NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: SECOND ROUND - MICHIGAN ST. VS DUKE

March 19, 2022

Wendell Moore

Mark Williams

Jeremy Roach

Paolo Banchero

Mike Krzyzewski

Bon Secours Wellness Arena

Duke Blue Devils

Media Conference

Q. Wendell, how are you feeling today? How's the hip doing? How did it feel out there on the court?

WENDELL MOORE JR.: I'm doing really well. Been in treatment all night, this morning. Had a chance to get warmed up, get some shots up. Definitely feeling a lot better.

Q. I'm actually going to violate Tim's instructions and ask each of you guys to answer the question. It is one of your coach's favorite words is verve. What does verve mean to you guys when he says it?

WENDELL MOORE JR.: Never heard that.

Q. What about spurt?

WENDELL MOORE JR.: No.

THE MODERATOR: He talks a different language to the players.

Q. Coach Izzo likes to say his guys are hard to scout because any night, anyone can get hot. Like Joey Hauser did last night, he had 27 points and tied his career high. What's it been like for you guys to scout them?

MARK WILLIAMS: With that, obviously, they're a talented team. We still do our scouting. We do prepare. We know that they have a bunch of players that are capable of playing really well any given night. We're up for the challenge. We're ready for the opportunity. We'll be ready to go.

Q. Over to Jeremy, I suppose. Coach talked about not having a lot of fanfare as the game started yesterday, but by halftime you guys had a huge contingent of Duke fans. What did that mean for you guys to hear that support as the game went on? I'm sure we can probably expect more tomorrow.

JEREMY ROACH: For sure. Duke fans, they always show love. We've loved the support from them all season. I knew what to expect coming to the NCAA Tournament they were going to show love and support us.

Q. Question for Jeremy and Wendell. Nolan had mentioned before, when you guys had finished the regular season, the importance of guards in March and how much that means to winning. Has he continued to impress that on you guys, and how has he done so, and how have you taken that to heart?

JEREMY ROACH: For sure, that's definitely been a big topic for us. Me and Wendell. Just the guards' presence, because to win big, you have to have good guards to control the game and not turn it over. To get it inside to these two guys. Guard play is important. That's what we've been harping on for this last run.

WENDELL MOORE JR.: I would second that. It starts with us as guards. It's our job to lead the offense and lead the way defensively to also pick up their ball handler and get the ball in to these guys. They make good things happen when they get it.

Q. You guys did see Michigan State last year. It's not an unfamiliar team for Duke. What were your recollections, not necessarily of the game itself, but what it's like matching up with a Tom Izzo team now that you've experienced it before?

MARK WILLIAMS: Obviously, a well coached team, a physical team. They play in the Big Ten. It's a lot of physicality in the Big Ten. They're going to play hard, play fast, going to try to get out in transition and that sort of stuff.

THE MODERATOR: Wendell, you want to comment on Michigan State?

WENDELL MOORE JR.: I guess this is actually my third time. I played them my freshman year as well. Both games have been hard fought battles. Definitely looking forward to another one tomorrow.

Q. Jeremy, I wanted to ask you about getting back in the starting lineup last night. I know you've been in and out of the lineup a couple of times. What's been your mental approach lately to keep on even keel, I guess? What does it mean to you that Coach put you back in the lineup and played that many minutes last night?

JEREMY ROACH: Just the biggest thing for me is keeping that same confidence and consistency and the hard work. That's the biggest key, just stay level headed and don't get too big when stuff's going your way, don't get too down when stuff's not going your way. Just stay consistent.

I know the coaches and all the players have trust in me. That's it.

Q. This question's for Wendell, being the most senior player up there. What have you learned about navigating adversity and making in-game adjustments? How do you think this group has done that so far?

WENDELL MOORE JR.: I think this group has done a really good job, especially we've faced some kind of adversity all year. I mean, the biggest adversity for us this year has been the pressure that's been put on us. I think that we faced it, really as well as you could. We've been in some big games.

We won some big games. We also lost some big games. Good times come with it. Bad times come with it.

I think we've done a good job of adapting to really whatever comes at us.

