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Quotes: Duke 82, Buffalo 59
12/5/2015 8:54:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
“We won a hard-fought game. Hats off to Buffalo and their team. You can tell they are winners. They won last year going to the NCAA tournament and winning their league. They have tough kids with drive; they just keep coming at you. They wore us out a little bit; this is our ninth game in 23 days. Overall, I have been really proud of my team. We looked tired offensively in the first half. We were chaotic. Grayson, made about five drives where he was passing out, with passes that I have not seen before, and I don't want to see them anymore either. However, Brandon gave us a big lift and Derek, especially in the second half was so good; we needed them. We were tired, but we worked ourselves through it. Amile had a workman like performance. Grayson in the second half, to get eleven defensive rebounds means that you're doing something pretty good. So, we had kind of a workman like performance against a really competitive group at the end of nine games. I am proud of where we are at. I look forward to our guys getting through exams and us evaluating what we have done thus far and see where we will tweak some things, now that we know our team better. Our team played like winners today, and I am proud of them.”
(Zachary from Make a Wish foundation) On career high for Grayson in rebounds:
“It could be a career high. That is a heck of a question Zachary. (Speaking to the media) Why don't you all ask questions like that? In grading the questions asked this far this season, that was the best question, and I do not know the answer, but we will find out, but I bet it is. I will find out and get the answer to you.”
On Derryck Thornton's progress:
“Derryck really helped us today. Like for all the young guys, it is going to be a little up and then maybe a little down, again up. Overall, he has done a good job. We would not have won in New York without him. Today, I think he was a huge contributor to us winning today. He is young and he did not have the summer to transition, so that makes you even younger.”
On Brandon's length:
“Today he had four blocks; he is learning how to play. You have to learn what you can do and what you can't do; you can't do that in practice, you have to do it in a game.”
On Justin Robinson being a redshirt:
“Yes, he is a redshirt, hopefully. He has done a really good job and we are not going to use him, unless there is some type of emergency. He wants that. We did not have to tie him up or do naval tactics on him. He has been valuable for us and I think he will end up being a very good player here, and the year will help him tremendously."
Duke Senior Amile Jefferson
On the difference between the first half and second half:
“I thought it was night and day. I thought in the first half, we were really not thinking. We were moving a hundred miles per hour – in different directions. Everyone was going their own way and we weren't really connected. I thought in the second half we were more poised. We were talking to each other and I think that really helped, and guys really calmed down, let the game come to them, and we started playing together. We played a good team. They were really good at driving the ball and being aggressive. In the second half, I thought we were able to slow down and run our offense and run our sets.”
On the play of Brandon Ingram:
“I thought, especially at the beginning, he was the one guy that was solid, that was really poised. He had another big game where he kept us in it early. We need him. He's a player. He's really good – there aren't a lot of guys at his height, his size, with his length that can shoot the ball, put it on the floor, score like he can. He's a dynamic guy for us, and I thought he and Derryck [Thornton] did a great job today of bringing energy, keeping us together, and really taking great steps forward as players.”
On Duke's recent stretch of games:
“This was a long, extended stretch of quick turnarounds, of learning about one team and then the next day having to learn about a whole different group. [It's] about always being locked in mentally as well as physically. When you're playing three really good teams in five or six days, you don't have a lot of room for turnaround. It's like you play the next game and you get over it. It's taxing on you, mentally and physically. This is the closing of that and after this ten days, it starts a new stretch for us. Right now it's about getting our bodies right, getting our books and all that right for exams, and then learning more about our team and getting better.”
Duke Sophomore Grayson Allen
On what brought better success for Duke in the second half:
“I think we played more fluid on the offensive end, and we were moving the ball around better. At halftime I don't know how many assists we had, but I know it wasn't a lot at all. So in the second half, we really wanted to move the ball around better, start finding some easier shots, and get some assists, and play more unselfishly. [There was] definitely more of a flow. Guys were cutting better off the ball instead of just standing and watching the guy with the ball, setting screens for each other, and thankfully it worked out better for us.”
When asked if it was a conscious decision to try and get to the foul line more when shots weren't falling early:
“We got them in a little bit of foul trouble early, so we knew we were in the bonus so we just wanted to keep attacking and getting to the line if we could. When the outside shots weren't falling, that's something easy to do. It's nice when you can get some easy ones, kind of get your rhythm going. For our guys that are shooters, seeing it go in the hoop at the free throw line. That can be good for your confidence, seeing it go in.”
