ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 12, 2022

Mike Krzyzewski

Wendell Moore, Jr.

Trevor Keels

Barclays Center

Duke Blue Devils

Postgame Press Conference

Virginia Tech 82, Duke 67

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, congratulations to Mike and his team. What a journey they've had here, four incredible games, the last couple especially. They've been like a well-oiled machine. They're a team that you need two or three days of preparation for to put in your defensive game plan, and it still might not work.

I think they're the team they thought they were going to be at the beginning of the year. They hung in there, and they probably got tougher, built more character, and became so close, and it shows up in these last 15 games or so that they've played.

They're really good. Our kids fought like crazy. We played hard. An older team handles tired better. I know they played an extra game than us, but when you're older, you handle that better.

I thought we played tired, especially Mark. He's played great, but he didn't have the legs tonight, and he's got to cover Aluma, who's really good. Cattoor has done this at different times this year. He was spectacular. But it really starts with the energy that Murphy gives them and the leadership that he gives them and the experience.

It's a good learning experience for us. We know -- look, our kids have done a great job. We're 28-6 regular season champs. Right now we're 0-0. I think we'll be a pretty good seed, and we've got to move on and learn from it.

But playing this game helps us because this is the caliber of team and execution that you're going to have to beat in order to advance.

Q. Wendell, what did Virginia Tech do that made it tough for you to get in a flow on offense? What was it about that their defense that was so tough?

WENDELL MOORE, JR.: For the most part they just played really hard. Whenever we'd drive they had two, three people helping. For the most part we did a good job kicking the ball. We just missed a lot of open shots tonight.

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, I thought our offense was good. We just didn't hit shots. We couldn't stop them.

When you don't hit shots, you don't look like you're running good offense. We got -- even down 10, we got two threes that are in and out and missed four free throws. I had not a problem with our offense, but we couldn't stop them, and that was the game.

Q. Coach just mentioned that Hunter Cattoor had 31 points and obviously had a sensational night. At what point did you start to realize that he was heating up and what was the difficulty in containing him?

TREVOR KEELS: Yeah, Hunter is a great player. He really leads them. He gets hot. He's a great shooter. He was running off a lot of down screens. I think our communication was a little off. I think we fought through some of them, but again, he made some tough shots. That's what big-time players do, so you've got to give him all the credit for it.

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: You know, I'd say he had a Clay Thompson night. Just figure out how long did he have the ball to score 31 points. He moved so well. He moves as well without the ball as anyone in our conference that I've seen this year.

Q. For the players, I'm curious. You heard your coach just say you guys are 0-0 now. How do you reset mentally to tackle the next challenge?

WENDELL MOORE, JR.: We move on to the next one. Tomorrow we're going to see where we're seeded at and then we just go from there. We get a couple days of good practice in order to prep for who we have. We've got to forget about this one. The game is already over.

Again, hats off to Virginia Tech. They're a great team. At the end of the day we've just got to move on. We've got another season coming ahead of us.

Q. For the players, how disappointing is it to come this close but not win the title?

WENDELL MOORE, JR.: I mean, obviously it's extremely disappointing. We came down here to ultimately win a championship. We fell short of our goal, but at the end of the day, I'm proud of our guys by the way we fought. We've had three hard, tough games against probably three of the top five teams in our conference. Every time we play these teams, they play us hard every time and I'm proud of the fight that our guys show. Last night we got down early against Miami and we could have folded there, but we fought back all game. Syracuse the same way.

So I'm proud of the way we played this week. Obviously we're disappointed we lost in the championship but that doesn't define how well we played this whole week.

Q. Wendell or Trevor, you guys were able to hold Aluma scoreless until the six-minute mark in the first half and then he cut loose. What did you see from him that allowed him to turn it on?

TREVOR KEELS: Like Coach said earlier, Aluma is a great player. Great style, pick-and-pop, he can pretty much do whatever. We played good defense to start off. He's going to get going. He's a great player. You're not going to completely shut him out of the game. He does so much for the team, and he stepped up in big moments, and you've got to give all the credit to him.

Q. Wendell, you guys looked like you had turned the corner defensively back to the game at Virginia and then the two after it at Syracuse and Pitt. What's gone on the last four games defensively where it looks like you guys are not in rhythm?

WENDELL MOORE, JR.: I think our communication has been a little off. I definitely feel like the effort is there from all of our guys. I feel like we're a little late on talks, a little late on the switches. So again that's all little things we can clean up, so we have a couple days to prep for it.

Q. Wendell, can you evaluate where this team is at compared to maybe the beginning of ACC play and the beginning of this tournament even?

WENDELL MOORE, JR.: I mean, I think we're a lot more mature team. Even you saw last Saturday how young we were. I feel like this week we've really grown up. Over the past few days we had a couple meetings, a lot of hard practices, and it kind of turned us into men over the past couple days. I know we fell short tonight, but that doesn't --

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Let me talk. These kids have done a great job. We start three freshmen. Two of them are 18 years old. They've won 28 games. They've won the regular season, and they're going to be a top-3 seed somewhere, 2 or 3 seed. Come on. They've had a fantastic year. I'm proud of them.

That's the ticket you punch. Everyone punches the ticket, and you've got a place in line. We'll find our place in line tomorrow. Ours will be a decent one, then you're 0-0 and you go for it.

Only 68 of 350-something get. This isn't bowl season. These guys have earned the right, and the team we played was not sure if they made the tournament because of all the prognosticators. They punched their ticket vehemently tonight, and God bless them, they deserve it.