Q. Obviously, you've got some experience playing teams with a quick turnaround in the ACC Tournament, but with none of you guys having played in the NCAA Tournament before, this is the first time you're going to do it against a team that's not in the same conference, that you're not as familiar with. What's different about preparing for this team with such a quick turnaround? How do you overcome that, just having a day to prepare?

PAOLO BANCHERO: I mean, it's not really too different. We haven't played them this year, but it's the same routine for us, just scout, going over the personnel, the game plan and everything. It's not really much that's being changed when it comes to preparing for the game.

Q. I know you would have been committed at the time to come to Duke the last time Duke and Michigan State faced off in the NCAA Tournament. Do you have any memories of watching that game or talking to any of the players on that team or anything that stands out to you about that?

WENDELL MOORE JR.: Of course I watched that game for sure. It was a great game, went down to the wire. I thought we should have won for sure, but Michigan State made some tough plays. I remember Cassius Winston. He was a great player in college. He willed his team to victory. Hopefully we can change that.

Q. Any of you can answer, but for Wendell in particular. You talked about the pressures and stuff you've had to deal with this year. I know a good portion of that comes from just the sort of legacy of Coach K's last season and the final chapters that you guys are writing. You talked earlier this week about the NCAA Tournament being about you guys, but here we are with the narrative is going to be probably again about Coach K and Tom Izzo facing off. Is it harder for you to kind of set all that aside, or do you sort of embrace like, all right, it's another one for us to go out and try to give one to Coach K in the big moment?

WENDELL MOORE JR.: For us it's been like that all year. Every game we play has been Coach's last something, so we've kind of been able to adapt to it. We view it as kind of motivation for us because we say we always want to go out and do it for Coach, send him out on a high note. But at the same time, this is our season as well, too.

Coach will tell you guys, he's probably told you guys before, he doesn't like the spotlight on him like that. He wants it to be about us. So we're all in this together. We're going to make it about us and Coach.

Q. Paolo, a win tomorrow takes you guys to San Francisco. What would it mean for you to be able to go back to the West Coast and play close to home? Do you think you kind of would have a large contingent of family and friends who could come to those games?

PAOLO BANCHERO: Yeah. Being able to get back to the West Coast would be great just because being Duke, you don't play there at all during the year, outside of the Gonzaga game. Yeah, I've already got family planning on being there if we make it, and I also have family who live in the Bay already. So it definitely would be a nice thing.

Q. Paolo, what did you guys like about what you did against Cal State Fullerton that you'd like to try to recreate tomorrow against Michigan State?

PAOLO BANCHERO: I think just our overall communication on offense and defense was much better than it has been. I think our defense was much better. I think we're sharper just overall, sharper as a team, and we definitely played better than we have in the past probably three, four games.

So just want to build on that. We know Michigan State's a big challenge, a great team, but we just want to be sharp the same way we were yesterday.

Q. Mark, I'm curious. Throughout the year the narrative is the ACC wasn't very good this year, it was down. Now the ACC's 6-1 in the tournament, UNC just beat Baylor. What did you think when you heard that kind of stuff? Do you think that will change now with the sort of early performance in this tournament?

MARK WILLIAMS: I think for any conference that does well in the tournament, you can always say they're a lot better when they win. I mean, as far as the ACC is concerned, we knew every game we played was going to be tough. Obviously, every game's a different challenge. Every team has different skills, different talents, but yeah, obviously I thought the ACC was pretty good, and I think people are starting to see that a little bit more with the tournament going well.

I wouldn't just say that's like the ACC this year. I think it happens every year that a conference in particular that does well in the tournament always gets a little bit more love.

Q. You were mentioning just the toughness and the mindset that you face when you go up against not just a Big Ten team but a Michigan State team. From what you've seen so far, what type of challenges stood out on film where you say, okay, we've got to be ready for this guy or this situation?

JEREMY ROACH: I mean, some of the stuff they do, just they get out in transition a lot. They're real physical, real big. We saw last year, me and Mark and Wendell saw last year they're real physical. So we've just got to match that intensity, match their hunger, and come out with a big win tomorrow.

Q. Mark and Wendell, you talked a little bit earlier about the previous meetings with Michigan State a year ago. From Wendell's perspective, Michigan State's guards changed? And for Mark, how has their big changed in a year?