On his 11-rebound performance tonight:
“I was crashing the boards harder today, trying to be more active on the defensive end. I think that I had a habit of standing when my guy didn't have the ball, so I wanted to be more active today and be more involved in the play. And there were a lot of long rebounds today because they took a lot of threes, so I was able to come up with some of those.”
Buffalo Head Coach Nate Oats
Opening Statement:
“I thought we learned some stuff today and I do think that we got better in the game. We knew it was going to be hard, I don't know what the nonconference home winning streak is here in Cameron but it's a lot of games and we knew it was going to be hard to win here. I think we came here for the environment, to see what we could accomplish, to get better. I do think that some of our guys got better. I think it was a big confidence booster for a kid like CJ Massinburg who is a freshman, coming here and getting 17 [points]. When we get into MAC play, I think these kinds of games make you better, rather than playing some lower level teams that you can crush. I like the fact that our guys came here and competed hard for most of the game. Some guys didn't have as good of games, so they've got to get better. That's what we do, we try to get better every game. It was a good experience for us. We'll learn some things and move on.”
On rebounding:
“Honestly, we made a big deal about it. Amile Jefferson, I saw him pretty much blow the game open against Indiana by just destroying Indiana on the glass. We made a big deal about boxing him out. We're undersized at the 4, playing Rodell [Wigginton], Blake [Hamilton], and Nikola [Rakicevic] there a lot. Our guys did a pretty good job. Amile only had one offensive rebound. They had 11 offensive rebounds total, we had 15. I feel like our guys competed tonight, but we couldn't buy a shot. [Jarryn] Skeete is a really good shooter. He shot 2-for-12 on the game. It would've been nice if maybe he could've gotten a few going. Blake [Hamilton] has been playing really well for us and he didn't have a very good shooting game either. You know you miss shots and you know what, that's what happens. Of course Duke's defense helps you miss shots, but I do feel like you can control your effort and I thought that our effort was pretty good for most of the game. I know we gave up 82, but I felt that we played decent defensively tonight. They got to the free throw line a lot. We've got to learn to quit fouling so much.”
On Brandon Ingram:
“I'm not an NBA scout, but I've seen a lot of basketball players in my day and he looks like an NBA player, to me. He's 6'9” with a wingspan that goes forever and can make threes and put it on the floor and post up. You don't want to say Kevin Durant, he's probably not that good, but he's that prototypical guy that's 6'9” and can do a little bit of everything, shoot threes. He's a tough matchup and he's playing the 3 and we're trying to guard him with CJ Massinburg and Willie Conner and they're not 6'9”, but I thought they fought and did a pretty good job. He ends up with 23 [points] and eight [rebounds], it's a pretty good night for him, but he's a tough matchup for us.”
On CJ Massinburg:
“He's a freshman, so he's a little up and down. He didn't play great the last game. His last game was St. Bonaventure and his parents came up from Dallas. That was the first time they had seen him live. I don't know if maybe he's a little jittery with his parents here, so we might have to tell them to watch a lot of games on TV and stay away because he was a lot better tonight than he was Wednesday. He's a kid that I've talked about since he got here in June, just comes in and does a lot of extra stuff, plays hard in practice. I mean, I've coached him really hard for a freshman kid and he responds great to it. I've kind of told our guys, you play as hard as this kid, we're going to get you minutes. He didn't really play the point in high school, he was a scorer, but we've got him at the point a lot more up here. He's playing some 1 and some 2. He's a kid that plays really hard, can get to the rim, make some plays at the rim. I think you saw that he could finish some plays at the rim. He still struggles a little bit with shot selection, as do most of our guys, but he was a lot better with that tonight. He hit the 1-3 off the glass, which he's actually a decent shooter, but sometimes you can play really hard you get lucky and luck goes your way a little bit.”
On defending Duke's drive:
“We knew who their shooters were and we tried not to help too much off their shooters. I think we got beat a little bit too much one on one, maybe because we weren't helping off their shooters as much as we wanted. We did have some decent fills. Their bigs, I think where we got in trouble, was we fouled them a lot on their drives and they got the free throw. You look at the free throw line, we shot 16 and they made 29. That's a big differential. They made, I think, two more field goals than us. For the field goals, we both made five threes, they made 24 field goals, we made 22. We've just got to learn how to move our feet better. Some of that is the size differential at the different positions, when giving up six or seven inches in some of the positions, you tend to foul a little more. I thought defensively we competed and played fairly well, even though we gave up 82 points.”
