 minutes and they played unselfishly. There wasn't a lull. I thought we got a little bit better today. Our two big guys, if they go 20-for-23, that's good. Amile [Jefferson] had a heck of a game. He was all over the place defensively, talking. Sixteen [points] and 12 [rebounds], that's a heck of a performance. Amile, that was a big-time game for him. But overall, we just played good defense, shared the ball, didn't turn it over and took care of business in a really good way. We appreciate the fans. There were a lot of people here. A lot of the students are gone, so that was a good atmosphere in here.”

On whether Jahlil Okafor's presence has played a part in Amile Jefferson's efficiency:
“Yes, but he had to learn how to do that. It's a little bit of a balance because they're going to play off of Amile, so you have to be careful not to lose your ego and that someone's not playing you, but take advantage of it instead of being insulted by it. And then figuring out what that means. The more they play together, the more he'll figure that out, and we'll figure it out a little bit better for him, too. We involved him in a few more ball screens today in transition in the second half. That's something that we, not experimented with, but added in the second half because if he's not going to be played, we'd like to do that right away or to get a screen off the ball. He's very active and strong. He played strong today.”

On the team's impressive assist numbers and assist-to-turnover ratio:
“They're very unselfish guys. It's the first game that Jah [Okafor] had over 20. That doesn't mean that he's been playing poorly; it means they've really been sharing the ball. I think that's a good thing. That's a very good thing. I hope we can keep doing it where we're that unselfish.”

On Quinn Cook's new role and whether there was any apprehension in the adjustment:
“With any player, there's always some. You wonder how good they're going to be in the vision that you have for them. Sometimes you have a vision before you get started for certain players because you've coached them. Other kids you develop a vision for them, and that's what we're kind of doing as this is going along. With Quinn, I knew what I wanted him to do because Tyus [Jones] is good and Rasheed [Sulaimon] is really good with the ball and they're really good on the ball. Quinn, since last spring we've been talking about working more on his three-point shots, where he could lead but he didn't have anyone pressuring him with the ball. So he could actually be even a smarter player, not that he's been not a smart player before, but smarter, and he could be even more enthusiastic or help a guy like Jah. We've talked about it a lot and he's embraced it. It's perfect for him. Quinn is as strong as anybody we have on our team strength-wise, in the weight room and all that. He's really worked hard. He's still going to have to defend a bigger guard. He did that against Stanford with [Anthony] Brown, who's a really good player. And he'll have to do that some more. Quinn has been probably the key guy right now as far as bringing our whole group together. First of all, he's embraced it. He's actually enhanced his role. He's made everybody feel comfortable. Every guy on the team loves Quinn, they listen to him. He and Jah have developed a really outstanding relationship on and off the court. I'm proud of him. You don't know how everything's going to turn out. I thought it would be good – it's better. Hopefully we'll keep building on that.”

On the team's mental toughness:
“Monday, we were all really still tired. And so we watched tape. What we did was we ran. We tried to sweat, no contact but we ran and we shot and we got them out of there. Yesterday we had a real non-contact, quick-moving practice where you have to be mentally sharp. It was really a good practice. Our guys were okay with it, but not great. But it helped them. And then last night we had a meeting about it – we always have a meeting right before a game – and we talked about it, like we need to be better with that. This morning we went through our walk-through. You could tell our guys were real engaged. You have to get them past these things. All these teams that are playing all over, in Atlanta, in Maui, in the Barclays, it's chaotic, really. It's tough to get a good read about any team because nobody's going to be in that schedule once the conference starts. So it's tough to judge, this team's great, this team's doing this. It gives you experience, but it puts you through a wringer. We've been through our own wringer, everybody [has]. Our sport does that. It's the only sport that does it. Football doesn't do that. I'm glad we're adjusting well. We'll have a tough game on Sunday, especially before we play Wisconsin because Army is undefeated and obviously I played there, I coached there. I have unbelievable respect for those kids and what they've done, and what they're building. They're getting back to being a winning program.”

Duke Senior Quinn Cook
On Duke's ability to keep its mental focus after the recent stretch of games:
“The older guys, we stressed it in practice before today about not having a hangover and not coming out ready to play. We know how that goes, and we wanted to respect the game, respect our opponent and respond. I know Furman came here wanting to win the game, so we knew we were going to get their best shot. We just wanted to play our best.