WENDELL MOORE JR.: From their guard play, I mean, they have Rocket Watts there who's now at Mississippi State. He was a great player for them. They brought in some guys, A.J. Hoggard, freshman/sophomore. He's a really good player as well. Really all their guards they have in, they're still really good players. Really any given night, any of their guards can be one of their best players, their main scorers.

So we really just lock in on the personnel and do what we can to take their guards out of the game.

MARK WILLIAMS: As far as the bigs, Bingham's been there, Marble's been there. They had a pretty good game against us last year. Yeah, just locking in on the personnel. Obviously, they can put anybody in the game, do a bunch of different things. So just being able to adapt and being prepared for any situation.

Q. Coach K's been adamant the last couple weeks that the NCAA Tournament is a new season, everyone starts 0-0. I'm just wondering is there anything specific in practice or in team meetings and stuff that he tries to drill into you guys that he does try to implement that into his team?

WENDELL MOORE JR.: Really the biggest thing is that every game is a championship game for us. It has to be championship level talk, championship level effort, championship level emotion. Just everything we do because it's really one game. I mean, if we don't do what we need to do for one game, it could be our last game. None of us want that.

Like I said, every game has be to a championship level game in all aspects of it.

THE MODERATOR: We'll start off with Coach making an opening statement, and then we'll take questions.

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: We're excited to be advancing. All our guys are going to be ready to play. That's the main thing.

Q. Tom Izzo has a 79 percent win percentage when playing on a one-day turnaround in NCAA Tournament history, be it second round, Elite Eight, or championship game. From what you know about Tom and him as a coach, how do you account for that? How do you think he's been that successful? Because he rates at the top in the history of the tournament.

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Because he's really good, and he's got a program and his kids believe in what they do. They play, not just good X and O basketball, but they play with great heart. In his preparation, they pretty much stay the same.

They have some nuances, but they basically stick to three things: Solid defense, great transition offense, and offensive rebounding. Those are the staples of his program, and all three require hard work and commitment. You do that, he gets good players just like we do, and they're going to win a heck of a lot more than they lose.

Q. That's true of his second game turnarounds, but it hasn't been true against you. You won, I believe, nine in a row before you got the last couple. Can you explain what you guys have been able to be successful at when you played them prior to the last couple?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Probably we had Grant Hill or Redick. I don't think there's any secret sauce. I'm not that big on coach versus coach records. Maybe in the NFL, where you have the same players, but that's never been a stat that's of interest to me. That's okay if it's of interest to you.

Q. How often do you and Tom communicate throughout the season? Have you guys talked in the last few days?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: We talked briefly when we met in the hall. We actually have communicated a few times during the season, and he and I have been part of a group that over a year ago was formed, an ad hoc committee that met on Thursdays on Zoom with the head of the NABC and Dan Gavitt. We didn't really accomplish anything.

We had good ideas, we just didn't know where to send them. And who wanted to hear them. No, he's been a great, great friend, and I admire the heck out of him.

Q. You may not pay too much attention to the coach versus coach record. Tom mentioned it several times yesterday talking about this matchup. I'm curious, though, he calls you the GOAT, and I wonder how much you have been inspired over the years or driven over the years or motivated by matchups with Tom or other coaches that you are very kind of influenced by or impressed by?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I'm glad he didn't call me another animal. So that was kind of him to do that. (Laughter).

I just have never -- you don't put a banner up by your record against a certain team or a certain coach. So if you get caught up in that or your record on a Saturday afternoon or whatever, it's just the wrong -- for me, it's been the wrong thing to do. I'm not saying it's wrong for everybody.

I know the only banners that are up at Duke are championship banners, and that means you have to beat a number of people.

Q. When your team is playing particularly well or occasionally an opponent is playing particularly well, you'll use the word verve to describe that. What does that mean to you when you feel like your team is playing the verve? And why haven't your players heard you say it?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: They've probably heard me say it. They just -- they only listen to a certain amount of things that I say, and maybe they haven't heard that or it's not -- sometimes when I talk to my players, afterwards I ask my staff, did I use -- do they still do that? Do they know who the hell I even mentioned? So I don't think verve is on Instagram very much or whatever they're on.

But to me, it means like a certain level of energy, a certain -- not just energy, but cockiness with energy. So that's how I've used it. Just don't look up my SAT verbal. It's a one-syllable word, too, so that helps me.