Opening Statement:
“We won a hard-fought game. Hats off to Buffalo and their team. You can tell they are winners. They won last year going to the NCAA tournament and winning their league. They have tough kids with drive; they just keep coming at you. They wore us out a little bit; this is our ninth game in 23 days. Overall, I have been really proud of my team. We looked tired offensively in the first half. We were chaotic. Grayson, made about five drives where he was passing out, with passes that I have not seen before, and I don't want to see them anymore either. However, Brandon gave us a big lift and Derek, especially in the second half was so good; we needed them. We were tired, but we worked ourselves through it. Amile had a workman like performance. Grayson in the second half, to get eleven defensive rebounds means that you're doing something pretty good. So, we had kind of a workman like performance against a really competitive group at the end of nine games. I am proud of where we are at. I look forward to our guys getting through exams and us evaluating what we have done thus far and see where we will tweak some things, now that we know our team better. Our team played like winners today, and I am proud of them.”
(Zachary from Make a Wish foundation) On career high for Grayson in rebounds:
“It could be a career high. That is a heck of a question Zachary. (Speaking to the media) Why don't you all ask questions like that? In grading the questions asked this far this season, that was the best question, and I do not know the answer, but we will find out, but I bet it is. I will find out and get the answer to you.”
On Derryck Thornton's progress:
“Derryck really helped us today. Like for all the young guys, it is going to be a little up and then maybe a little down, again up. Overall, he has done a good job. We would not have won in New York without him. Today, I think he was a huge contributor to us winning today. He is young and he did not have the summer to transition, so that makes you even younger.”
On Brandon's length:
“Today he had four blocks; he is learning how to play. You have to learn what you can do and what you can't do; you can't do that in practice, you have to do it in a game.”
On Justin Robinson being a redshirt:
“Yes, he is a redshirt, hopefully. He has done a really good job and we are not going to use him, unless there is some type of emergency. He wants that. We did not have to tie him up or do naval tactics on him. He has been valuable for us and I think he will end up being a very good player here, and the year will help him tremendously."
Duke Senior Amile Jefferson
On the difference between the first half and second half:
“I thought it was night and day. I thought in the first half, we were really not thinking. We were moving a hundred miles per hour – in different directions. Everyone was going their own way and we weren't really connected. I thought in the second half we were more poised. We were talking to each other and I think that really helped, and guys really calmed down, let the game come to them, and we started playing together. We played a good team. They were really good at driving the ball and being aggressive. In the second half, I thought we were able to slow down and run our offense and run our sets.”
On the play of Brandon Ingram:
“I thought, especially at the beginning, he was the one guy that was solid, that was really poised. He had another big game where he kept us in it early. We need him. He's a player. He's really good – there aren't a lot of guys at his height, his size, with his length that can shoot the ball, put it on the floor, score like he can. He's a dynamic guy for us, and I thought he and Derryck [Thornton] did a great job today of bringing energy, keeping us together, and really taking great steps forward as players.”
On Duke's recent stretch of games:
“This was a long, extended stretch of quick turnarounds, of learning about one team and then the next day having to learn about a whole different group. [It's] about always being locked in mentally as well as physically. When you're playing three really good teams in five or six days, you don't have a lot of room for turnaround. It's like you play the next game and you get over it. It's taxing on you, mentally and physically. This is the closing of that and after this ten days, it starts a new stretch for us. Right now it's about getting our bodies right, getting our books and all that right for exams, and then learning more about our team and getting better.”
Duke Sophomore Grayson Allen
On what brought better success for Duke in the second half:
“I think we played more fluid on the offensive end, and we were moving the ball around better. At halftime I don't know how many assists we had, but I know it wasn't a lot at all. So in the second half, we really wanted to move the ball around better, start finding some easier shots, and get some assists, and play more unselfishly. [There was] definitely more of a flow. Guys were cutting better off the ball instead of just standing and watching the guy with the ball, setting screens for each other, and thankfully it worked out better for us.”
When asked if it was a conscious decision to try and get to the foul line more when shots weren't falling early:
“We got them in a little bit of foul trouble early, so we knew we were in the bonus so we just wanted to keep attacking and getting to the line if we could. When the outside shots weren't falling, that's something easy to do. It's nice when you can get some easy ones, kind of get your rhythm going. For our guys that are shooters, seeing it go in the hoop at the free throw line. That can be good for your confidence, seeing it go in.”