But that's the beauty of our sport. How we move on, we're going to move on really confidently and energetically. Why would we not move on that way, especially with the season these kids have had and hopefully the learning experience they've had in 34 games.

Q. You mentioned Storm Murphy and his leadership in your opening statement. You had an embrace with him at the end before leaving the court. What were some things you said to him?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Just wow. Look, I wanted to congratulate -- those kids deserved -- they played lights-out basketball and have played lights-out basketball in order to put themselves in a position -- look, they were 2-7 at one time in our conference. Look, in my profession I respect the other guy, and they deserve the utmost respect, and that kid is their leader. He's a tough player. He's a tough player, and I wanted to make sure that he knew that Duke University feels -- Duke basketball feels that way about him.

We got beat by some really good competitors tonight, really good basketball players.

Q. You had mentioned that Tech is the kind of offense you could use two, three days to prepare for. What had you hoped to do defensively against Tech that you were not able to tonight?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, our staff, the scouting, the first line is no threes. When you go four for four, we haven't followed the scouting report. But they have such good movement, and when you're going against incredible movement, you have to have incredible talk, and that's the toughest thing to teach a young team defensively is constant communication so that you have a coordinated effort because if you don't do it, boom, they got something.

Mike is such a good coach, and their offense is very precise, very precise.

Q. You praised Storm Murphy and his play; something that stands out to me is the way these teams come out in their starting fives. Your one is Trevor Keels who's 6'4", 220 and Storm Murphy is barely 6', 180. Is that something you look to exploit in the post the way Keels exploited Williamson?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: If we're playing one-on-one. They have help. Obviously you're trying to exploit a lot of match-ups. The main thing we have to do is stop Murphy. That's the matchup we have to stop.

Were you saying we should post Trevor against him?

Q. Two straight possessions in your game in Winston-Salem Trevor was --

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, we played him at Duke.

Q. I remembered the game in Winston. Forbes subbed Davion out of the game because Keels backed him down and scored on his twice. I was just curious if doing that to Storm was something he considered.

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Okay, I'll put it down. Thank you. Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.

Q. The three teams you play in the tournament, Syracuse, Miami and Tech, are three teams that weren't in the ACC when you first started, which I think is sort of emblematic of the way the conference has changed since you've been here. What has it meant to you to be in this conference and see it grow for four decades, and how do you think it's gotten better or worse since you've gotten here?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: 25 words or less?

No, the conference is great, and the addition of these three great schools has helped the conference, not just in performance but geographic footprint and the fan bases.

Virginia Tech has a rabid fan base. They support their teams as well as anybody, and that showed tonight with the amount of people they had here. That was, I think, big time.

The conference has benefitted greatly from that expansion. I love the fact that the people who run it saw fit to recruit these three.

Q. You alluded to respect for Mike Young. What have you learned about him since he's been in the league, and what do you respect about his teams?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, I knew him before. His teams play hard, together. They don't make many mistakes, and they don't beat themselves.

Like any coach, the older the team you have, the more you've had a chance to develop those habits. Getting Aluma and Murphy from his old school was good recruiting, and he's one of the better coaches.

They're a together group. They have great poise, and they're very difficult to beat, and we knew that coming in. We were ready to play. We weren't as sharp as we needed to be, but obviously they were the better team.

They're a really good team. This isn't like some happenstance or whatever. They're an excellent basketball team.

Q. I know you don't want to talk about the fact that you're leaving, but I do want to frame a question --

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: In about five minutes I am, yeah.

Q. Do you think it frustrates your players at all that they can't sort of -- they know what's going on, they know this is your last season. Do you think it frustrates your players that they couldn't deliver these signature wins --

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: No, we talk about it all the time, I tell them all the time, don't worry -- don't ever worry about me. I want to be in their moment. Even in a moment of defeat, I want to be in that moment with them. Like it's our moment together. How do we use it? How do we get better?

If you're always thinking about the last game or this or whatever, you can't get into that moment. We never talk about it at all.

Last weekend the whole world was talking about it, and so it was difficult -- it was a very difficult weekend. What we've tried to do is not -- just eliminate everything.

It's for these kids. These are young guys, man. Even Wendell is a junior. He's 20. You know? They're just young guys.

I've loved coaching them. I think we can be good in the tournament. We've just got to keep learning. I was real positive with them afterwards and say, let's go, 0-0, 28-6 regular season champs, great job. Great job. I wish all my teams had achieved that much.

I think we'll be a decent seed tomorrow. Then let's get fresh and get ready.

That's what we're trying to concentrate on.

Q. After the Carolina loss you had mentioned and harped on your concerns about the defensive effort in that game. Your team has actually dropped in defensive efficiency since then. You're fourth in the country. Speaking to how young this team is with all those decades of experience that you have coaching, how much confidence do you have that you can raise this team's ceiling defensively as you go into the tournament?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, very confident because we'll be able to practice. Since the Carolina game you have like one practice and you play three straight games.

For a veteran team, it doesn't lessen as much. Their habits are well defined. Younger teams you have to keep reinforcing it, and when you play three straight like this -- especially this team. It's kind of like when we played Virginia the second time. We played them the first time, we had one day of practice and we could not stop them.

The next time we won by a little bit. It's not like we dominated, but we played better defense. The more we can get some practice time in, the better our team will be. Because they work hard. They work hard.