Q. We're not going to see many matchups with coaches with longevity in the future like you and Tom have had. How do you think that benefits the game for the sport itself to have prominent coaching names who have been around a long time leading teams? That's something that people pay attention to.

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I think what it means is then you have solid programs that have achieved a high level of success, or else the coach wouldn't be there for that long. I would hope that people, whoever is looking at the future of our game and the future of college sports would try to get the veteran coaches, whether it be women's basketball, men's basketball, especially the two of us together to take a look at the world of basketball on the collegiate level and share ideas, share what we think might be good for a new structure, and how the young men and women who are playing the game would benefit from that.

And to ask people, like Roy, who just retired, people who have just retired who have been in the game for a long time because history has a way of repeating itself in a number of ways. A lot of companies, they pay a lot to have institutional memory, not just new ideas. One of the things that helped me in my coaching career was relationships that I had with Mr. Iba, Coach Newell. Coach Newell, I remember talking to him on the phone one time saying we're going to -- we're trying to get this done. He says, you know, we tried to do that in 1956, and this was the stumbling block there.

I said, you know, that stumbling block is the same one right now. That would, I think, give a greater in depth look at our game and how it might be able to advance and stay with the stature that it has and maybe increase.

Q. This will be the sixth straight year you faced MSU and the 11th time since 2010.

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: We do that a lot.

Q. You usually don't see that out of conference.

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: No.

Q. When you talk about the nuances with Tom's program, what are some of them that maybe you've seen evolve over that time, and what is maybe different about this team than the last two or three that you played?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, I think they're very similar really to the last few because of the three things I mentioned before. One of the main things I've been impressed with Tom and his program is the loyalty of his players and his commitment to his players while they're there and afterwards. That's a beautiful thing to see.

I've had an opportunity to coach a couple of them in international competition, and they add -- besides verve, they add personality and substance. His program is very substantive, and it's not just while the guys are there.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Jeremy Roach, who has been in the starting lineup some, come off the bench other times. He's always been an important part of your team. You put him back in the lineup last night. He played a lot of minutes. What was the decision behind that and did he give you what you were looking for?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Look, when you have not just young players, but older players, sometimes you start another shortstop, just it's a long season. Jeremy played great when Trevor was out. He's played really well the whole season. When he came back, I thought his assists and that, it was more even, assists to turnovers.

We tried something different with Trev up on top, and that didn't go as well. We weren't able to put pressure on the ball as well. So during this week, we just made that change.

I've talked to our guys on the perimeter. It doesn't matter who starts, especially those four kids are going to get starter's minutes. But putting Jeremy on the ball was really important yesterday.

Q. During the Michigan State game last night, a couple of your assistant coaches, obviously, were going to be there to scout and watch the game. Tom Izzo likes to say that they're hard to scout because on any night any player can get hot, like Joey Hauser did, tied his career high with 27 points last night. My question is what did you think of this team this year? What impressed you about what they can do when any guy can get hot?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: We try to look at what you've done more the last three or four games because, especially in college, kids change and teams change. So they played great against Wisconsin. I mean, not good, and Bingham was fantastic against them.

So they have the ability of a number of guys stepping up more than what they normally do in a game. They pretty much have eight kids who started, and when they are in the game, they think they're starters. I think that's one of their biggest strengths is that.

Q. What is the benefit, if any, to the late season losses to Carolina and Virginia Tech and ensuing lessons, if there were some?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, I think, whether they're wins or losses, you just try to learn from every game you're in. If there's not a benefit from a win and a loss, then I don't think you're doing a good job because you need to learn from both. The benefit from a win might be you find something new that's worked for our team. Benefit from the loss, you find some things that aren't working and you make some changes. Or somebody does something against you that shows a weakness that hasn't been shown before.

It all culminates in this tournament because then you don't have a chance to learn from your losses anymore. The season's over. I've tried to do that most of my career in that regard.

Q. If I could take you back a few years to your first coaching victory over Lehigh, if someone told you that night that someday you'd have a chance to coach for number 1,200 tomorrow, what would you have thought?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: We played pretty good defense that night, 29 points. I was hoping they'd all be that way, but we didn't finish .500 that year.