On his 11-rebound performance tonight:
“I was crashing the boards harder today, trying to be more active on the defensive end. I think that I had a habit of standing when my guy didn't have the ball, so I wanted to be more active today and be more involved in the play. And there were a lot of long rebounds today because they took a lot of threes, so I was able to come up with some of those.”
Buffalo Head Coach Nate Oats
Opening Statement:
“I thought we learned some stuff today and I do think that we got better in the game. We knew it was going to be hard, I don't know what the nonconference home winning streak is here in Cameron but it's a lot of games and we knew it was going to be hard to win here. I think we came here for the environment, to see what we could accomplish, to get better. I do think that some of our guys got better. I think it was a big confidence booster for a kid like CJ Massinburg who is a freshman, coming here and getting 17 [points]. When we get into MAC play, I think these kinds of games make you better, rather than playing some lower level teams that you can crush. I like the fact that our guys came here and competed hard for most of the game. Some guys didn't have as good of games, so they've got to get better. That's what we do, we try to get better every game. It was a good experience for us. We'll learn some things and move on.”
On rebounding:
“Honestly, we made a big deal about it. Amile Jefferson, I saw him pretty much blow the game open against Indiana by just destroying Indiana on the glass. We made a big deal about boxing him out. We're undersized at the 4, playing Rodell [Wigginton], Blake [Hamilton], and Nikola [Rakicevic] there a lot. Our guys did a pretty good job. Amile only had one offensive rebound. They had 11 offensive rebounds total, we had 15. I feel like our guys competed tonight, but we couldn't buy a shot. [Jarryn] Skeete is a really good shooter. He shot 2-for-12 on the game. It would've been nice if maybe he could've gotten a few going. Blake [Hamilton] has been playing really well for us and he didn't have a very good shooting game either. You know you miss shots and you know what, that's what happens. Of course Duke's defense helps you miss shots, but I do feel like you can control your effort and I thought that our effort was pretty good for most of the game. I know we gave up 82, but I felt that we played decent defensively tonight. They got to the free throw line a lot. We've got to learn to quit fouling so much.”
On Brandon Ingram:
“I'm not an NBA scout, but I've seen a lot of basketball players in my day and he looks like an NBA player, to me. He's 6'9” with a wingspan that goes forever and can make threes and put it on the floor and post up. You don't want to say Kevin Durant, he's probably not that good, but he's that prototypical guy that's 6'9” and can do a little bit of everything, shoot threes. He's a tough matchup and he's playing the 3 and we're trying to guard him with CJ Massinburg and Willie Conner and they're not 6'9”, but I thought they fought and did a pretty good job. He ends up with 23 [points] and eight [rebounds], it's a pretty good night for him, but he's a tough matchup for us.”
On CJ Massinburg:
“He's a freshman, so he's a little up and down. He didn't play great the last game. His last game was St. Bonaventure and his parents came up from Dallas. That was the first time they had seen him live. I don't know if maybe he's a little jittery with his parents here, so we might have to tell them to watch a lot of games on TV and stay away because he was a lot better tonight than he was Wednesday. He's a kid that I've talked about since he got here in June, just comes in and does a lot of extra stuff, plays hard in practice. I mean, I've coached him really hard for a freshman kid and he responds great to it. I've kind of told our guys, you play as hard as this kid, we're going to get you minutes. He didn't really play the point in high school, he was a scorer, but we've got him at the point a lot more up here. He's playing some 1 and some 2. He's a kid that plays really hard, can get to the rim, make some plays at the rim. I think you saw that he could finish some plays at the rim. He still struggles a little bit with shot selection, as do most of our guys, but he was a lot better with that tonight. He hit the 1-3 off the glass, which he's actually a decent shooter, but sometimes you can play really hard you get lucky and luck goes your way a little bit.”
On defending Duke's drive:
“We knew who their shooters were and we tried not to help too much off their shooters. I think we got beat a little bit too much one on one, maybe because we weren't helping off their shooters as much as we wanted. We did have some decent fills. Their bigs, I think where we got in trouble, was we fouled them a lot on their drives and they got the free throw. You look at the free throw line, we shot 16 and they made 29. That's a big differential. They made, I think, two more field goals than us. For the field goals, we both made five threes, they made 24 field goals, we made 22. We've just got to learn how to move our feet better. Some of that is the size differential at the different positions, when giving up six or seven inches in some of the positions, you tend to foul a little more. I thought defensively we competed and played fairly well, even though we gave up 82 points.”
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