“I'm just growing, being a leader, just trying to help these guys out. I'm just coming into the game worrying about what I can do to help the team. That's really what I've been trying to do out there – just be that leader for us. [I'm having] a lot of fun, a lot of fun. Just trying to stay positive out there, whatever happens. When teams make their runs, if I'm not hitting shots or if we're not hitting shots, I just want to keep a positive mindset out there. I don't want to have the young guys look at me and I have like a bad face or I'm not into the game. I want to be that positive vibe for everybody out there.

“That's really been a big emphasis – just talking. I think we talked well today.”

Duke Junior Amile Jefferson
“I've been working on my strength this summer. I sat out for that reason – to get my body back healthy and to be able to just take time off and let my body rejuvenate. All I did was lift [weights]. I did nothing but lift and when I got back I did nothing but work on my legs. I feel a lot stronger. Even guys that are a lot bigger than I am, I feel like I'm a lot stronger and with my length, I'm ok down there.”

On the play of freshman Jahlil Okafor:
“When the double team did come, he passed out really well. He finished really, really strong today. When he got the ball in the paint, if he had to take a layup, he took a layup, but for the most part they were dunks. Then he ran the floor – it's not usual to see a guy his size, his height, run the floor like he does. That's great for our team because bigs are not going to be able to chase him. And then when he runs the floor like that it's hard for teams to double. He did a great job tonight.”

On Duke's unselfishness:
“It's hard to come by. When you have a group this talented, you expect guys to take the first shot or everyone to be playing for the stats. On this team, you don't know who the leading scorer is. You don't know who had the most points tonight. All you know is that guys are making passes and that selflessness is contagious. It's fun to play that way.

“We've been working on having mental sprints. It's one thing to play hard, to play physical. It's another thing to think the game really fast, to go from one play to another, to score and then get right into the trap. Our guys did that today and it's something we've been working on. We have a fairly young team, and [the Duke freshmen] are way ahead of the curve. Sometimes it takes a little longer to get into things, but tonight we were at our best. We were really good. That's how we're getting better. We're not there yet, but with games like that we're getting a lot better.”

Duke Freshman Jahlil Okafor
“Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] just told me to be aggressive. I knew their tallest guy was like 6-foot-8 or 6-foot-9, so I was expecting some double- and triple-teams. That's what I saw early on so I was just looking for my teammates at the beginning of the game. They were really knocking down shots, that allowed me to play some one-on-one later on in the game and allowed me to be effective.”

When asked if it was hard to stay focused when there was such a huge margin early in the game:
“No, not at all, especially when you're playing in Cameron. It's just so much fun playing in front of our fans that you just want to keep going.

“We got off to a really good start, and I think that's a credit to our defense. Something we've been focusing on for the first six games leading up to this is how we play defensively. That's the one thing that we can control, so we're just going to keep building on that.”

Furman Head Coach Niko Medved
On tonight's performance:
“I was looking at the kids who really would compete from beginning to end and not look at the scoreboard, but find a way to just continue to fight and get better and better.”

“I thought offensively, although we struggled, I called about two plays all night. I like to run motion and we have a lot of things in. I really wanted to see how we could get good shots by screening and reversing the ball. I thought as the game went on we did that a little bit better. Anytime we were able to reverse the ball a couple of times we got some good looks at the basket.”

“Obviously they're very, very difficult to finish on in the paint. We missed some easy baskets in the paint. A lot of that is because of their length and athleticism. I think that's what you take away.”

“Going into our conference down the road, we won't play anybody like this. You tell your guys, 'if you can hang in there and do some of these things against a team like Duke, you can do it against anybody because they're the best at what they do.'”

On Stephen Croone and his health:
“Stephen is doing fine. You can see he is fearless attacking the basket. He's a phenomenal kid. He'll see when he watches the film what happens when you get frustrated. You go away and try to do too much by yourself. Going against that kind of length in the paint, it's tough to finish sometimes.”

“He's been doing really well and is very explosive. He has a chance to be one of the best players in our league. I think he definitely got better tonight.”

On where he sees his team fitting into the Southern Conference this year:
“It's really too early to say. We obviously have some time before conference play. We're going to get another kid back who I think is going to be a good player for us. The conference is wide open. We're a very, very young team. We're going to play another freshman when he comes back.”

“We have to get better and better. If we do get better and better I feel very strongly that this team can compete night in and night out with anybody in our league. I really believe that, if we do the things we need to do in the next month before conference play.”

Players Mentioned

Quinn Cook

Amile Jefferson

Duke information