This whole thing has been a crazy good thing for me. I've been really lucky. A big part of it is being at two great institutions, the United States Military Academy, my alma mater, and to be at Duke for 42 years. My first eight years, we were 111 and 106 in my first eight years. That's five at West Point and three at Duke.

I learned a lot during that time, and I was able to get a higher level of talent to be able to teach, and pretty much I've been able to do that again and again, and that's made me better, but it also has given me an opportunity to think how to use that talent in different ways. I love that. Especially the last decade, every team's different. You have to come up with a system that fits their personality and be agile enough to allow for growth during that time. Whereas when you had Battier and those guys, there was good growth too, but it's just different.

Yeah, I've been very -- I've been the luckiest guy. I know that. I thank God for it.

Q. Part of your legacy is in the number of former players and assistants who have gone on to become head coaches in their own right. When you look at your coaching tree, what are the lessons, or maybe what is the one lesson that you hope these coaches have taken from their time at Duke and translated into their own career?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: The main thing is just for them to be their own guy. Again, I'll take you back to one time I was at a meal, and two of the coaches -- small meal, but two of the coaches were Mr. Iba and Coach Newell. I was a young coach, and they gave me great advice. They said, you know, if there are things that you like that we've done, do them, but be you. Take good lessons from a number of people, but don't try to be anyone else.

Every one of my assistants that's gone on, just tell them like just follow your instincts. That's what I'm telling Jon Scheyer as he's putting his program together during this year. You have great ideas. You have great ideas. Like follow them, and it will all be yours real short, in short time.

That's the thing that I've loved in watching them do their thing.

Q. Coach, when you went back and rewatched from Cal State Fullerton, what were the things you liked that you got to see again and maybe going forward, what are the things, if there is anything that maybe --

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: So do you think I watched the tape? It was a late night, but I did. I thought we played against a really good team. Dedrique Taylor does a great job with his team, and they play hard-nosed defense. I thought we were playing good defense, but the intensity of the game was very good and the physicality. It's something that we had stopped doing for about ten days or two weeks, and we're going to have to do that again tomorrow.

Q. A big thing for you and really anyone in the NCAA Tournament, it's a new season. This is when you really find out who a team is. I'm just wondering if there's anything you've done in practice or team meetings the last couple of days to try to implement that in your players?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, everything. It's the ultimate next play that we kind of use in our program. Whatever you've done, the next thing is the thing you should focus on and then prepare that way.

We've really had a good week. I think our team's getting better. If we're fortunate enough to win tomorrow, to beat Michigan State would make us better, and we'll try to keep growing.

This group can keep growing. Whether it has an opportunity to do that depends on you winning, but I've really liked this group a lot. They really like one another. So there's never been an attitude problem at all. They're all growing up together, so hopefully we get a chance to grow up some more.

Q. Mike, last night your players were asked multiple questions about where this team is in terms of its potential, and you just kind of mentioned hopefully we'll have a chance to keep growing. 35 games into your season, how close or far away is this team from where you think it should be potential-wise?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I never put a level on my team of where it should be. For me, you're constantly running motion offense, making reads on where your group is, and you hope to be in a better place than you were the week before.

Then things can happen. You're going to be hit with COVID. You're going to be hit with an injury. Then you have to adapt along the way. I don't look at -- I don't set win goals. Making the NCAA Tournament is a goal, but number of wins or anything like that, I've never had that as the barometer of whether we're good or bad because a lot of things can happen along the way.

Q. I just wanted to ask you about your first matchup against Tom. Do you have any memories of that? Back at that time, were there any signs that you saw from him that he might have the career that he's ended up having?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: No, I don't remember, and that's not a disservice. I don't remember a lot of things. Coach K. All right. I'm good. I remember my name, so that's a good thing.

No, a huge part of coaching is not having a rearview mirror. You can't live in the past. So when this is all over, I'll look at the past really, really well. But not now. It's not a disrespectful thing to Tom. I don't know, did they beat us? I don't know. But I don't remember. I don't remember him.

Q. Just talk about their big men for Michigan State. How great are they, and what do you guys got to do to control that inside paint tomorrow?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, they have a lot of depth. They have four big guys who can give you different looks. So holding our own on the boards and staying out of foul trouble, making sure that Mark and Paolo stay out of foul trouble and how we all handle the physicality of the game.